The ministry declared the Máj department store a cultural monument

Prague - The Ministry of Culture has declared the Prague department store Máj a cultural monument. The proposal for this step was submitted in March by architectural historian Rostislav Švácha, among other reasons in response to the fact that the building's owner initially planned its demolition and then extensive reconstruction. The ministry concluded that the building represents a significant example of 20th-century architecture from the 1970s and shows characteristics of a cultural monument. Máj became a monument on October 2. Ludmila Kadrnková, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Culture, said this to ČTK today.
According to Jana Matoušková from Tesco Stores CR, which owns Máj, the ministry's decision may complicate the planned modernization of the department store. "Our plans, which are not yet final, only involve the reconstruction of the interior of the department store to meet the ever-growing demands of customers. Therefore, we will try to implement these plans, although it may be more complicated now," Matoušková told ČTK today.
There are not many cultural monuments from the second half of the 20th century, although many of them deserve this protection according to experts. The perception of this issue by the general public can also be problematic, as most laypeople still associate the term monument primarily with historical buildings. The declaration of the Prague Máj, currently referred to as Tesco by its current owner, could set a precedent and likely spark discussion.
The ministry's decision is not yet final; participants in the proceedings have 15 days to file an appeal from the moment they received the statement; the last of them received the delivery receipt on October 13. The property owner is also a participant in the proceedings, which were halted at his request in the summer and continued on September 1.
According to the ministry, the department store Máj is a significant example of 20th-century architecture from the 1970s, also in a European context, as it follows the architecture of interwar functionalism and foreshadows the architectural concept of the high-tech style in its interior. The ministry thus confirmed the words of the proposer. "This is a building of extraordinary historical significance. It rightly deserves the status of a cultural monument," Švácha told ČTK when he submitted the proposal.
Máj was completed in 1975, built on the site of the neo-Gothic Šlik Palace according to the design of Miroslav Masák, John Eisler, and Martin Rajniš from the Liberec studio SIAL, which was founded in 1968 by Karel Hubáček, the author of the television tower on Ještěd. According to Švácha, the architecture of Máj develops the impulses of this unique work but also responds promptly to the challenge posed by the project of the Paris museum Centre Georges Pompidou, created in 1972 by the pioneers of the high-tech style Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers.
"The facades facing Vladislavova Street showcase the contrast between the fully glazed escalator hall and the unarticulated concrete tower of the freight elevators. The department store Máj/Tesco was an exceptionally well-executed and equipped building for its time, unusually realized in cooperation with a foreign construction company," the ministry also states.
The declaration of Máj as a monument does not prevent modifications. The status of a monument only ensures that the characteristics that have already ensured its historical significance are preserved, Švácha believes. He is confident that there are architects who could design a respectful reconstruction of Máj - including the original authors.