The Bubny train station has lost its heritage protection

Prague - The Ministry of Culture has decided to revoke the heritage protection of part of the Prague Bubny train station complex. Some experts on industrial heritage disagree with the removal of heritage protection in Bubny, but the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) had previously recommended its removal, as did the heritage department of the Prague magistrate's office. Jiří Vajčner, the representative of the head of the cultural heritage protection department, told ČTK today.
    The land with the two-story building of the historic Buštěhrad railway station and the railway workshops was recently acquired for 1.1 billion crowns by the company Orco, which won the tender for the sale of railway land from the Railway Transport Administration. It requested the revocation of heritage protection. The buildings, examples of minor industrial architecture, will thus likely be able to be demolished.
    "These buildings have not lost the values for which they were declared cultural monuments," stated Benjamin Fragner, the director of the Research Center for Industrial Heritage at ČVUT, regarding the anticipated decision of the ministry. He points out that the value of the site lies primarily in the fact that it is not about individual buildings, but about a set of objects that still has interpretative value. According to Fragner, it would be better for the new use of the site not to reduce the number of buildings declared as monuments.
    The ministry has not yet decided on the part of the complex with the water tower. Bubny was declared a monument only a few years ago. The same was true for the former printing house on Opletalova Street, whose protection was revoked at the request of the new owner after six years. Jan Cieslar, spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture, stated that each year around 80 property owners request the removal of their protection, and they are granted around half of the time.
    According to Orco's spokesperson Petra Zdeňková, the company is currently focusing mainly on the zoning plan. The current plan does not allow construction on the site, but the local councils of Prague 7 and the Prague magistrate support the change.
    Today, approximately 40,000 properties are declared as monuments in the Czech Republic, of which about 3,000 are technical monuments. Until the 1990s, such buildings were minimally declared as monuments, but since 2000, more industrial buildings have been declared as monuments than in the entire previous decade.