The 1932 Hotel Alcron — favoured Cold War spy address, closed in 2022, reopened March 2023 after a €20 million Almanac restoration. Awarded One Michelin Key in its first year of operation.
"The most accomplished Prague reopening in a decade. The 1932 art deco staircase preserved exactly; the lobby murals restored over their original Kupka-circle composition; the historic name reinstated. 204 rooms, One Michelin Key in its first year. The Wenceslas Square answer for guests who want the post-2023 luxury programme."
The Hotel Alcron opened in 1932 on Štěpánská — a quiet side street that runs east off Wenceslas Square — built by the Czech industrialist Alois Alcron and designed by the architect Alois Krofta in the international art deco vocabulary that defined the period in Prague. It was the first hotel in the city built specifically as a luxury tourist property rather than a converted residence, and through the inter-war Czechoslovak Republic it operated as the city's preferred address for foreign visitors. After 1948 it became the official state hotel for diplomatic guests; the Cold War decades made it the preferred address for foreign correspondents, intelligence officers from both sides, and the Czechoslovak nomenklatura. John le Carré stayed here writing The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; the building's bar appears in several spy novels of the period under thinly disguised names.
The hotel was privatised after 1989, operated as the Radisson Alcron through the 2000s and 2010s, and closed in January 2022 for what was initially a Radisson refurbishment. The plan changed: the property was sold to the Barcelona-based Almanac Hotels group, which committed €20 million to a deeper restoration. The hotel reopened in March 2023 as Almanac X Prague, with the historic Alcron name reinstated some months later. The Michelin Guide awarded it One Michelin Key in 2024 — the new luxury distinction that recognises hotels for design, atmosphere, and service quality. The award marked the property as one of the most distinguished new openings in Central Europe.
The restoration was deliberate about what to keep. The original art deco staircase and balustrade have been preserved exactly. The lobby's curved ceiling murals — painted in the early 1930s by an artist in the František Kupka circle — have been cleaned and re-illuminated. The geometric inlaid floors, the brass-framed door surrounds, and several decorative panels in the public corridors have been restored. The bar — a long marble-and-mahogany counter that was the social heart of inter-war Prague's foreign community — has been re-finished and is back in regular operation as Be Prague (cocktail bar). The 204 rooms (including 22 suites) have been completely rebuilt in a contemporary art deco vocabulary that reads cleanly against the historic public rooms.
The Almanac X restaurant runs a Czech-modernist kitchen — the menu draws on traditional Bohemian cuisine but takes a lighter, plant-forward hand than the heritage Czech dining scene typically allows. The cocktail bar and the coffee shop have become local favourites: Almanac X is one of the rare Prague five-stars where Czech residents themselves use the public rooms regularly. The position on Štěpánská is a discreet one (the entrance is a hundred metres off Wenceslas Square, on a quieter side street), but everything central is within five to ten minutes' walk: Můstek metro at the head of Wenceslas Square is two minutes; the National Theatre is eight; the Old Town Square is twelve. For business stays, the proximity to Wenceslas Square — the address for most Czech corporate offices, the Czech National Bank, and the major foreign-bank Prague branches — is decisive.
For Prague business stays Almanac X Alcron is the most considered new option. The proximity to Wenceslas Square and the Czech corporate quarter, the meeting suites in the historic public rooms, the Michelin Key recognition, and the Almanac restaurant at lunch make this the address that compares most favourably to the Four Seasons for transactional meetings without requiring the Old Town setting. The bar is a particular asset for evening drinks meetings that the Old Town hotels cannot match for Czech-resident attendance.
A Prague anniversary at Almanac X Alcron has the distinct flavour of inter-war Czechoslovak Bohemia — the art deco staircase, the Kupka-circle murals, the cocktail bar that the city's foreign correspondents used through the Cold War. Suites are the central anniversary booking; the cocktail bar before dinner at the Almanac X dining room is the most authentic art-deco evening sequence in the city. Mention the occasion at booking; the Michelin Key service standard responds reflexively.
For Prague solo retreats — a writer's week, a research trip, a quiet cultural reset — Almanac X Alcron is the literary choice. The Cold War association, the reading-friendly rooms, the unusually quiet position on Štěpánská, and the working-day-friendly all-day dining at the Almanac X restaurant make this the hotel where solo guests do their best Prague work. The lobby coffee shop is the most reliable place to take a working morning in any of the listed hotels.
Štěpánská 40
110 00 Prague 1 (Nové Město)
Czech Republic
Můstek metro (lines A & B) 2 minutes' walk; Wenceslas Square 100 metres; Václav Havel Airport 30 minutes by car
204 rooms, including 22 suites
Classic Rooms from €320/night
Suites from €700/night
Almanac Suite from €2,200/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM
Original 1932; reopened March 2023 after €20m restoration
One Michelin Key (2024)
Original 1932 art deco staircase
Restored Kupka-circle ceiling murals
Be Prague cocktail bar
Almanac X restaurant
Almanac wellness with steam & sauna
From €320/night. Suites and the Almanac Suite book three months ahead for spring and autumn weekends; book six months ahead for the December weeks and the Prague Spring Festival in May.
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