Lucerna Music Bar

Lucerna Music Bar is a concert club housed within Lucerna Palace, located inside a pedestrian walkway, or "passage", in architectural terms, that connects Vodičkova and Štěpánská streets near historic Wenceslas Square, in the New Town (Nové mesto) area of Prague in the Czech Republic. The name Lucerna means "lantern" in Czech. Lucerna Palace is an Art Nouveau/Modernist edifice built by former President Václav Havel's grandfather Vácslav Havel. Lucerna Music Bar is one of the venues within Lucerna Palace involved in the Prague International Jazz Festival and the AghaRTA Prague Jazz Festival. It was used for the Václav Havel Tribute Concert, held in the former president's honor, upon his death in 2011. The venue, opened in 1995, has played an important role in giving exposure to many Czech bands. Today, it holds discos on Friday and Saturday nights, and during the week, it mainly hosts live music.
Lucerna Palace.
The building was designed by architects Stanislav Bechyně and Václav Prokop, and built by Havel, grandfather of former president Václav Havel, between 1907 and 1921. At the time, it was unique for being one of the first reinforced concrete buildings in Prague; this is described in a book by Bechyně. The building is a multilevel open-air galleria that houses the Lucerna Music Bar and the Lucerna Theatre, a formal concert hall, in addition to an assortment of shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and bars. Lucerna Palace has been the site of many significant events in the country's history and is considered an important private cultural centre in the city. It is the home of the Prague International Jazz Festival and was the site of the Václav Havel Tribute Concert.
Cultural context.
In 1964, Prague's "1st International Jazz Festival" was held in the hall and the following year, Louis Armstrong performed there. Until 1989, Czechoslovakia was under the rule of a Communist government. Jazz musicians, artists, and intellectuals are credited with promoting the democratic ideals that shaped the Velvet Revolution, which overthrew this regime. Charter 77, a human rights manifesto, was written in response to the arrest of the band Plastic People of the Universe. In 1979, Václav Havel was imprisoned for activities on behalf of the charter and the Jazz Section was targeted by the government for their work. Five members of the Jazz Section died in prison under suspicious circumstances. In 1989, Communism fell in Czechoslovakia. Havel, a playwright and strong patron of the Czechoslovak music scene, became the nation's first post-communist elected president.