The gallery in the base of the former Stalin monument in Prague will not be

Prague - There will be no gallery in the base of the former Stalin monument in Letná. Prague has withdrawn from the memorandum with the National Gallery regarding its establishment. Hana Třeštíková (Prague Together) said this to ČTK today. The space will remain freely accessible, the base will be repaired, and only temporary events will take place there. According to director Jiří Fajt, the city's decision did not surprise the NG. The gallery is still ready to assist the city with cultural events.

The memorandum was approved by former councilors under the leadership of then-mayor Adriana Krnáčová (ANO). She wanted to have a study made for 50 million CZK on the use of the base and subsequently build a gallery. At that time, Prague 7 and the Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA) opposed this.

"We annulled the decision of the former leadership of Prague and abandoned the memorandum based on the coalition program declaration. All three parties (Pirates, Prague Together, and United Forces for Prague) agreed that we do not want any permanent structure there. It is not a building; it is still just a base," Třeštíková said.

The space, where skateboarders gather or where Prague residents and foreigners stroll, must remain freely accessible, according to her. "We will focus on ensuring that the base is repaired so it doesn't collapse. Inside, only temporary installations will take place," Třeštíková said. If the intended gallery were to be established in the base, it would also significantly change the character of the Letná park, which, according to the councilor of the coalition party, they do not want.

"We have discussed this with the new leadership of Prague. I do not insist at all that there will be an NG there. We extended a helping hand to ensure that there is an adequate cultural program in that area and we will, of course, support any activity, regardless of who it is with, that the new leadership of Prague brings. For the NG, this is not a problem at all," said NG general director Jiří Fajt to ČTK.

Krnáčová justified her approach by the dilapidated state of the monument. In August this year, for example, a girl fell into a shaft here. A cultural and educational center was to be created underground, divided into four parts. One of them was to be the main exhibition hall, then a space for presenting the history of the site, including unrealized proposals for modifying the edge of Letná, another hall was to represent the communist totalitarian regime. The last one would serve the street art community.

The city magistrate's intention was criticized by the leadership of Prague 7 in September this year, when mayor Jan Čižinský (Prague Together) labeled the actions of the then city leadership as an attempt to build a monument to the mayor. According to ČKA, Prague's approach was also inappropriate.

One of the most bizarre European communist monuments was revealed in 1955 after six years of construction, when the era of venerating the Soviet leader, who died in 1953, was nearing its end. In February 1956, Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev condemned the cult of Stalin's personality at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Prague communists only decided to remove the 22-meter high monument at the beginning of the 1960s.

In the early 1990s, cultural events were held in the spaces inside the base. The largest was the exhibition Totalitarian Zone, during which Radio 1 started broadcasting from the monument's interior, initially pirate-style, then as Radio Stalin.