The proceeds from the sale of the last 50 reliefs from the former Prior in Brno will go to charity

Brno - The proceeds from the sale of the last 50 concrete reliefs by Brno sculptor Miloslav Buříval, which until recently adorned the brutalist building of the former department store Prior at Brno train station, will be used to support the operation of the children's hospice Dům pro Julii. This was reported by the hospice spokesman Pavel Kachlík in a press release. The building is now being cleared out and is set to be demolished at the beginning of next year.

The sale of the concrete reliefs measuring 1.5 meters by 0.5 meters was organized in cooperation with the construction company responsible for the demolition by architectural historian Šárka Svobodová. "I greatly appreciate our cooperation with the construction company, which despite the challenging handling of the reliefs withdrew from their destruction and made them available to the public. This is a valuable work by a living Brno artist that will thus remain preserved in many homes and public spaces. Personally, I consider the demolition of the former department store Prior to be an unfortunate solution as such, however, I am glad that at least through these artworks, the memory of this place will be preserved," said Svobodová.

There was enormous interest in the reliefs, which weigh at least 60 kilograms, and hundreds of people applied for them, but only 70 of them were able to obtain one. They had been sold for a symbolic price of 1000 korunas each.

Due to the immense interest, construction company representative Vladimír Grendel decided to support the Brno hospice by selling the last 50 pieces. The price for charitable purposes has been increased to 5000 korunas and they will be available for sale on Friday, December 13, starting at 9:00 AM in the delivery courtyard of the former department store on Úzká Street. The panels cannot be reserved in advance; people must wait in line, pay the sale price in cash, and then they can load their panel and take it away.

The demolition of the Prior building itself will begin in January and will last four months. Immediately after, construction of the New Dornych project is expected to start. A partially covered public space and six buildings, the tallest of which will have eight floors, are to be built in the area next to the main train station by 2027. There will be a connection to the underpass under the main train station and a footbridge above Úzká Street. The new buildings are expected to contain 186 rental apartments, complemented by 26,000 square meters of office space and 27,000 square meters designated for shops.

The former Prior building is one of the last representatives of the architectural style of brutalism in Brno. It was completed in 1984 and is a fragment of the original, much larger project that dealt with the entire area south of the Grand bus station and envisioned the relocation of the main train station. According to the original project, a large regional center with two department stores and a shopping and services building with 22 floors was to be created. The project began in the 1960s, but was postponed after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968, resulting in only a more modest version being built, which was the department store Prior.