Location Prague, Czech Republic Completed 1954 Owner Ihor Akivison | Construction started 1952 Opening 1954 Antenna spire 88 m (289 ft) | |
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Hotel International (formerly Hotel Družba, Hotel Čedok, Hotel Holiday Inn and Hotel Crowne Plaza) is the largest Socialist realism building in Prague, Czech Republic, and is located in the Dejvice district.
The building was built between 1952 and 1954 at the order of Defence minister Alexej Čepička. It is 88 m high (the roof is 67 m, plus a 10 m chalice and a 1.5 m red star) and has sixteen floors. Part of the building was a fallout shelter for 600 people, currently used as a staff clothes room.
Its original name "Družba" means "friendship" in Russian; its later names refer to the respective owners, namely the state-owned tourism agency Čedok (from 1957 on) and the Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza branches of InterContinental Hotels Group, which sold it in 2014 to the Austrian group Gerstner. Currently it is part of the Mozart Hotel Group.
A huge tapestry in the lobby depicts an aerial view of Prague still complete with Stalinist landmarks, such as the Stalin Monument (the largest in the world, demolished in 1962) and the Monument to Soviet Tank Crews (abolished in 1991).