Although the construction of accommodation facilities in Piešťany has a long tradition, Hotel Magnólia emerged as the first significant hotel building realized forty years after the construction of the interwar hotels Excelsior and Eden.
The design documentation for Hotel Magnólia was prepared by the staff of Lignoprojekt Bratislava in the studios of its branch in Liptovský Mikuláš under the leadership of architect Anton Cuninka. The design team conceived the hotel on the right bank of the Váh River as a high-rise structure with a separated ground floor and nine storeys of guestroom accommodation, topped by a usable roof terrace. The load-bearing structure consists of a monolithic reinforced-concrete frame with brick infill, which represented a relatively exceptional solution for hotel construction at the time of its realization.
The Type A hotel, located in the city center with an adjacent riverside beach along the Váh River, had a capacity of 198 beds. Together with its restaurant, café, and Heroid Bar, the hotel was primarily oriented toward hosting congresses, seminars, and various social and cultural events.
Within the total investment cost of 30 million Czechoslovak crowns, the exterior of the building was executed using high-quality materials that have largely been preserved to this day, most notably the travertine cladding and original balcony railing elements. At the time of its opening, the building was equipped with a progressive automated kitchen, whose refrigeration units and kitchen machinery were exhibited by Swiss companies at the International Engineering Fair in Brno. Architect Cuninka collaborated on the interior design with architect Vladimír Kotas and a number of visual artists.
At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, the hotel underwent a major interior renovation based on a design by architect Šulík. Despite the extent of the alterations, several valuable original elements were preserved, most notably the staircase with exposed stringers and decorative railings, as well as the monumental wall painting by František Gajdoš in the restaurant interior. A later significant intervention in the exterior was the construction and roofing of a swimming pool in the space between the high-rise structural volume and the lower operational wing of the building.
Bibliography:
Projekt. Bratislava: Sväz slovenských architektov, 1977, 19(2-3), p. 14.
Piešťany. V Piešťanoch: Mestský národný výbor, 1974, 10(6), p. 5.
Piešťanský týždeň: nezávislý regionálny týždenník. Piešťany: Regiss, 2009, 19(27), p. 15.
