Smíchovské nádraží: The second oldest in Prague – 160 years of existence
The station and the entire line to Pilsen and Bavaria were built in the first half of the 19th century by the Czech Western Railway Company (kk privilegierte Böhmische Westbahn), which had to deal not only with the disapproval of the owners of some plots of land, but also with the discovery of a prehistoric burial ground.
The station buildings were built in an austere architectural style with classical and romantic influences. In addition to the main one-story building, there was also an adjacent service building with a Neo-Gothic prismatic tower. The first ones the station underwent major modifications in 1888six years later the railway was nationalized and from 1895 the station was called Smíchov (but for a long time it was still called the West Station among the people).
Crowds of people
“Crowds of people and confusing rows of carriages stretched towards the Smíchov railway station, which gives a satisfying impression, although it still bears the mark of incompleteness and novelty. In the waiting room, we were surprised on the wall suspended driving order in Czech and German and printed in Slavic colors. Otherwise, the company generally issued only German tickets, the names of the stations are also only written in German throughout the track, the conductors announce the stations only in German along the entire track and also require farkarts,” wrote in the summer of 1862 the magazine Rodinná kronika of the opening of the station, which became an important a transport hub connecting Prague with western Bohemia and south-eastern Germany.
More recent history
At the end of the Second World War, the railway station was damaged by Allied bombing, it was also affected by the events of the Prague Uprising in May 1945, when three armored trains operated in its area. In the 1950s, the original station, which stood a little further north than today, was demolished without much interest and between 1953 and 1956, a new railway station was built according to the project of architects Jan Zázvorka and Ladislav Žák in the style of classicizing functionalism.
The artistic decoration of the check-in hall was created by the painter Richard Wiesner; make her a forty-meter building fresco with almost 80 figures symbolizing the Czechoslovak people at work during the construction of the country. The last major intervention before the now planned reconstruction was connecting the station to the subway in 1985.
The current train station in Smíchov will see the desired changes for the better in the future. The Smíchov terminal should become the largest transport hub in the whole of Prague. David Winter
The train station in Smíchov will be roofed in the future. Train, tram, car, bicycle, bus, underground – and possibly even river transport will meet in one large area.
Author: David Zima