One of the most famous cafés of Prague and the Academy of Performing Arts share a common seat in the monumental Lazansky Palace. The building constructed by Ignatius Ullman in 1861-63 on the location of a former brickworks is one of the few examples of French Neo-Renaissance in Prague. In 1881, the ground floor of the building
was rearranged to accommodate the Café Slavia, which in the 1920’s became one of the centers of Prague’s cultural and intellectual life. One of its regulars was the playwright, dissident and later President Vaclav Havel. The interior of the café is dominated by the famous painting by Viktor Oliva: Absinthe drinker.
