The Senate committee proposed a review of the demolition of the building at Wenceslas Square

Prague - The Department of Monument Care of the Prague City Hall should, according to the Senate Cultural Committee, review its approval for the demolition of the building at the corner of Opletalova Street and Wenceslas Square. The committee today sided with the demands of the opponents of the demolition. According to them, the decision of the monument department and the supportive stance of Culture Minister Jiří Besser (STAN) did not take into account the views of experts. However, city hall preservationists refuse to review their position and emphasize their stance.
    "The request for the renewal of the proceedings and a new thorough discussion is justified," stated the committee's chairman Jaromír Jermář.
    According to the director of the city hall's monument care department, Jan Kněžinek, however, preservationists cannot change their positions. "There is nothing to review. There is no reason, the position is valid and unchangeable," Kněžinek told ČTK.
    In July, a group of 13 professors of architecture and art history requested the minister to renew the proceedings, arguing that the building is architecturally and urbanistically valuable. Petra Smolíková from the Ministry of Culture told senators that the appeals committee is set to decide on the request on September 7.
    Smolíková noted that Besser had to annul the negative decision of the Ministry's Monument Department due to procedural reasons concerning the statement of the Prague Monument Department. At the beginning of June, the minister defended his verdict by stating that he protected the state from a potentially costly court dispute. "I could have made it easier for myself, disregarding the unanimous recommendation of nine lawyers from the appeals committee, apparently saving the old building and being popular. However, I chose the decision that is rightful," he stated.
    The Department of Monument Care of the Prague City Hall does not consider the building, which is part of the Prague Monument Reserve, to be anything exceptional, unlike its critics. Professor Rostislav Švácha argued that the value of the existing building has been trivialized and that the evaluations were prepared by experts hired by the company that wants to build a new structure in its place. According to Švácha, the current building, a work of Bohumír Kozák, is a "valuable example of neoclassical architecture."
    Deputy Mayor of Prague, Josef Nosek, considers the debate about the demolition of the building to be pointless. According to him, a project for a new building has not yet been officially submitted. "The zoning proceedings have not been initiated, there is nothing to discuss," he stated. The head of the construction department of Prague 1, Oldřich Dajbych, added that his construction office has not yet recorded any application for the removal of the corner building.
    In addition to academics, former President Václav Havel and ordinary citizens have opposed the demolition of the historic building in the city center. In June, several hundred people demonstrated at Wenceslas Square. According to the chairwoman of the Club for Old Prague, Kateřina Bečková, 14,000 people have already signed the protest against the demolition.