Heritage conservators are preparing a proposal to declare Thermal a monument

Prague - The National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) is preparing a proposal to declare the Thermal Hotel in Karlovy Vary as a cultural monument. "The proposal is being prepared by the regional expert workplace in Loket based on the recommendations of the Commission for the Protection of the Cultural Heritage Fund created in the second half of the 20th century," said NPÚ spokeswoman Jana Tichá to ČTK today. The proposal will be sent to the Ministry of Culture, which will decide whether to initiate the relevant proceedings. The hotel, known as the venue for the film festival, belongs to the state, which plans to sell the hotel pool and has previously mentioned the possibility of selling the entire hotel.
    The Thermal Hotel building, along with the Kotva and DBK department stores in Prague or the Czechoslovak embassy building in Berlin, is one of the most famous projects by architects Věra and Vladimír Machonin. Their work included designs for sofas, dining glassware, lighting fixtures, and graphic elements, which they collaborated on with leading creators (Libenský - Brychtová, Jiří Rathouský, or René Roubíček).
    Thermal is one of the icon buildings of the 60s and 70s, whose values are slowly gaining social recognition. It was precisely to appreciate and rescue buildings from the second half of the 20th century, which often suffer from condemnation related to the period of their creation in a socialist regime, that the aforementioned Commission for the Protection of the Heritage Fund of that time was established.
    The list of immovable cultural monuments in the Czech Republic has over 40,000 entries, but most of them consist of sacred buildings or noble residences that people consider as monuments. Only in recent years has the state begun to declare modern architecture as monuments, but so far, the cultural monuments from the second half of the 20th century constitute less than one percent of the entire list. Properties declared as monuments include some in Prague and Brno, but there are very few such buildings declared in smaller towns.
    Among modern architecture, the Žižkov freight station has been declared a monument, but the ministry has repeatedly not declared the Havířov station. Last year, the Axa Hotel in Prague became a monument, and NPÚ experts would also like to ensure the heritage protection of the Lesná housing estate in Brno. However, people tend to remember certain buildings only when they are under threat.
    The Thermal Hotel could also seem to be endangered, as the state plans to sell its pool, which the authors say is inseparably linked to it. The outdoor pool is one of the symbols of the spa town, and the entire hotel is a symbol for Czech cinema, as it was created for the hosting of the international film festival following the successes of the Czech New Wave in the 1960s.
    Finance Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) already during his January visit to the hotel, referencing the loss of the pool, declared the idea of selling the pool. Last year, the hotel’s management and director changed several times; the current executives approve of the sale of the pool and would also agree to the new owner dismantling it to build something else in its place. Besides the pool complex itself, the state is also selling the surrounding land. The only criterion for the sale will be the purchase price.