Whatever your architectural style or era, a visit to Gabriel Loci is likely to leave an impression. On the site of the former vineyards in Holečkova Street in Prague’s Smíchov district stands a monastery complex built in the Neo-Romanesque style at the end of the 19th century. century and is a unique example of the so-called Beuron school of art. For many years the 11,000-square-metre listed building was abandoned, but in 2020 it was bought by the investment company Cimex, which brought it back into use. Now it is used for all kinds of events and filming.
The investment group managed by Miroslav Kosnar has had experience with the reconstruction of listed buildings, for example in Karlovy Vary. “From Cimex’s point of view, this was a combination of an interesting opportunity and a truly unique building in the centre of Prague,” explains Magdalena Dvorská, project manager at Gabriel Loci, which is responsible for the entire building. It reportedly took about three months to get the former monastery back into working order, and the aim was to preserve the original genius loci, which is Latin for spirit of the place, as much as possible. And for Gabriel Loci, that’s really fitting.
Since 1891 this monastery complex was first used by the Benedictine women’s order. However, the growing anti-German sentiment drove them out of the Czech Republic at the beginning of the twentieth century and the then Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs moved into the monastery. Later, there was a postal museum and after the Second World War a postal order office. Gabriel Loci belonged to the Czech Post until 2020, when it was acquired by Cimex. The investment group has dedicated it mainly to cultural and artistic events such as Designblok, Fashion Week or Papírfest.
There are also yoga classes, a summer cinema and wedding parties. Inside, there are sought-after studios for artists. If you haven’t been to Gabriel Loci in person, you may have at least seen him in a few movies or TV shows. In the past few years, about ten films and twenty music videos or commercials have been shot there. Among the biggest productions was Netflix’s Deliverance 2 with Chris Hemsworth.
“The office of the director of the Czech post office was transformed into a Georgian squat full of dirt and drugs for this film. I saw the movie recently and Gabriel is seen there for exactly fifteen seconds. And yet we spent over six months working out the details of the shoot and the filmmakers were with us for at least two weeks,” Magdalena Dvorská remembers the big event. The Smíchov Monastery can also be seen in the Czech TV series The First Republic and The Cop, or in the films Na západní froně klid and Muž se začíma ušima.
The band Vesna also filmed there, and their video has over 3.5 million views on YouTube. And what’s next for Gabriel Loci? “We are looking forward to, for example, the Immersive Theatre Festival, the Inside Out Film Festival and hopefully the next edition of the Naughty Festival. We are also planning an expansion of Bar Gabriel and a new summer cinema programme,” adds the project manager of the building, which is ideal for events of all kinds, from conferences, fashion events, concerts to weddings and corporate parties, thanks to its diversely designed interior, large halls and smaller rooms.
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