The reconstruction of the memorial at Vítkov is set to begin at the end of May

Prague - At the end of this May, the reconstruction of the National Memorial at Vítkov should begin. The National Museum (NM) has already evaluated the competition for the company that will repair the memorial. In the tender, which had 12 applicants, the Consortium for the Reconstruction of the Memorial represented by the companies Hochtief CZ and Gema Art Group won with a bid of 226 million crowns. This is reported by the Monday edition of the weekly Euro.
    Work at Vítkov is expected to finish in October 2009. Afterward, an exhibition with the working title Crossroads of Czech Statehood in the 20th Century will be placed in the memorial. The design by the office Project Atelier for Architecture and Civil Engineering, led by Tomáš Šantavý, includes a café that will be created from part of the terrace.
    The history of the memorial dates back to 1882 when a society was founded to raise funds for the construction of a monument to Jan Žižka. The society's plans later combined with efforts to build a memorial to the resistance. The monument was completed in the 1930s as a memorial to the legionnaires. However, later Vítkov became a mausoleum for communist leaders.