Prague will apparently partially reopen the area around the Stalin monument

Prague - The capital city will likely partially reopen the area around the metronome in Letná based on a static assessment by the Klokner Institute, which is a specialized workplace at the Czech Technical University. Only the places where the structure is in the worst condition will remain closed. Jan Chabr (TOP 09), the councilor for property, said this to ČTK today. The entire area was closed off by the city hall at the end of last week based on a static assessment and the decision of the building authority.

"We want to keep the area accessible, but we also need to ensure safety," said the councilor, adding that workers from the Klokner Institute are currently on site identifying the most risky areas. According to their ongoing assessment, which ČTK has access to, it is possible to open the area until the final diagnosis and static analysis are processed, which should be by the end of the year. The Klokner Institute also recommended prohibiting larger gatherings in the area.

However, the decision of the building authority mandates that the city hall support the structure and, until then, make the area inaccessible. According to Chabr, the building authority only acknowledged the current ongoing assessment, so the original decision stands, and the city hall must keep at least the most risky areas out of access. The city is also awaiting the opinion of the legislative department regarding further procedures, the councilor added.

The city hall closed off the area of about a thousand square meters, which forms the roof of the underground construction, last Thursday. The building authority based its decision on a preliminary assessment indicating that some parts of the roof are in poor condition due to long-term leaking and could collapse under the weight of, for example, a larger group of people. The Klokner Institute has now stated that the assessment was based solely on a visual evaluation without more detailed diagnostics and statistical analysis.

It is still unclear what the city hall will do with the underground of the monument in the long term. The previous leadership of Prague planned to build a gallery underground, which the current one rejected. Representatives of the United Forces for Prague (TOP 09 and STAN) proposed to create a museum of totalitarian regimes there after the elections. This plan was also not approved by the city, particularly disfavored by representatives of Prague Sobě, whose leader is the mayor of Prague 7, Jan Čižinský. The underground of the monuments is currently used as a base by the company Containall, which organizes cultural events around the monument and offers refreshments.

One of the most bizarre European communist monuments was unveiled in Letná in 1955, when the era of worshiping the Soviet leader, who died in 1953, was coming to an end. In February 1956, Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev condemned the cult of Stalin's personality at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Prague's communists did not decide to remove the 22-meter-high monument, colloquially referred to as "the meat queue," until the early 1960s.