The Prague Hotel was built in 1880 according to the design of the architect Alexander Schiele (his most famous work in Kyiv is the water tower in Khreshchaty Park, where the Water Museum is located). Initially, the building had 3 floors and was called “Ilyinskaya Rooms”, after the surname of the owner Anastasia Ilyinskaya (the customer for the construction of the house was her husband, officer Grigory Ilyinsky). In 1911-1913, at the expense of Vaclav Vondrak (a Czech philologist who became the owner of the building in 1901), 3 more floors were completed, and in 1914 a 7th floor and a terrace for a summer restaurant appeared and the hotel began to be called “Prague”. In 1916-1918, the Czech satirist writer Jaroslav Hasek lived in the hotel. In Soviet times it was called “Kyiv”, “Red Kyiv” and “Teatralnaya”.
Near the Prague Hotel there are such interesting places as the SBU Museum, Sirotkin House, Golden Gate, house of Baron Steingel, National Opera of Ukraine and St. Sophia Cathedral.