Czech hotel with secret bunker

Behind the Iron Curtain: Czech hotel where Cold War spies eavesdropped on guests from secret bunker under the building

• Most rooms in the Jalta Hotel were bugged with hi-tech listening devices
• Messages relayed to secret police hidden in bunker 60ft under building
• None of the hotel staff were allowed down there or even to talk about it
• Bunker also designed to safeguard 120 top officials in the event of a war
• Has opened as a museum after it was declassified and handed to the hotel

By Simon Tomlinson
PUBLISHED: 15:47 GMT, 2 December 2013 | UPDATED: 18:07 GMT, 2 December 2013

The secrets of a grand old hotel in Prague where police once spied on foreign diplomats from a bunker under the building have been revealed long after the iron curtain came down.
Prague's Jalta Hotel was a cold war hotbed of snooping and intrigue, according to a new tourist attraction in the Czech Republic capital.
A bunker that served as the spying centre on foreign diplomats and businessmen staying at the Jalta has opened up allowing tourists a fascinating glimpse into a dark past.

The walls have ears: One of the rooms inside a Cold War bunker in Prague where secret police would eavesdrop on foreign diplomats and businessmen staying at the hotel above

Glimpses into a dark past: The bunker has now been opened up as a tourist attraction 15 years after it was declassified by the Czech Republic Ministry of Defence

Prague's Jalta Hotel (above) was hotbed of snooping and intrigue, according to a new tourist attraction

Many rooms in the hotel were bugged by sophisticated devices which replayed every word spoken to eavesdroppers of the secret police hidden in the bunker 60 feet below the hotel on Wenceslas Square.
None of the hotel staff were allowed to go into or even talk about it.

When Communism ended in 1989, the bunker remained in the possession of the Ministry of Defence until 1998, when they finally declassified its existence and turned it over to the hotel.
The bunker was also designed to act as a place of safety for 120 top officials and 30 support staff including doctors in the event of a war.

Preparing for the worst: The bunker was also designed to act as a place of safety for 120 top officials and 30 support staff including doctors in the event of a war

Revamp: Three rooms of the bunker have been refurbished and equipped as they were during the Cold War

It has now opened a museum of communist-era history that the public can visit on guided tours.
'It's a nice curiosity, a five-star boutique hotel with a bunker,' said Sandra Zouzalova, the hotel's PR manager.
'It was the VIP hotel during the communist era... most foreigners were put here.
'All of the guests would've been eavesdropped on and 24/7 there was someone listening to every part of the hotel and restaurants.
'We had a manager of the hotel here in the 1980s. He said in that time, nobody [from the hotel] was allowed to go downstairs, but people... from outside were going downstairs and he didn't know what they were doing.'
The bunker is protected by thick concrete walls and was capable of acting as a military HQ in the event of a war.

Multi-purpose: The bunker is protected by thick concrete walls and was capable of acting as a military HQ

Historic: The hotel, and its bunker, was built between 1954 and 1958 on an old World War Two bomb site

It even had its own power and water supply to sustain those who would have been based there.
Three rooms of the bunker have been refurbished and equipped as they were during the Cold War.
Included among the exhibits is the switchboard that enabled state security agents to listen in on guests.
A board behind the listening post shows that rooms, all of which were connected by cables to the listening station, were ranked according to how closely they were scrutinised.
Those coded red were listened to most closely, with activity in yellow and green rooms monitored less frequently.
The hotel, and its bunker, was built between 1954 and 1958 on an old World War Two bomb site.
To reach the bunker, visitors have to take an elevator to the hotel basement before descending further on concrete steps.
They pass through a room equipped with a shower that could have served to decontaminate visitors, before entering the bunker itself.
The hotel is working on getting the filtration system of the bunker, designed to keep out poison gas, working again and to add more cold war era relics to the displays.
Tours of the bunker last 30 minutes and are limited to a maximum of seven people. Places must be booked in advance.