35 years ago, the Veletržní Palace in Prague burned down

Prague - A large fire that broke out in the evening hours of August 14, 1974, completely destroyed the Trade Fair Palace, one of the first and also the largest functionalist buildings in Prague. The investigation determined that the cause was spontaneous combustion of varnish. In the room where the fire started, varnishers were working with varnish that day.
    The extensive palace, with eight above-ground and two underground floors, was built between 1925 and 1928 in Prague's Holešovice according to the design of architects Josef Fuchs and Oldřich Tyl as the exhibition building of the Prague Sample Fairs. Since the 1950s, it served as the headquarters for several foreign trade enterprises. After it literally went up in flames, there was some consideration of its demolition, but after many disputes, it was ultimately assigned to the National Gallery for a permanent exhibition of modern art in the late 1970s. Its reconstruction was costly and demanding, and it was completed only at the end of 1995. Since then, it has housed collections of modern and contemporary art, and since 2000 also collections of 19th-century art.