Ústí residents said farewell to the maternity hospital building before its demolition

photo: usti-aussig.net

Ústí nad Labem - The residents of Ústí said their final goodbye to the maternity hospital building, but they could not access the demolition site in the university campus. According to Martin Krska, who organized the symbolic funeral for the building, the management of Jan Evangelista Purkyně University revoked permission to enter the construction site on Tuesday evening. Even an attempt to declare the object a cultural monument could not save the building from demolition.
    In the park near the demolished Pavilion A, several dozen people gathered in the evening, most of whom were born in the maternity hospital. "How many of you have had your childhood home demolished?" Krska asked the assembled crowd at the beginning.
    A group of local historians and architects led a dispute with the university management over the preservation of Pavilion A, who unsuccessfully sought to have it listed as a cultural monument. A new building is set to replace it, which will function as a center for natural science and technical disciplines. It is expected to be completed by 2016, with a cost of 590 million crowns.
    Originally, supporters of preserving the former maternity hospital wanted to meet directly on the campus, at the site of the demolished building. However, according to Krska, university representatives revoked their support for the event on Tuesday evening. "From the presentation of the event on the Ústí///Aussig website, we became concerned about the university's property and the health of those present," Krska read from the school's management's statement. Initially, even the rector René Wokoun promised to attend and speak at the event.
    One of the university students also presented a paper model of the maternity hospital, which he wants to spread among the residents of Ústí. The theme of the maternity hospital was also touched upon in a new song by Ústí singer-songwriter Petr Lüftner, the author of the modern Ústí anthem You Are Ústí. In his new song, he sings that the maternity hospital was demolished, so no more proper true dandies from Ústí nor amazing fashionistas from Ústí will be born.