Hotel » Historical background
The property was originally a brewery built around 1850. In 1903, the brewery was closed and the buiding was reconstructed into two identical semi-detached apartment houses, each with its own separate entrance and service facilities.
In 1912, Josef Mačeka (great-grandfather of the current owner) bought one of the two apartment houses and converted it into a hotel, which he named the Hotel Mačeka. The hotel and its restaurant/pub soon thereafter became a popular meeting place often visited by prominent Czech artists and other well-known Prague personalities including Alfons Mucha, the Ženíšek brothers (who decorated the ceiling of the National Theater), as well writers Franz Kafka and Jaroslav Hašek (the author of Good Soldier Schwejk).
Later in the mid-thirties, Josef Mačeka renamed the hotel to the Hotel U Haštala (Hotel at Haštal) which better identified the location of the hotel.
After the confiscation and nationalization of the hotel by the Communist government in 1958, the property was operated by the State hotel and restaurant management company. In 1968, during the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Russian armed forces, the hotel temporarily became the headquarters of the Russian Central Command.
In 1991, the Czech government officially returned the hotel to the original legal owners (Mačeka parentage). The building was completely reconstructed in March 2008.