Original owners
Mr. Emil Rosenberger, a wholesaler from Prague Karlín, and Josef Nerad, the director of the insurance company, bought a plot of land from a the Capital City of Prague in order to support the construction industry on March 22, 19291. After a year, Mr. Rosenberger´s wife, Klára2 bought the ownership share from Mr. Josef Nerad.
The Rosenbergers began construction of a villa on a plot of land on Na Piavě Street, which is now named after Charles de Gaulle, in 1930. The construction plans was signed and the construction was carried out by the Company of engineers brothers Kalich´s, based in Královské Vinohrady.
The administrative requirements for the construction of the villa were not without complications. The application for a building permit was first rejected in February 1930, due to exceeding of maximum built up area of 16,65 m2 set by the State Regulatory Commission. The construction was allowed after the modification of the project, in October 1930. In November of the same year, construction work began and from October 21, 1931, the villa was allowed to „inhabit and use“.
The villa was built in the 1930s, and yet its expression is close to historicist styles and eclecticism. The main facade to the street is based on axial symmetry, which is emphasized by a slightly arched risalit in the middle of the composition and graded by a volumnious triangular dormer. The basic architectural elements of the facades are balustrades, bosages, arches and high order.
The building was designed as a four storey building with a basement, two floors and a residental attic. In the basement there was a garage, laundry room , kitchen, cellars, boiler room and caretaker´s apartment. On the ground floor there was an entrance hall, a living hall and a bedroom with accessories (dressing room and bath). In addition to the attic space, the attic also provided the space for two living rooms, a bathroom and a storage room. Altready in 1932 minor building modifications were made – additions to the winter garden on the southwest side of the house, an extension of the entrance loggia with balcony on the southeast side and minor building changes in the interior.
These modifications were also made under the supervision of the Kalich´s brothers3.
History of the villa
The villa was confiscated from the Rosenbergers during World War II with effect from December 31, 1940, for the purpose of transfer to the German Empire.After the end of World War II, the villa was returned to the original owners, respectively their granddaughter Elizabeth Birnbaum, who sold the villa in 1947 to Mr. Josef Hátle, on whom was first imposed by the Central National Commitee of the Capital City of Prague a national administration and later was house handed over to the Services Management of the Diplomatic Corps in Prague, whose successor organization is Diplomatic Service, on the basis of a judgment of 1957 People´s Civil Court in Prague. The lessee of the villa was the Embassy of Hungary, the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia and since 2016 the villa has been used by the Embassy of Romania.
1 Výpis z pozemkové knihy KÚ Bubeneč, vl. Č 1135, vložka č. 4311, Smlouva trhová z 27. září a 4. prosince 1929
2 Výpis z pozemkové knihy KÚ Bubeneč, vl. Č. 1135, vložka č. 35720, Smlouva trhová z 21. listopadu 1930
3 Beránek Bohumil, Nikolay Brankov, Klára Brůhová, Kryštof Havlice, Alena Křížková, Milan Podobský, Lenka Popelová, Radomíra Sedláková, Pavel Škranc, Petr Ulrich. Slavné vily Praha 6 – Bubeneč.: Foibos Books, 2017
