AWM Bohemia CZ has been fined CZK 300,000 for the unauthorised demolition of part of an architecturally valuable villa in Prague’s Vinohrady district. The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) finally confirmed the sanction for an offence under the Monuments Act, rejecting the company’s complaint.
AWM Bohemia CZ, as the then owner, began demolishing the rondo-cubist villa in Na Šafránce Street five years ago. It only had permission for gradual reconstruction. An anonymous phone call alerted the town hall to the demolition. The event received considerable media and expert attention and the demolition was stopped.
The company justified its action on the grounds of the imminent danger of collapse. Cracks were said to have formed on the house during the reconstruction.
The company was fined for removing part of the building in a conservation area by the Prague City Hall’s conservation department. The sanction was confirmed by the Ministry of Culture and subsequently by the Municipal Court in Prague.
According to the Municipal Court, the owner did not act in extreme emergency when removing part of the building, the danger could have been averted otherwise, and the resulting consequence is essentially as serious as if part of the building itself had collapsed. The company reiterated in its appeal that it was only during the reconstruction that it became apparent that the state of disrepair required the urgent removal of the damaged parts of the building.
The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the appeal. It confirmed that the owner should not have proceeded of its own volition. He could have contacted the building authority promptly. “The Building Act regulates the procedure in situations where it is necessary to act immediately due to the threat to life and health, and therefore gives the building authority the power to order the removal of the building even verbally during an inspection. If the complainant had informed the building authority, the building authority could have ordered the demolition orally on the same day during the inspection visit,” the judgment reads.
The house, built in 1921 in the Svépomoc colony by architect František Albert Libra, is located in the Prague conservation area of Vinohrady, Žižkov, Vršovice. The reconstruction remained unfinished, and in the meantime the building also changed hands. Now the company Vita rosea is registered in the land register.
The half-demolished house is also on offer from a real estate agency for CZK 85 million. According to the photo documentation, the villa is missing its roof, part of the external walls and internal structures. The real estate agency presents the building as a unique First Republic rondo-cubist villa intended for complete reconstruction.
Source: CTK
Photo: realitymix.cz
