Megalomanská highway in the middle of Prague. How the Communists built the incurable scar of the city
These are sad pictures looking back. The life of Prague without the North-South Highway is like a scene from a fairy tale. You would not know the historical drawings and photographs of IP Pavlova Square. The highway in the city center makes sure every day that there is basically no state opera for the citizens and originally the main entrance of the Central Station.
The city has become concerned with how to cultivate this transport hub, but the solution is more of a utopia, because such a deep scar of Prague is difficult to heal.
Moscow to Prague
The Communists never resisted a radical solution. Whether it was architecture or politics. Several Czech cities have experienced absurd buildings of the Priorities in the middle of the historic square, so why not build a straight highway in the middle of Prague?
It should be noted that in the past there were several transport plans, which are now a common part of the Prague highway. Specifically, it was a bridge over Masaryk railway station or the construction of the Nuselský bridge.
The way in which the center of Prague was literally cut during the seventies, was definitely not planned. The highway, modeled on Moscow, has permanently damaged much of the New Town, the surroundings of Wenceslas Square and the district around Florence. The historic buildings also had to give way to the megalomaniac construction.
Buildings in retreat
The symbol of the radical cut was the demolition of one of the most beautiful railway stations in Europe. Těšnov enjoyed great popularity mainly due to its unique architecture. However, nothing was sacred to the communist building plan and the historic building had to go to the ground. In the same way, the children’s ones had to be demolished hospital in Karlov and “Modern” in Pankrác.
The most visible scar on the beauty of the original Prague is the liquidation of the large boulevards around the State Opera, the National Museum and the Central Station. The radical transport hub has contributed to the transformation from a cultural place to an inhospitable place where isolated social inhabitants have long gathered.
Rescue on behalf of the city circuit
The walk in the immediate vicinity of the north-south highway seems hopeless in many ways. Over time, many ideas have been developed to transform the place so that a pedestrian and driver symbiosis can arise. This is a superhuman task in a place where 100,000 cars pass daily. But most often they ride on a tunnel that he hid underground, you know how tunnels turn out in Prague.
The environment of the Prague highway also lacks the basic elements that would at least in some places sufficiently humanize the space.
IPR has already embarked on a similar concept and Prague has at its disposal the result of the work of the renowned Danish architectural firm Gehl architects. It works with cultivation parks and the area in front of public buildings, where people should and want to stay. In recent years, the new management of Prague has succeeded in humanizing and opening the space connecting Prague’s Vinohrady and Wenceslas Square.
In addition to the successful revitalization of the space around National Museum over the years, the crossing can also be used and thousands of people do not have to walk through a small, dark and ugly tunnel under the highway. He recorded a similar intervention within the widened sidewalk that leads from Vinohrady to the Main Railway Station.
However, the basic factor of potential change remains the fact that the Prague Ring Road is not completed. When that happens, the North-South Highway could also shut down its operations, which would lead to its narrowing and overall humanization. Some parts of Prague could thus change in a place where one likes to go and does not pass them by self-denial and almost only runs away from them.
Source: Czech Television, IPR Prague, Z Metropole
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