CÍSAŘSKÁ KUCHYNĚ (TZV. HÁJENKA)
OBORA HVĚZDA
PRAHA 6 – LIBOC
TEL.: 235 352 600
Mobile phone: 739 461 883
‘Císařská kuchyně’ (the Emperor’s Kitchen) - the so-called Hájenka (gamekeeper’s lodge) in Prague 6 Liboc, was built from 1555-1558 like the Star Summer Palace and the Ballroom on White Mountain to serve its purpose until the late 16th century; from the 17th to the 19th centuries it served as the secondary area. It began to house the Alois Jirásek Museum in 1951. It first underwent a reconstruction designed by Acad. Architect Vladimír Tintěra from 1968-1970.
Once the Strahov Monastery had been returned to the Premonstratensians in 1990, the MCL began to suffer a loss of exhibition and storage rooms. The concept of using the Star Summer Palace estate had been already re-defined so was the use of the Hájenka, resulting so in the reconstruction projected by Architect Tomáš Šantavý (2003-2004) The Hájenka contains a new depository of Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic Library and other book wholes, permanent exhibitions devoted to that poet and collector, and the Study Room.
The Hájenka opened on September 15th, 2005 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Karásek collection acquired for the Museum of Czech Literature (1955) and within the European Heritage Days, the theme of which was ‘A New Life in the Historic Environment’.