bg Karlovy Vary

Elefant House

- Stará Louka 30 -
Two buildings used to stand on the plot on which the current four-story building was built, which were named the Goldener Elephant and the Goldener Phasan. Both buildings burned down in a devastating on May 23, 1759. In the following year, a new residential and commercial building was built, and in the same year, it already provided accommodation for spa guests. The building then changed a number of owners, and in 1771 it belonged to Katharina Pittrofová, in 1791 to Anton Urban, and then for many years it was owned by the Stieff family. The new owner, Friedrich Meissner, had a new, larger building built in its place between 1874 and 1876 and called it Goldener Elefant, which was developed by the project that was created by the Austrian architect . During the of 1890, the water of the Teplá River rose up to the second floor. After the death of Friedrich Meissner in January 1900, the building was inherited by Karl and Friedrich Meissner, who carried out modifications between 1913 and 1914. The plans for the modification were drawn up by Heinrich Johann Vieth.
The Elefant House in 1872
From 1876, the famous café and pastry shop Elefant operated on the first floor. The Elefant café and pastry shop was one of the most popular in the city. Young and old people, writers, musicians, and actors gathered here. From 1840 until 1884, , a playwright, journalist, and novelist, frequented the place. The plot of many of his short stories takes place in Elefant. The owner of the café was Regina Deutsch in 1924, and in the years between 1930 and 1939, it was owned by the Pension Institute of the Union Praha Bank. In 1948, the building was nationalized, and Svatopluk Vrkoč was appointed national administrator. Since 1952, the hotel part of the building has belonged to the spa directorate and the café with a pastry shop to the national enterprise Restaurant and Canteens.
Café Elefant in 1899
The central part of the Art Nouveau building features a gilded elephant, as well as an stating the name of the building. The three dormers, which are secured with a , are topped with a large . The building contains a large amount of balconies in different shapes and sizes, some of which are supported by , all of which are decorated with . A is placed on top of the six to which a garland is attached.
The building is shown in an old painting