Nove Mesto - The Rough Guide to Prague - page 159

time of research it was receiving a complete overhaul and is expected to open as a luxury
hotel sometime in 2016.
Palác Lucerna and around
Metro Můstek
Opposite the Grand Hotel Evropa is the vast Palác Lucerna , one of the more appealing of
Václavské náměstí's numerous atmospherically lit pasáže , or shopping arcades. Designed in
the early twentieth century in Moorish style by, among others, Havel's own grandfather, it
was returned to Havel and his brother after 1989 and was subsequently the focus of much
public family squabbling. Suspended from the ceiling in the centre of the arcade is David
Černý's parody of the square's equestrian Wenceslas Monument, with the saint astride an
upside-down charger.
Apart from a brief glance at the Hotel Jalta , built in the Stalinist aesthetic of the 1950s,
there's nothing more to stop for south of here, architecturally speaking, until you get to the
Wenceslas Monument. However, you might by this point have noticed the two vintage trams
beached on short pieces of rail in the central reservation, reminders of the days when trams
trundled down the square but now converted into the Tramvaj café.