About Akropolis

Palác Akropolis — MAZE OF CULTURAL EVENTS!

Centre of independent culture offering unique music, theatre and art projects.

Palác Akropolis

Activation of your senses by music, theatre, dance, contemporery circus, exhibitions, workshops, travel discussion evenings and festivals.

Key figures of various fields are invited and we bring you also huge music and multimedia events. Festival of new media AM and Spectaculare - they connect music, motion, visual art and the most modern technologies. Music Infinity comes with unknown and legendary talents from art-house alternative and mainly foreign scene. You do not need to go West to see legends of the music world. You can see the stars of the music heaven during the cycle Top of The World in our club atmosphere. If you long for northern music, you can enjoy artists from Island, Norwegian and Sweden in the Midnight session. And if you wish to visit other lands you will enjoy Planet Connection - composed evenings devoted to various parts of the world. You may listen to local music and stories, watch movies, savour photos and taste traditional cuisine.

Realisation of exhibitions that are thematically following the current programme of all stages in Palac Akropolis. We exhibit new creations and from amateur to fine art students to renowned artists.

 

OPportunity for young music groups. We enable young musicians to perform on the one of the most prestige club scenes in Prague and simultaneously be heard by new audiences and establish connections with music producers. Every month we prepare EuroConnections - original European music groups who are able to premiere their works. We are your reliable guide in current music trends.

We Organise support for experimental, nonverbal and physical theatre projects. We provide a scene for art groups with traditions in community theatre, social-criticism performance whichfocuses on current social issues. Starting from 2012, we are introducing contemporary circus.Together with the centre for new circus Cirqeuon we organise the festival Cirkopolis, which connects the new circus with dance and physical theatre. Festival always invites several foreign groups and annually brings the world premiere of Cirkopolis.

LISten what to do if you cannot visit... browse through our Magazine Palace Akropolis (MaPA). Every issue is focused on one theme from culture to a new perspective. You can read interviews with artists, reviews of our events, surveys and much more.

 

VIRTUAL TOUR

 

Awards

  • Rating credibility - International Awards "Creditworthy A"
    (Bisnode, 2014)  
  • Rating credibility - International Awards "Creditworthy A"
    (Bisnode, 2013) 
  • Rating credibility - International Awards "Creditworthy A"
    (Solidited, 2012)  
  • The Best of Prague - Best Music Club
    (The Prague Post, 2011)
  • The Best of Prague - Best Music Club
    (The Prague Post, 2009)
  • The Best of Prague 
    (Price Internet magazine Prague.tv, 2003)
  • The Most Popular Club
    (Gallup Institute, 2001)
  • The Fourth Most Popular Concert Hall
    (Gallup Institute, 2001)
  • The Best Rock Club 
    (The Prague Post, 1999)
  • The Interior of the Year – František Skála a David Vávra 
    (Grand Prix of Architects, 1996)
 
 
Interiors

“The interior of the Palác was designed to realize the concepts of a generational space and an independent cultural center.” 

František Skála, author of Palác Akropolis art concept.  

The façade of Palác Akropolis mixes the original layout from the 20th century with modern colours and magical eye. The interiors of Palác Akropolis connects the past with the present and offers us visions of the future.

When you enter the hall, your sight is caught by metal works combined with natural ones. This is a characteristic feature of all otherwise quite miscellaneous interior design of Palác Akropolis. The cloakroom which serves as a café-garden in the summer decorates a rotating column with a shadow play and on the other hand is a bar resembles a locomotive. Lamps with natural shapes grow up from the metal desks and above them on the ceiling you can find a natural world painted in great detail. Chandleliers resembling raindrops caught in a web hang from the ceiling.

akropolis café 

is wholly tiled with cork and engravings from the real and fantasy world by František Skála. Engravings on the bar, mirrors, showcase, walls, shelves and cabinets are illuminated by rounded lights set in the cork. Lamps in the shape of flowers are suspended over the bar, where you can enjoy a great coffee prepared by professional baristas of "Lásku Kávo" collective. It provides a pleasant haven for meetings and studies, with a piece of cake and toast always at hand. The place is an oasis where you can get a fresh Pilsen beer, Czech and foreign wines or quench your thirst with a lemonade. 

 

foyer

serves also as a showcase. 

 

Big hall

is decorated both with religious and symbolic elements. Huge polypores are used as lampshades as in the whole Akropolis. You can find various sculptures in the niches and spiral staircases. Such as “modern Charon” – a car transporting the dead to the other side or female and male attributes as wells as an interpretation of the origin of life. You can also admire sculptures depicting the individual types of art or a sculpture of flock of swallows on the ceiling representing the freedom of art. From a balcony you can see a scene a God´s hand handing over a ”gift” – a wallet full of talents. The hall is very variable in terms of capacity. It is possible to choose variants from "full standing" for 700 people through "full seating" for 300 people to arrangements for intimate theater and small music projects. 


small hall

is decorated with golden and copper components. It provides an exceptional technological background – there is a cabin for a DJ or a soundman. It is an ideal place for intimate concerts, discussions and literary evenings. Visitors are able to be in the centre of the event or in the calm environment of the lightly equipped zone next to the bar. There are the same pictures on the floor of the small hall as in the foyer and palace halls. The Small hall is directly connected with the Big hall. In 2020, the stage was renovated and first-class sound and lighting equipment was installed. The capacity is around 80 standing or 45 seated spectators. 

 

Jazz bar    

allows you to rest under the antique columns and sit under the peace pipe hanging over the bar. The room is tiled with wood and the natural materials and shapes join components from the trolleybus and other metal items. The Jazz bar offers a “chamber separée” in the corner with private atmosphere similar to a confessional. In 2020, the space was equipped with high-quality sound technology and intimate small hall lighting. Currently, the space is used for concerts of the Jazz Nejtek Selection project, which reflects the aesthetic variability and elasticity of Czech and world jazz and offers space for exceptional authors and performers in this genre. The bar offers a wide range of cocktails in addition to the traditional drinks menu. In the hall leading to the Jazz bar, there is another bar “u hada” (at snakes) whose long body coils on the floor.

 

 
History

Eye into the world

 

In March 1927 the builder and architect Rudolf V. Svoboda started to build the Palác Akropolis. He wished to create a house between Žižkov and Královské Vinohrady with a café and theatre stage that would be equipped with the most modern technique for movie projection. In February 1928, after the house was approved by the final inspection, the owner and architect in one was living his dream about “an extraordinary house where I would find various spaces with great music, theatre and fine-art. Where would I have meetings, a beer, where could I dance with friends and have fun till the morning. Where would you buy things that you cannot buy elsewhere and where you meet people that you would not meet elsewhere.

Families from better situated middle class found home in this modern apartment house with a romantic café. But the long economic crisis left its mark on the construction industry. The owner of the house must have paid the debts with the executory sale of the Akropolis.  Akropolis was bought by the company for cremation and the cultural ambitions were moved aside.

However, five hundred vacant seats in the theatre affected the theatre man Prokop Leitrich.  He decided to breathe life into the theatre hall with his theatre company Komedie. He waited patiently for the concession and on 23rd January 1928 the theatre hall was reopened.  After Leitrich, the hall was owned by the popular actor Karel Želenský. He lead the theatre with his wife Laura for six seasons but they failed to create the “big-city-theatre” because the theatre stood too far from the city centre for Prague citizens.

A radical solution was offered by businessman and present director of Velká operetta – Jiří Koldovský. After a huge reconstruction of the hall and a new appointment of a new theatre company the theatre now called Moderní divadlo started its season on 27th August 1939 with an attractive cast – with theatre and movie stars starring in the dramatic plays. During the 2nd World War the hall was used for occasional movie projections. After the war there was a theatre again but only for a short time. After February 1948 the theatre was closed and the house served as a storehouse and an eating house.

In 1991 the house was bought by Žižkov theatre and music agency and with help from the Pražská pětka fund the restaurant was reconstructed and reopened. The theatre hall also went through a huge reconstruction and concerts and other cultural events were added to the theatre programme.

Palác Akropolis is now a multifunctional centre for meeting people and seeing various art categories. The symbol of the pulsating eye was inserted between words Palác and Akropolis by the artist František Skála. Thanks to him, the building was brushed up with sand and olive colours and previous relic – the plastic flower on the façade – was changed to the magical eye. Palác Akropolis thus observed as this eye and choose either at home or in foreign countries what to offer the visitors to broaden their horizons.

 
Entrance

Tickets can be purchased online directly trough the event page.

Box office in the café of Palác Akropolis is open always one hour before the event. 

Advance booking is also available trough GoOut

Terms and conditions

 

  • Keep your ticket for further inspection.
  • Ticket falsification is punishable by law.
  • After leaving the Palác Akropolis premises the ticket lose its validity.
  • When buying the ticket the visitor agrees with eventual audio-visual record of him/her and with later use of this record.
  • NO smoking, taking photos or recording, bringing arms, backpacks and big luggage, glass bottles, cans, plastic bottles, umbrellas and other dangerous items, toxic and other narcotics.
  • The organiser reserves the right to perform a security check before entering the Palác Akropolis premises.
  • You can use barrier-free entrance.
  • Please come on time, the entrance to the auditorium may be closed after the performance start.
  • Programme change is reserved. The ticket price includes law VAT.

 

Conditions concerning the ticket purchase could be found at https://goout.net/cs/obchodni-podminky/ part B

 

 
Partners
Hlavní město Praha Ministerstvo kultury ČR Státní fond kultury ČR Liveurope_of EU NPO
České centrum NY Slovenský institut v Praze Goethe Institut Švýcarské velvyslanectví Art
Radio 1 Full Moon Alter Echo
GoOut Adjust Art Osa Hotel Malý Vítek
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