Municipal House Restaurant

The story

Municipal House Restaurant opened in 1912 as part of Prague’s great Obecní dům. Architects Antonín Balšánek and Osvald Polívka worked with leading Czech artists and craftsmen to create a vast Art Nouveau dining hall of tall windows, sculpted plaster, mahogany fittings, brass, mirrors and tiers of geometric chandeliers. The kitchen still serves full Czech and French meals in the original civic landmark.

Why Municipal House Restaurant is iconic

Few restaurants express an entire city’s artistic identity at this scale. The room is both a complete Art Nouveau ensemble and part of the building in which the independent Czechoslovak state was proclaimed in 1918, joining architectural splendour to national history.

Selected by Ernst Aben · Information reviewed July 2026