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Park Gröbovka, nekdejsi chlouba Kralovskych Vinohrad, dnes misto s nejistou budoucnosti / Gröbe's Park, once a pride of Prague's district of Kralovske Vinohrady, now a place with uncertain future
CS: Bohaty nemecky podnikatel hrabe Moritz Gröbe (tez Mauritius Grobe), spolecnik ve firme Lanna a Sebek, c.-k. dvorniho budovatele zeleznicni infrastruktury, dostal nekdy koncem 60. let devatenacteho stoleti napad, ze nakoupi pozemky v blizkosti vyusteni vinohradskeho tunelu (ktery jeho firma prave dokoncovala) a postavi si na nich dum.
Nechal na svah, ktery byl od 14. stoleti osazen vinou revou a diky nemuz ziskala ctvrt Kralovske Vinohrady sve jmeno, navezt 60 000 vozu zeminy vytezene z tunelu. Tim se svah castecne zarovnal a bylo mozne postavit na nem honosnou novorenesancni italskou villu (podnikatelske baroko tehdy jeste neznali...) a na zbytku pozemku vybudovat anglicky park vcetne grota (umele jeskyne).
Stavba, na niz se podileli vehlasni cesti architekti Antonin Barvitius a Josef Schulz, byla dokoncena v r. 1873, parkova uprava zabrala dalsich patnact let.
Po Gröbeho smrti odkoupilo villu i pozemky Mesto Kralovske Vinohrady, ktere je jejim vlastnikem dodnes.
Dvakrat byl osud pozoruhodne stavby ohrozen: na konci 2. svetove valky ji tesne minula spojenecka puma (coz Cesi kvitovali se zlomyslnym zadostiucinenim, nebot v budove melo sidlo nacisticke Kuratorium pro vychovu mladeze) a v 90. letech zpusobil nedostatek prostredku v mestske pokladne, ze dum zacal chatrat a rozpadat se.
Mestska cast problem vyresila u vinohradske verejnosti velmi nepopoularnim krokem, kdyz budovu pronajala za symbolicke najemne americke pravnicke skole CEELI Institute. Prestoze se tak po temer 100 letech verejneho uzivani pristup do villy uzavrel, zda se, ze aspon pro nejblizsi budoucnost je jeji preziti zajisteno - minimalne do doby, nez vinohradsti konsele budou schopni majetek, ktery jejich predkove z obecniho rozpoctu dokazali koupit, aspon udrzovat.
Keska je uschovana v blizkost villy a nemel by byt problem ji najit. Pro navstevu doporucuji odpoledne nebo vecer: primo od kese je mozne fotografovat v protisvetle veverky, ktere si na relaxujici Prazany zvykly tak, ze k nim klidne prijdou na dva metry a bezmala se nechaji pohladit.
Villu doplnuje dalsi pozoruhodne architektonicke dilo, dvoupatrovy dreveny Vinicni altan, ktery prileha k nedavno obnovene vinici Sv. Klary. I teto stavbe hrozila jeste pred peti lety zkaza, ale nakonec se podarilo ji rekonstruovat do puvodni podoby a dnes je v ni vinarna s kavarnou, jejiz navstevu (pres typicky prazskou nevlidnou obsluhu) rozhodne doporucuji.
Na zpatecni ceste pres Botic muzete porovnat, jake domy staveji dnesni podnikatele (viz foto), a vzdat tichy hold hrabeti Gröbemu.
Keska je velmi mala, temer je to mikrokes, takze budete-li do ni chtit neco ulozit, mejte na pameti, ze ani krabicka zapalek by se nemusela vejit.
EN: It was probably in the late 1860s that Count Moritz Gröbe, a rich German entrepreneur (also known as Mauritius Grobe), a partner in the company Lanna & Sebek, the royal suppliers of railway infrastructure, had an idea of purchasing a vast plot of land adjacent to Prague's Vinohrady railway tunnel (which was just being completed by his company) and building a home there.
A total of 60,000 wagons of earth excavated from the tunnel were heaped on the slope, where vine had been grown since the 14th century and which gave the district of Kralovske Vinohrady (i. e., King's Vineyards) its name. This helped partly flatten the slope so that a sumptious Italian-style Neorenaissance villa could be erected. The rest of the land was formed into an English park, complete with a grotto.
The building designed by famous Czech architects Antonin Barvitius and Josef Schulz was completed in 1873, the park took fifteen more years to finish.
After Gröbe's death, the villa and the land was purchased by the Town of Kralovske Vinohrady, which has ever since been the owner of the property.
The fate of the remarkable villa was twice imperiled: at the end of World War II, it was nearly missed by an Allied bomb (which was acknowledged with some satisfaction by the Czechs as the house was then the headquarters of the Nazi Kuratorium for the Education of Youth), and in 1990s, the lack of funds in the City's treasury caused the structure to start delapidatating and falling apart.
The City District solved the problem by an action criticized bitterly by the local populace: they leased the building, at a nominal rent, to a U.S. law school named CEELI Institute. Though this meant that after almost a 100 years of public use, the villa ceased to be freely accessible, it seems that its survival has thus been secured for the nearest future - at least until the aldermen of Vinohrady can maintain the property once bought by their predecessors from the municipal budget.
The cache is close to the villa and there should be no problem in finding it. I recommend an afternoon or evening for your trip: right from the cache, one can make great contrejour shots of squirrels. They have become so much accustomed to the relaxing people that they may be watching them from a distance of some 6 feet - indeed, it seems one could pet them.
There is another structure near the villa, a two-story wooden Vineyard Alcove, adjacent to the recently restored St. Claire Vineyard. The Alcove also appeared to be doomed five years ago, but it was eventually restored to its original beauty. Now it hosts a wine bar and a café you definitely should not miss (despite the characteristicly poor quality of service).
On the way back over the Botic creek, for comparison, you can look at some residential buildings erected by today's developers (see the photo), and pay a silent tribute to Count Gröbe.
The cache is very small, it is almost a micro-cache, so if you wish to hide something in it please keep in mind that even a matchbox could be too big to fit in.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
i xzrav / va gur gehax