Builders will start repairing the facade of the Fantova building in Prague today

Prague - The long-awaited reconstruction of the facade of the historic Fant building at Prague's main train station will begin today. The repairs, costing 212 million crowns, will be carried out by the construction company Avers. The modernization of the building is expected to take at least two and a half years. Following the reconstruction of the external part of the building, repairs to the interior spaces are also planned, but these will be part of a separate contract.

The reconstruction that starts today includes a complete renovation of the facade and roof, and will not yet impact the interior spaces. The construction modifications will be done in phases, starting with the extreme towers, followed by repairs to the wings of the building, and finally, the current state of the central part of the building will be assessed, where construction modifications were recently made.

According to the railway administration, all construction and technological procedures have been designed in accordance with the requirements of state heritage protection. The company will remove degraded and blown-off plaster and replace it with new lime plaster. All artistic elements of stucco sculptural decoration, stone sculptural decoration, and artistic craftsmanship elements made of steel will be professionally restored by licensed restorers. The repairs will also involve the removal of all non-functional elements on the building, such as steel brackets or distribution boards. The openings left by these will subsequently be bricked up. The structure of the roof truss will also be treated, new battening, roofing, and sheeting will be installed. Windows and doors will be refurbished, and the fillings that cannot be repaired will be replaced by replicas in original colors.

The reconstruction of the Art Nouveau building named after the architect of the structure, Josef Fant, was originally scheduled to be completed by 2013. However, the company Grandi Stazioni, which had rented the station since 2003, did not complete the repairs in time, and SŽDC did not extend its contract in 2016. The Italian company only managed to repair the interior of the central part with the so-called Fant café.