The ugliest building in Prague they love abroad. She used to serve MPs, today the National Museum
Today, it is a busy place dominated by cars and an interesting strip of institutions, home to Wilson Station, the State Opera, the former Federal Assembly, and the National Museum. Even due to the hectic atmosphere of the place, the relatively monumental building, which today serves as the sister of the National Museum, may be unfairly overlooked. They are connected underground by a tunnel and mainly by importance. However, its history is completely different than an iconic building that ends Wenceslas Square.
Money, money
When the Money Exchange building was completed in 1937, probably no one expected how the future of this place would change radically. Architect Jaroslav Rossler created a beautiful building, which was a shame to demolish, so when the Federal Assembly was established, he won an architectural design that decided to boldly respect these undeniable qualities.
However, the idea of creating a separate parliament building still existed in Prague. It was improvised during the First Republic in the Rudolfinum building. There were many ideas and one of them planned to build a new building in Letná. The large and empty area seems ideal for this. There were even two competitions in 1928 and 1947. However, none of them took place.
When it’s we return to the Money Exchange, it is necessary to mention the year 1948when the socialist dictatorship ceased to exist and the seat of parliament moved from Rudolfinum right here. However, the communist power needed to create a monumental work for its purposes. The plan did not become a reality until the 1960s.
Prager again
The announced competition for the implementation of the Federal Assembly took place between 1965 and 1966. The winner was a prominent architect of the time, Karel Prager. He was not afraid to use an unconventional solution for a specific place. Uncompromising roofing of buildings with each other, including the original buildings of the Money Exchange, massive work with matter. He himself readable ger that builds a house above view, which is good looking.
He did not create the demanding project himself and, together with architects Jiří Albrecht and Jiří Kadeřábek, they set to work for several years. He bravely transformed the Money Exchange building and the conservationists could not object due to the political context of the building. It was not allowed to publish the building in public, nor to speak among official experts.
The target glass suspension on the facade was the largest of its kind in the world.
Karel Prager thus had complete freedom and fulfilled new visions of how architecture in general can be thought of. In part, it was based on the utopian visions of Yon Friedman, who came up with the idea of hanging cities. The procedure that Prager completed was, of course, well received abroad. At the turn of 1969-1970 he printed a photograph of the building with a prestigious article architectural magazine L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui. In general, it had a great response to the international scene, and from today’s point of view, perhaps the building attracted even more attention than Hubáček’s transmitter on Ještěd.
A completely different story
After the revolution, the building was unfairly labeled the seat of communist power. As a result, it has probably never gained much popularity with the public. The Federal Assembly was based here until 1992. Paradoxically, space was intended for the multicultural use of the building with the exhibition hall, which eventually became the hall of the House of Nations.
Since 1994, the building has been rented radio Free Europe station, which, however, moved to a new building in Hagibor in 2008. Since June 2009, the building has fallen under the administration of the National Museum.
WHERE NOW: Demolished architecture with an undeserved sticker of communism. Vaclav Aulicky and his conversion buildings