Petschek Villa

The house was built by Otto Petschek, a member of a German-speaking, Jewish family, with financial interests in coal mines and banking.

[1] At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Army occupied the Residence for several days, after which it became Headquarters for the Czechoslovak General Staff.

[1] In 1948, the American government purchased the Villa, and the adjacent buildings now used as the Deputy Chief of Mission's house, and the Staff-house for $1,570,000.

[1] The Villa was designed by architect Max Spielmann and built by the Matěj Blecha construction company between 1924 and 1930.

[2] In 2018, Norman L. Eisen, United States Ambassador to the Czech Republic in the Obama administration, published a history of the Villa, The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House.