Shattered barabizna? Prague wants to buy Troja Brewery at the zoo, it offers little
Deputy Mayor Petr Hlubuček (STAN) and Jan Chabr (TOP 09, both Joint Forces for Prague), the deputy mayor, told reporters that they were looking for an effort to acquire Trojský pivovar. A hotel with a restaurant could be built in the building adjacent to the south-eastern part of the Troja Zoo. The management of the Prague Zoo wanted to build another entrance and souvenir shop there before. Theoretically, beer production could also be resumed.
According to Hlubuček, the owner (since 2012 the company Trojský pivovar, sro) demands 105 million crowns for the building, but the city offers only 75 million. A letter of rejection is being prepared at the municipality, but he nevertheless stated that Prague is still interested in the building due to its location right next to the zoo and will continue to negotiate with the owner.
The municipal house can pay more
According to the municipality, the municipal company Obecní dům, which manages the Art Nouveau monument of the same name in the city center, ends up in profits every year and therefore has free financial resources, in addition it would not have to follow expert opinions and could pay a higher price. Such a variant was already on the table during 2017.
“We are not on the free market, we must act with the care of a proper manager and so that there is no precedent for the future when buying more real estate,” said Councilor Chabr, adding that Prague had expert opinions prepared. “And you talk about a price 20 to 30 percent lower than the owner demands.”
The marasmus of real socialism
Miroslav Bobek, director of the well-attended Prague Zoo, wrote about the Troja Brewery as early as 2013. But most people seem to have completely displaced him. At the same time, it is a historically valuable object, which is much larger than it might seem, and which has its undeniable poetry, “said the head of the Prague Zoo in the introduction to the Facebook text.
The brewery was probably established at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, and in 1885 it was one of the largest enterprises of its kind in our country – 11,000 hectoliters of golden liquor were brewed annually. Then there was a distillery and later a dairy. After the Nazi occupation, they turned the historic Communist buildings into a warehouse in the Bílá labuť department store in 1973.
“If someone wanted to illustrate the marasmus of real socialism, the Troja Brewery could be a good example,” Bobek said, noting that in 2002 the building fell into disrepair for ten years.
Now, in the summer, the Troja Brewery serves – as in the past – community gatherings, the empty house and the entire complex have awakened to new life. In the yard there is Art and food ZOOna, ie according to the operators a unique concept of exhibition and sales areas. Visitors will find “a pleasant industrial place to relax, where quality gastronomy blends with culture, entertainment and art.”
Weddings are held here, for example. People can bring good coffee or refresh themselves with wines from Italy, mixed cocktails, homemade lemonades and also beer specials from the nearby Bubeneč Brewery on ubiquitous pallets. But maybe in a few years they will be tapping local beer directly from Troja.