Spend a family-friendly day at Cibulka, a hidden historical manor in Prague

The Cibulka homestead in Prague’s Košíře neighborhood has an open house on May 27, starting at 2 p.m. Most of the daytime events are family-friendly while in the evening there will be concerts. The historical buildings will soon be closed for a long-term transformation into a children’s healthcare center, so this may be your last chance to see them in their current state.

The third-annual Cibulka Open event starts at 2 p.m. Divadlo Minor and Cvičenci za čárou will perform children’s theater on the main stage. A second area at the park's Chinese pavilion will have a theater by Divadýlko z pytlíčku and children's activities.

Throughout the day there will be stands for little ones to play games and participate in activities as well as stands with information about children’s health issues. The evening will have three sets of music, starting at 6:30 p.m. with jazz singer Yvonne Sanchez. She will be followed by Ondřej Ruml, who rose to fame after appearing on TV talent shows. The evening will be closed out by the pop music group Vanua2, who released their debut album in March.

The homestead in the park will soon be turned into a center for palliative care for children operated by Nadace rodiny Vlčkových, which was founded by Director of Avast Software Ondřej Vlček and his wife Katarína Vlčková, a doctor specializing in children’s care. The charitable foundation is also organizing the open day. Entry to the event is free, but people are asked to donate to the foundation if they can.

If things go according to plan, construction on the care center will start next year and it should go into service in October 2026. In the meantime, a cafe will open in the gardener’s house by the end of this year. The cafe will be near newly created summer seating and a children's playground.

As the renovations progress, the cafe may expand so that the upper floor can be used for community events. Initially, the foundation will use the upper floor for offices until more suitable space is ready. Eventually, the western half of the complex with the cafe and playground will be open to the public and the eastern half will be the hospice, open only to patients and their families.

The foundation bought the site in 2021 and has already performed roof repairs to keep the site from deteriorating further. The location is ideal due to its proximity to Motol Hospital and the green surroundings that can benefit recovery.

The Cibulka homestead and the adjacent park have a long history, going back to the 14th century when the first owner of the area was Jindřich Náz, a scribe in the court of Emperor Charles IV.

Much of its current look comes from the first part of the 19th century when Count Leopold Leonhard Raymund Thun-Hohenstein bought the estate and remodeled it. At the same time, he added classical-themed statues and follies to the park. A Chinese pavilion in the shape of a pagoda and a fake castle ruin from that era have survived.

The homestead fell into disrepair after the count died in 1826. It passed through several owners, all of whom lacked the funds to maintain it. The city took it over in 1922, but again left it to ruin, then sold it in 1987 to a private company that also never carried out plans to revitalize it. In the 1990s, it was used for counterculture festivals and events, until a mishap with a fire show caused some damage. After that, it was used by squatters who were eventually removed by police in 2015.