60 years ago, the World Expo Expo 58 began in Brussels

Brussels/Prague - The World Exposition Expo 58, officially opened by Belgian King Baudouin on April 17, 1958, focused mainly on two innovations of its time - atomic energy and space travel. The superpowers, in particular, sought to win the public over to the ideas of the peaceful use of atomic energy, and it is not a coincidence that the dominant feature of Expo 58 became the 110-meter-high model of an atom - the Atomium. The Brussels exhibition also played a significant role in the cultural history of Czechoslovakia.

The center of the Czechoslovak exhibition was a pavilion designed by architects František Cubr, Josef Hrubý, and Zdeněk Pokorný. The sober building of the pavilion, shaped like an inverted L, was composed of three windowless cubes and clad in yellow panels adorned with mosaics made of amber glass. The pavilion, much like the entire exhibition in Brussels, became proof that even during the decade behind the Iron Curtain, Czechoslovak culture and industry did not lose contact with the world.

In Brussels, the cinematography celebrated successes - the audience was captivated by the Polyekran, that is, the simultaneous screening of films on several screens of various shapes, the brand new Laterna Magika, and the film by Karel Zeman, The Invention of Destruction. The latter won the main prize at the international film screening in Brussels. At Expo 58, Czechoslovakia achieved an unexpected success: alongside thirteen other awards, its exhibition received the highest prize in the overall evaluation - the Golden Star.

During the six months, 42 million visitors attended the Expo. Although most Czechoslovaks could not visit it, the exhibition significantly impacted their lives. The aesthetics associated with the Brussels exhibition practically dominated the 1960s. The pavilion itself was relocated to Prague, where it remained one of the landmarks of Holešovice Exhibition Grounds until a devastating fire in October 1991. In Prague - specifically in Letenské sady - the semi-circular restaurant Praha also came to an end (after 1989, it became the headquarters of an advertising agency).