The demolition replacement of the villa in the Na Hřebenkách district was issued by the Prague 5 Building Authority on Friday, July 9, and the deadline for appeal, according to Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates), will expire on Wednesday. According to him, the appeal is already ready. “It won’t be a problem to meet tomorrow’s (Wednesday) deadline,” he said.

The Club for Old Prague or the Institute of Art History of the Academy of Sciences opposed the intention to demolish the villa. The club said the building authority’s decision to allow demolition seemed ill-considered for many reasons. He therefore considers it a moral obligation for society to achieve the declaration of this villa as a cultural monument as soon as possible, and thus to save it from demolition.

According to the club, the villa represents “Unique stylish shade” in the then Prague villa architecture, without any clear periods in other family residences from this period. The architect imprinted on it the form of an aristocratic residence, a kind of small castle, and was inspired by English villa architecture from the second half of the 19th century. According to the club, the artistic craftsmanship of the villa is unique.

The Institute of Art History turned to the mayor of Prague in an open letter to try to save the villa. According to them, art historians emphasize the irreplaceable role in the urbanism of the Na Hřebenkách residential area. “Both its location in an elevated position and its main large dimensions have given it the role of urban dominant,” they said. According to them, a substantial part of the surrounding younger buildings also responds to the building, not only by its size, but also by its architectural concept.

The mushroom repeated that the city management recommends the villa as valuable as demolition does not agree. The mayor further said that the council also agreed to submit a request for the declaration of the building as a cultural monument in cooperation with Prague 5. According to him, more requests are made to the Ministry of Culture, and petitions have also been filed against the demolition.

It is a specific building

The chairman of the municipal committee for territorial development Petr Zeman (Prague Sobě) added that inclusion on the list of cultural monuments will not automatically mean saving the villa, because in the metropolises there are monuments whose owners let them fall into disrepair for a long time. According to Zeman, the villa is specific, which will mean the need to find a suitable use for it. According to him, the politician is trying to contact the owner of the buildings, which he has not been able to do yet. He therefore asked Penta to mediate the dialogue.

Haščáková previously wrote to Deník N that she is selling a villa and the new owner wants to build another family house in its place. ČTK has not yet been able to obtain its statement.

Prague 5 states that the building authority had no choice but to allow the demolition, because the owners provided all the necessary opinions and the building is not listed. The building authority falls under state administration and the local government cannot influence its decisions. The town hall usually does not agree with the demolition and, in addition to applications for monument protection, also wants to push for the expansion of monument zones in Prague 5 to include other areas so that similar situations do not recur.