The ministry will no longer deal with the house on Václavské náměstí

Prague - The Ministry of Culture (MK) has not initiated proceedings to declare the corner building in Wenceslas Square a cultural monument. The owner of the building wants to demolish it and construct a new building in its place and on the adjacent land. The demolition of the building, which is part of the Prague conservation area, was permitted by the decision of the monument preservation department of the city hall.
   While the MK found the binding opinion of the city hall's preservationists illegal and revoked it six months later, the MK's appeal commission recommended canceling this review process. Last year, former Minister of Culture Jiří Besser did so - according to the administrative code, a review process can be initiated within two months. The owner of the building can thus begin demolition and construct a new building. However, he has not yet applied for a demolition permit.
   The final decision of Minister Besser stated that the owner of the building had “consumed the binding opinion of the Prague city hall uninterruptedly and in good faith for more than six months.” His investment could supposedly be "seriously disrupted or even completely frustrated" by the ministry's revocation of the city hall's decision.
   Many experts protested against the demolition of the building, also pointing out that the Minister of Culture should defend the interests of the state in the field of heritage conservation rather than those of a private investor. Even after the final decision of the minister, they are appealing to the MK to address the issue further. A proposal to declare the building a cultural monument was submitted, among others, by the Art History Society.
   "The proceedings (to declare the building a cultural monument) were not initiated in light of the above-mentioned facts, as after the decision of the superior administrative body (the Minister of Culture) regarding the rights of the investor acquired in good faith, such proceedings could no longer fulfill the expected effect, it could not prevent the demolition of the building," stated Jiří Vajčner, the director of the MK monument preservation department to ČTK. He added that the purpose of declaring cultural monuments is to ascertain their heritage value, not to "regulate actions according to the building code."
   However, according to some legal opinions, it is not certain that a potential declaration of the building as a monument could not prevent the demolition. There exists a ruling from the Supreme Administrative Court from 2009 that dealt with a dispute between property owners and a municipality that wanted to lead a road through their land. Only after the town plan was developed was the building in the way of the road declared a cultural monument; from the perspective of the town plan, it was a new fact and had to be respected.
   In another decision, the Supreme Administrative Court also stated that the purpose of the heritage conservation law is to protect cultural monuments, "so it cannot be seen as contrary to this purpose of the law if proposals to declare the subject building a cultural monument were submitted as one of the means to protect it".