About the Hotel - HOTEL DESATERO MIKULOV

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About DESATERO

Hotel Desatero is housed in a historic 16th-century building. Below you can read more about the history of this unique building. However, it was brought to its present form in 2019 by the Kokes brothers through a costly renovation.

Under the guidance of architect MgA. Přemysl Kokeš, a modern hotel could be created that respects the historical heritage and which at the same time follows the latest trends in the hotel industry of this format. Therefore, the hotel is conceptualized without a physical reception and offers a modern self-service system that you will simply fall in love with.

Our online receptionist Alfred will guide you through the entire booking process in a few steps, from express check-in, which you can do from the comfort of your home or on the way to the hotel, to ordering housekeeping or a bottle of wine for your room.

The building in Husova Street is located in the old Jewish town. According to the painted beams in Mannerist style, the building can be dated back to the reign of Rudolf II. At that time, the house must have been owned by one of the best-placed Jewish bourgeoisie.

Since the house had its own synagogue in the courtyard, and from many other sources, it can be assumed that the famous scholar Rabbi Yehuda Löw ben Bezalel, or by the Hebrew acronym מהר״ל – MaHaRaL (Morenu Ha-Rav Liva or also Morenu Ha-gadol Rabi Liva, our (great) teacher Rabbi Liva, lived here.)

He spent most of his life here in Mikulov as the Moravian Provincial Rabbi. In 1573 he went to Prague, where he worked at the court of Emperor Rudolf II and became the creator of the legendary Golem.

During the reign of the Ditrichstein family, the house was listed as the property of the Michelsteters, a wealthy Jewish family. Prince Ditrichstein, the owner of Mikulov, kept a protective hand over his Jewish subjects. In 1845 there were more than 3,500 Jewish inhabitants in Mikulov. All the houses were connected, and also in both walls and on both floors of the Michelsteters’ house a walled door was found that led to the neighbors.

In the 1930s, the family donated the house to the Jewish community, which set up a home for elderly Jews and it operated there until 1939. The Jewish population in Mikulov overwhelmingly did not survive the Holocaust and the German population was expelled in 1945.

The house was bought in 2017 by brothers Přemysl and Miroslav Kokeš from a family who had acquired it before 1948 by allocation from the Czechoslovak state. To honour the memory of the Jewish population, they named the house, which also served as a private synagogue, DESATERO. The Ten Commandments are the common law of both Jews and Christians, and the dream of both brothers was to find reconciliation and redress for ancient wrongs.

A mezuzah, Hebrew מזוזה, was placed on all the doorframes of each of the ten rooms, so that the Jewish visitors to Mikulov would have housing that conformed to their customs. Apart from the pan-painted Mannerist motifs on the beams on the first floor, an interesting feature of the house is the alley to the right of the passage, which was originally used to go to the synagogue in the courtyard.

The house is unique for its deep cellar, but also for the costly renovation and installation of a transparent roof, which from the outside looks like an ordinary clay tile. Thus, it is the only house in the Mikulov Historical Preservation Reserve that offers such wide and such phenomenal views.