People will be able to tour the Ministry of Transport on Saturday

Prague - Interested visitors will be able to tour the building of the Ministry of Transport, which served as the headquarters of the Communist Party during the previous regime, during an open house on Saturday. The representative building on the Vltava River waterfront, which is now a cultural monument, was constructed according to the design of architect Antonín Engel, among others the author of the waterworks in Podolí, the General Staff at Vítězné náměstí, as well as the urban concept for the new Dejvice. It was completed in 1932.
Visitors will be able to see the foyer of the building, the rooms of the Minister of Transport - the office, lounge, representative and advisory rooms, meeting spaces, a gallery corridor with portraits of individual ministers, and the former apartment of Gustáv Husák. They will see the underground shelter built in the 1960s. They can view historical plans of the building or an exhibition of photographs from the floods.
In the 1920s, the Czechoslovak government decided to build three representative buildings on the Vltava River waterfront in Prague. One of them was designated as the seat of the Ministry of Railways, which then operated at seven addresses. Based on Engel's project, a monumental neoclassical building with a six-story center and three-story wings was constructed between 1927 and 1932.
The sculptural decoration was provided by Josef Mařatka, Josef Pekárek, and Ladislav Kofránek. The street is particularly captivating due to the sculptures of eagles and winged wheels, while the interior spaces showcased marble and various decorative elements. The First Republic did not spare expenses at the Ministry of Railways; the original budget was increased, and the government was accused of wasting public funds. However, the construction was successfully completed, serving the Ministry of Railways. Among other facilities, the building included paternosters, as was customary at the time, three of which still serve today.
From 1960 to 1990, it was the seat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia; after the revolution, the Ministry of Railways was renamed the Ministry of Transport and shares the building with the Czech Railways General Directorate.