Prague wants to declare the Kotva department store a cultural monument

Prague - Prague will request that the Kotva department store be declared a cultural monument. In about two weeks, a proposal should be ready, which Prague will send to the Ministry of Culture. Jan Wolf (KDU-ČSL), the councilor for culture, told ČTK. The owner, the company Markland Kotva, is considering selling the historical building. Kotva was built in the 1970s according to the design of architects Věra and Vladimír Machonin. The first attempt to register it as a monument took place in 2007.
Wolf would like to have a proposal prepared within about two weeks to send to the ministry. "It will then decide whether Kotva will become a monument," he said. In the past, there was already one attempt to have Kotva registered on the list of monuments. This was proposed by architectural historian Rostislav Švácha, but unsuccessfully.
"After consulting with the Irish Consolidation Bank, we came to the conclusion that it is the ideal situation to sell Kotva," said Jaroslav Petrů, the director of Markland Kotva, to ČTK. "The investment market is currently very active and I am very curious about the results of all transactions this year - not only in the Czech Republic or in the EU, but also worldwide," he added. However, according to him, the whole process is still in its early stages.
Kotva was built between 1970 and 1975. The building has five above-ground floors, and its ground plan consists of several interlocked hexagons. Previously, a church and several houses stood on the site of the department store, all of which were demolished.