The history of Hotel Štekl

Hotel Štekl took its name from its founder Karel Štekl, who built this object on a sandstone massif next to Hrubá Skála castle in 1895. Initially, there was a farmhouse which served as the rear area of an inn next to Hrubá Skála castle.

Karel Štekl, originally a brewer, the son of a publican in Slaný near Prague, married a daughter of the publican Pitra from Hrubá Skála. Štekl built this hotel supposedly after the pattern of Miramare Fort near Trieste, which also towers on a rock massif.

The hotel was operated primarily in the summer time when it provided services mainly to Prague families in spacious stylish rooms. There where three restaurants in the hotel, two of which were for the hotel guests only, and the third (and biggest) one was also for the everyday guests. This third restaurant remains well preserved with its lovely ornamented ceiling. The other two restaurants (one of them decorated in a hunting style, the other rather like in a chamber style) were unfortunately converted into service areas during their rebuilding in 1967. Each floor was different - the size and furnishings of the rooms corresponding to it. The rooms were equipped with period style furniture and there were also Dutch stoves in the bigger rooms.

The wonderful surroundings of the Bohemian Paradise have also been visited by prominent guests. The famous Czech writer, Karel Čapek, visited this hotel, the professor and member of the Academy of Sciences, Dr. Vladimír Knichal, and some Czech writers and painters spent the whole summer here. The hotel interior was changed, rebuilt and adapted in 1967 for the purpose of recreation for the local union.

The building was changed again in 1991 with the aim of restoring step by step its spirit and creating a comfortable and calm atmosphere, where guests can fully enfoy the natural beauty right in the centre of the Bohemian Paradise.