Zvuky Prahy / Sounds of Prague

The building of the mansion in Korunovační Street, today the street of the Ukrainian Heroes in Bubeneč, was built by Matěj Blecha after the plans of architect Max Spielmann. It was built for a member of one of the richest families in Czechoslovakia, Bedřich (Friedrich) Petschek, whose company operated mainly in banking and brown coal. The dynasty settled in Bubeneč, where it built or bought several magnificent residential buildings. The building, which is owned by the Russian Embassy since 1945, was bought from the Petschk family in 1927 by another Jewish banker, Jiří Popper. The house in Bubeneč and the surrounding lands were confiscated after the occupation in 1939 and used as the Prague headquarters of the Gestapo. A system of tunnels was created under the buildings, where Gestapo kept secret archives. After the end of the war in 1945, the Popper family tried to regain their property, but thanks to Beneš's decrets, they failed to do so, although their collaboration with the Nazis was of course out of question. Beneš, who knew that the banker was still alive and planned to return to Prague, donated the palace as a thank for the liberation of Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union. The Soviets then used the building including the tunnel system and secret rooms built by the Nazis. Laws passed in 1990 allowed the restitution of property confiscated after 1948, and in July 2008 Jiří Popper's daughter Lisbeth Popper filed a lawsuit in Czech courts against the Czech and Russian states. According to court records, the property is worth about CZK 1 billion. The Russian Foreign Ministry claims that the building is under current Czech legislation and international law and rejects the owners' attempts to demand Russian state property. "On a certain television screen, we see the Russian ambassador in the embassy hall welcoming Václav Klaus, and in the background you can clearly see the stolen Popper's antiques." From 1931, Friedrich Petschek lived in his villa No. 473 Pod Kaštany 19, in the so-called Bloch Villa, which is also today part of the Russian Embassy complex.
Hans Petschk's the third brother's villa on Romain Rolland Street is also owned by the Russian Federation.