Švácha complains about delays in declaring monuments

Prague - Architectural historian Rostislav Švácha complains to Minister of Culture Vítězslav Jandák about alleged delays that his officials complicate the declaration of proposed buildings as cultural monuments. In addition to his previous experiences, Švácha is based on the current position of the ministry regarding his proposal to declare the Prague department store Máj, now Tesco, as a monument. Officials informed him that they could not initiate proceedings because the proposal lacks certain data, such as the exact numbers of the land plot on which the building stands.
"I think the public is quite eagerly waiting for a debate on the monument value of relatively young buildings, but the ministry prefers the path of bureaucratic obstructions and demonstrations of power," the historian believes. Delays in declaring modern, but also older buildings as monuments have often resulted in their irreparable damage or complete destruction in the past.
The reason for submitting the proposal was also the discussion about the alleged intention of the Tesco owner to demolish the building and construct a new one. The owner now only talks about a renovation. More generally, however, Švácha and other experts are concerned that modern architectural monuments are being ignored. While historians have the support of the broadest public for older buildings, constructions from the last 50 years are not perceived by people as monuments, even though they are often unique structures.
Just like Máj, Švácha proposed last year to declare the Ještěd department store in Liberec, which also belongs to Tesco and which plans to build a new structure after its demolition, as a monument. He was unsuccessful, while he managed to succeed with four buildings - the Ještěd transmitter, which became a national cultural monument last year and is aspiring to the UNESCO list, the building of the Federal Assembly, a hotel building in Prague's Invalidovna, and the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry in Prague's Petřiny.
The Ministry of Culture responded to Švácha in March, stating that the proceedings regarding Máj could not be initiated because the proposal contains inaccuracies and does not include certain data. "Therefore, colleagues from the Heritage Preservation Department urgently requested the National Heritage Institute to obtain this information," said the ministry’s spokesperson Ludmila Kadrnková to ČTK. The ministry will initiate proceedings as soon as it has all the necessary information available, she added. The maximum deadline for a statement in particularly complex cases is 60 days - without possible interruptions in the proceedings, which are very common, says the spokesperson.
"My previous proposals also contained the same 'inaccuracies,' for example regarding the tower at Ještěd or the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, and yet it was possible," Švácha counters. He perceives the actions of the Ministry of Culture staff as "a bureaucratic obstruction that restricts the legal right of citizens to submit proposals for declaration as monuments."
"The protection of monuments of recent architecture represents a serious problem in heritage preservation throughout Europe. My proposal to declare Máj as a monument could have served as a suitable impetus for debate, and that is how the professional community, including the director of the National Heritage Institute, understood it," says Švácha.
He is convinced that for every historical period, there should be a representative sample of buildings preserved as a testament to the era. "I assume that there could be about 20 from the 70s and 80s," he believes. In addition to the Ještěd department store in Liberec and the four mentioned monuments, he would also like to preserve the Prague buildings Kotva and the House of Housing Culture. However, even with modern monuments, it is necessary to differentiate - Švácha and other experts are completely dismissive of the Congress Center.
If the situation with monuments from the second half of the 20th century is complex, the area of technical monuments is also demanding. And if the buildings are not protected, they suffer from inappropriate renovations or completely face extinction. "Only a minimal number of representatives from the interwar industrial architecture are listed, primarily bridge structures or significant railway buildings, and from the second half of the 20th century, it is only the transmitter at Ještěd," said ČTK spokesperson Simona Hradilová.
In Prague, the Libeň Bridge, a work of one of the most significant Czech architects of the 20th century, Pavel Janák, from the 1920s, is soon to be demolished. The Ministry of Culture did not grant monument status to the bridge, arguing that declaring it a cultural monument would lead to "the devaluation of the significance of this act for truly exceptional buildings." The municipality intends to construct a new and wider bridge on the site of the existing one.