How is contemporary Prague changing? Discover the memory of the city through the stories of those who live in it
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The same goes to the “black soul of Karlín”, the working-class Holešovice, Žižkov full of stormy student life or Smíchov, where skating was used on the undeveloped bank of the Vltava. Today everything is changing …
While there are some changes for the better, there is not much talk about the impact on the locals and how they have to deal with them.
The city’s memory, hidden in people and their stories, is disappearing. It moves to where it is still possible to tighten the rent, where it is possible to feel safe, where you can open an ordinary pub and where locals can also have a beer. What is Prague really losing? And how do today’s Praguers feel?
An old settler by a stranger
“Everyone is only interested in business, not that we can’t sleep,” says Petr Městecký sadly. The founder of the initiative He has been living in Růžová Street for several decades for affordable housing in the center of Prague. He watches the space around his house change. Not only the one outside, outside the windows, but also the one right outside the front door. Noise, clutter, everyday parties. The functioning tea room on the ground floor is alternated by a luggage shop, grocery rental scooter.
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The life of Petr Městecký and his family changed completely with the onset of the phenomenon called “short-term leases”. The mass tourism that consumes the city is a global problem and is related to a number of things.
How Prague should react to tourism, which has already begun to consume it, is also being addressed at the political level. Exactly the same number of visitors come to our capital as to Berlin, which is three times larger. And the city began to adapt to their needs.
“We used to say: we are here, butcher, post office, household goods and stationery. Then the stationery disappeared. Then household items. We were still here, butcher, post office. And today there is only a butcher and a post office. And both have an uncertain future, “describes Mariana, who for years worked in the legendary Fišer bookstore in Kaprova Street in the Old Town. It survived the protectorate, the communist regime, the wild nineties, but the current boom in tourism suffocated him.
Do you experience it too?
We took to the streets looking for quite ordinary stories. We were interested in how those who live here for years and watch all the changes of the city from afar feel in Prague today. We were interested in how these changes affect them – psychologically and practically.
Tenants, owners, small businesses, students, pensioners, families with children. They all form our “memory of the city”. We shot a series that, through intimate probes and immersion in memories, focuses on the current issues, such as inaccessible housing, massive tourism, gentrification, new development and the expulsion of the original inhabitants.
1. Old and New Town
Downtown with women crowds of tourists. Tens of thousands of people walk on Charles Bridge alone every day. Awkwardness and feelings of inappropriateness are the main feelings that the natives have. When you live in the center of Prague, tourists are everywhere. Fill in the places you consider home.
2. Smíchov
From the end of the 20th century, factories in Smíchov were gradually closed down. A number of commercial and administrative centers were established, mainly in the vicinity of the crossroads and the Anděl pedestrian zone. For example, Nový Smíchov was established on the site of the closed ČKD Tatra complex. A year earlier, the Golden Angel building was built by the French architect Jean Nouvel.
Smíchov is gradually transformed into a transport capsule. Installation of vacant launch sites that dust particles begin to suffocate the neighborhood. “Only cars and a brewery live here,” sighs Honza, one of a documentary directed by Alžběta Medková. Pensioner Zora feels the same way. It seems to her that the new development does not respect the needs of the inhabitants at all and that the people of Smíchov will soon get to know any of their districts.
3. Holešovice
Where there used to be a pitcher for beer and children peeking out from tattooed sailors, there are residences with flats worth more than ten million, which the Czechs usually can’t reach. Such a fate befell the former workers’ Holešovice, located on the banks of the Vltava.
4. Karlín
The natural part of the city is sterilized. And it carries the Roma community the most: it was the Roma who were evicted from their original homes after the floods. White collars jumped in their place. Today, Karlín is an administrative district.
It is busy especially at lunch time, when all employees of newsrooms, open spaces, startups and other similar places win on “change”. In the evenings there is peace. This is also because the previously despised and ridiculed neighborhood has become a lucrative neighborhood.
5. Žižkov
Zizkov is one of the districts with a rich history. Fighting for freedom has been going on here since the Hussite era, through workers’ movements, to the present day. Since the end of the 19th century, the rebellious atmosphere of Žižkov has been a breeding ground for a non-conformist lifestyle, rioting and bohemia.
However, not only its original inhabitants almost disappeared from Žižkov, but also “pubs”, where you would not have previously found rebel figures such as Franta Sauer, Jaroslav Hašek or Franta Gellner. Instead, there are plenty of barbecue shops, cool cafes and kebabs.