Antique & Vintage Postcards

Clean Functionalist lines and bold Constructivist lettering announce Zimní Stadion — Prague's Winter Stadium — in this sharp real-photo postcard from the early 1930s, a time when Czechoslovakia was one of the world's premier ice hockey nations and this Holešovice-district arena on Hlávka Bridge was the beating heart of the sport in Central Europe. Advertising banners for AHOJ caps and Savoy headwear stripe the lower facade, a vivid slice of interwar commercial culture. On the back, a previous owner has written in Czech that the stadium sits on Benátky near Hlávka Bridge heading from Holešovice on the right side, that below the building is an artificial rink, that in summer it is not used, and that only in autumn and spring is artificial ice made — but that "it is quite expensive!" The admission price for skaters is noted as 6–(illegible) crowns. A vertical note adds: "They also hold ice hockey matches there." Published by IKO, Prague II, catalogue B 1/422.