Petr Vrabec’s photo report: Peculiar emergency colonies of Prague
The Prague emergency colonies began to emerge at the beginning of the first Czechoslovak Republic. As today, there was a shortage of affordable apartments in Prague, and so on the periphery began to grow on their own, without permission and illegally, shacks and houses. From waste material, from retired wagons… There were many such illegal settlements during or during the First Republic in Prague. Their remains survived many tumultuous decades, although all regimes sought to destroy them. In the colonies Na Slatinách and Pod Bohdalcem, the locals have managed to protect this bizarre island in the middle of the European capital from developers or authorities.
From the end of the 1920s, there was a rich social life in the local colonies. They had a cinema here, and an amateur theater was played in the U Řeháků pub. It had up to fifty “actors” and the audience was five hundred. There were grocery stores and pubs in the colony. People gathered here in various cultural and political associations. The locals were used to helping each other. There has been a building closure for the local colonies since 1999. And this is one of the main reasons why so many buildings are falling into disrepair and public greenery is untidy.
Out of viewfinder
I fell even more in love with the colonies with a captivating atmosphere after an excursion led by Csilla Barkász, who wrote a diploma thesis about them. I heard a lot of historical attractions and human stories from her. It is not known that a film was made here General school. Zdeněk Svěrák lived not far from here as a child. Unfortunately, despite the resistance of the people, the film school was already razed to the ground. It was replaced by a guarded parking lot.
For me, colonies are places that have resisted the outside world for almost a hundred years. Where the poor and rich live, educated and uneducated. Natives with seasonal gardeners and the homeless. Isolation, government attacks and the diversity of the population have forced them to cooperate, reciprocity and solidarity. They used to build a cinema, a pub, a school, a chapel and a dwelling here a long time ago. When I wander through the colonies, I don’t forget that it’s not a zoo or a tourist attraction, I don’t take pictures of anyone right away. During the second wandering, the natives invited me for a spring visit – when the gardens come to life and the epidemic situation improves. What will happen to the knife colonies next? Prague 10 is creating a project, perhaps a city park or a residential area. But the locals certainly can’t do without a fight. After all, Karel Čapek is already in the short story On Rafanda (as it was formerly called the colony Nad Bohdalcem) wrote: “They have no water and they say they want to close the only well at the station. But Rafanda will not escape, she has established herself and will continue to grow on the slopes of Bohdalc. “
December 20, 2021 • 16:04
December 2, 2021 • 17:51