If you were a Westerner of political or economic importance visiting Prague during the Communist Era, chances are you may have stayed at the glamorous Hotel Jalta on Wenceslas Square.
And if you stayed at the Hotel Jalta, chances are you were under covert surveillance. As in, the lint brush in the drawer was bugged.
We recently toured the underground chamber/nuclear bunker where the regime operated its Hotel Jalta spy surveillance and stored medical and military equipment in the event of an attack. It's easy to book; you just e-mail or call the hotel and they set you up with a local guide.
Descending into the bunker was like walking through a wormhole...
...and into a graveyard for wiretapping devices.
Our guide was brilliant; she was hugely knowledgeable and peppered the tour with personal anecdotes from her own family's experiences.
She encouraged us to handle some of the exhibit items, like this very heavy gun of some sort.
We also learned the system for recording/listening to hotel guests' phone calls...
...and crawled through a bunker tunnel that would have opened onto Wenceslas Square.
Apparently hotel staff didn't know what was underneath their establishment; they just saw men coming and going through an off-limits door and were told to keep their mouths shut. How fascinating to be privy to this slice of Cold War narrative today!
Linking up with Pack Me To, Chasing the Donkey, The Fairytale Traveler, A Southern Gypsy and Ice Cream and Permafrost for The Sunday Traveler.
And if you stayed at the Hotel Jalta, chances are you were under covert surveillance. As in, the lint brush in the drawer was bugged.
We recently toured the underground chamber/nuclear bunker where the regime operated its Hotel Jalta spy surveillance and stored medical and military equipment in the event of an attack. It's easy to book; you just e-mail or call the hotel and they set you up with a local guide.
Descending into the bunker was like walking through a wormhole...
...and into a graveyard for wiretapping devices.
Our guide was brilliant; she was hugely knowledgeable and peppered the tour with personal anecdotes from her own family's experiences.
She encouraged us to handle some of the exhibit items, like this very heavy gun of some sort.
We also learned the system for recording/listening to hotel guests' phone calls...
If you go...
Where: Jalta Hotel, Wenceslas Square 45/818
Reservations required: call 222 822 111 or e-mail concierge@hoteljalta.com
Tickets: I think we paid 150kc each
Linking up with Pack Me To, Chasing the Donkey, The Fairytale Traveler, A Southern Gypsy and Ice Cream and Permafrost for The Sunday Traveler.
