VENUE

DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY

The villa was built in 1889-1890 by architect Rudolf Koukola for Maria Knobloch. It is part of an important broader urban complex of representative villas of the late 19th and early 20th centuries on Slavíčkova Street and is one of the most famous villas in this diplomatic and residential area, which stretches from the Špejchar crossroads to the Královská obora.
The Neo-Renaissance villa was designed in 1889 by architect Rudolf Koukola. The building and the adjacent greenery and fencing were registered on the Central List of Immovable Cultural Monuments in 1958. The building has a rich sgraffito decoration of the facade and remnants of preserved stucco decoration of the interior.
The builder and architect Koukola (* 1859 Benešov) was the son of the builder Josef Koukola and owned an orchard - allegedly a pear orchard - in Bubenč near the crossroads on Špejchař, which he drove out. In its place, in 1889-1890, he built a family Neo-Renaissance villa for the widow of the owner of the "English" brewery in Libeň, Karel Knobloch, and her six children, of whom Koukol's wife Klementina (*1872) was the eldest. The mother-in-law Marie Knobloch was listed as the first owner of the villa in the residence registration and in the civil registry records from 1890-1905. Just opposite the Knoblochs' villa Koukola built a half-timbered villa for himself and his wife Klementina in 1893 and sold the remaining plot to Stanislav Suchard for the construction of his old villa with a studio (Slavíčkova 15). Knobloch sold the villa to Luisa Vondráčková in 1900, but did not leave it until 1906, when she moved to a newly built villa (Slavíčkova 19) next to the summer villa of her daughter Klementina and father-in-law Koukola. There, a year later, on 29 December 1907, she died of a heart attack.
In 1919-1920 probably the most famous inhabitant of the villa lived there, after whom the villa and the adjacent street are named today. French general Maurice César Joseph Pellé (1863-1924), commander of the French military mission in Czechoslovakia and later, from 1919 to 1921, chief of the Czechoslovak Main Staff of the Defence Forces. In 1921 he married Jarmila Braunerová, niece of the painter Zdenka Braunerová and granddaughter of the politician Dr.Brauner, with whom he had a daughter Marishka Pellé. His wife's family has a villa in Dobřichovice, Central Bohemia (also Pellé's villa). General Maurice Pellé died in 1924 in Toulon, buried in the Invalides in Paris.

HOW TO GET THERE

Car

Parking is available in paid and unpaid parking spaces in the surrounding streets, especially Slavíčkova or Na Zátorce. Many places have a purple zone, allowing free parking on Saturdays. However, we strongly recommend using public transport.

Public transport

By metro and tram: Hradčanská station (Metro line A). Villa Pellé is about 350 meters from the station.