<a href="#">Kasárna Karlín invite you to the sauna with a glass roof</a>

Pražská Kasárna Karlín has prepared a new attraction for the public at the beginning of February - the opportunity to sauna right in the courtyard of this extensive former barracks complex. The capacity of the sauna with a unique glass roof is 6 - 8 persons, and there is also a tub with ice water, a shower, changing rooms, toilets, a relaxation area with loungers, and right next to it a bar in the former military laundry. Visitors can borrow sheets for free as part of advantageous admission and, for a small fee, also towels. Those interested in this unusual experience will be able to reserve the sauna on the page www.kasarnakarlin.cz/cs/sauna.

“In addition to heated indoor spaces, we also try to utilize the outdoor courtyard in winter, bringing it to life with something unusual that residents in the center of Prague won’t experience easily,” says Matěj Velek from the non-profit organization Prague Center about the newly built sauna. Since 2017, the empty and unused Neoclassical Kasárna Karlín has not only revived the area with all-day operations and extensive cultural and social activities but also ensures management, maintenance, and security, saving the state as the property owner millions of crowns annually.

Alongside a packed February program of film screenings, theater performances, concerts, and discussions, Kasárna Karlín invites you on February 16, 2020, at 3:00 PM to the opening of the last part of the outdoor exhibition in the courtyard of this unique building in the heart of Prague. The new panels will build on the existing interpretation of the building's history. Archival photographs and memories of veterans who served here will supplement the section about the reopening of the barracks and future plans. The opening will be combined with a tour of the otherwise inaccessible old building, and the organizers will share behind-the-scenes stories from the renovation. The entire event is free, and each participant will receive a hot drink.

On February 21 and 28, 2020, Kasárna Karlín invites you to the only two Prague performances of The Vagina Monologues, a drama with strong and still taboo topics that gives voice to women with radically different stories. Audiences will hear about the experience of assisting in the birth of a granddaughter, an unconventional feminist love, and wartime rape.

Overall, throughout winter and the entire year, around 30 - 35 events take place monthly at Kasárna Karlín, and in almost three years, there have been hundreds of screenings, concerts, debates, tours, and family activities that have attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors - including students, parents with children, and seniors.

The Karlín barracks were established in 1844 in response to the problem of insufficient accommodation capacity for soldiers. The construction was undertaken by the company of Vojtěch Klein, who became known as the builder of the first railway station in Prague - today’s Masaryk Station. It is a Neoclassical five-story building that has retained its original layout and, aside from a few later extensions in the courtyard and modifications to the interiors, is largely in its original state. In the adjacent service building, there is now a café, bar, cinema, concert and theater hall, gallery, and dance school for children.

Kasárna Karlín has been managed since 2017 by the non-profit organization Prague Center, whose aim is to protect, beautify, popularize, and revive forgotten or inaccessible places in Prague, including organizing cultural, educational, and other social events. The association's first location was the Cargo Station Žižkov from 2013 to 2015.

In 2016, negotiations began with the Ministry of Justice about utilizing the Karlín barracks. The then Minister Robert Pelikán came up with the intention to build a judicial palace on the site within approximately ten years. Matěj Velek approached the minister with a proposal for temporary use of the building for cultural and social purposes. After a year of negotiations with ministry officials, conditions were finally agreed upon, and in March 2017, a three-year contract with the option of extension was signed. The association received the so-called new building and courtyard for use, with discussions on the so-called old building continuing.

More information >