Gardenline will carry out the planned modifications to Prague’s Lesser Town Square for the Prague City Hall for CZK 84.4 million.. The award was approved Monday by Prague councilors. The price is about ten million crowns higher than expected, which according to the municipality is given by the current situation on the labor market. After the modifications, the parking lot is to disappear from the upper part of the square, the sidewalks are to be widened and, conversely, lanes for cars are to be narrowed. The city expects to start work in the spring of next year.
According to the approved document, the aim of the modifications is to return the square to the original purpose of the meeting place. A new fountain, benches and other furniture will be placed in the area and trees will be planted. According to the municipality, the project tries to preserve the historical appearance as much as possible, including the original lamps, paving, plague column and hand pump.
Work will begin in the spring at the top of the square, between the Liechtenstein Palace and the Church of St. Nicholas. They will continue downwards, and will include another archaeological survey. Work in the very lower (eastern) part of the square, ie in the part along the tram line and between Grömling Palace, Malostranská beseda and Sternberg Palace, will be carried out in 2023.
“We can look forward to a completely finished square at the turn of 2023 and 2024, it will also depend on the course of the archaeological work,” said Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (TOP 09). He added that archaeological research is necessary due to the planned replacement of engineering networks. The city will coordinate the work with the Prague 1 Road Authority so that there are no problems with the passability of the square, he added.
The resulting price is higher than the city originally expected, which, according to the municipality, is also due to the fact that the contract was announced at the time of the emergency. It can be assumed that this increase is due to the current situation on the labor market – rising labor costs, shortage of workers, costs associated with the state of emergency, government measures, etc. The announcement of the contract was approved by the city council in May last year.
The municipality based its preparations on the project with which the architects Martin Hájek, Václav Hájek and Petr Horský succeeded in the international architectural competition in 2014. In 2016, the city canceled the parking lot at the bottom of the square and tried to hold cultural events there, but without much public interest. The city also reconstructed the tram tracks on the square, around which it placed new paving, which will be placed throughout the area after a complete overhaul.
The Radecký Praha Association, with the support of the City Hall of Prague 1, is working to return the equestrian statue of Austro-Hungarian Marshal Radecký, which stood there between 1858 and 1919. According to Hlaváček, the city administration now does not count on it, will be. “We thought about it, if in the future some political representation wants to place a monument there, then there is a space where there are no networks. But the reconstruction itself will not take any steps for that,” he said.
Prague has started or is preparing modifications to other public spaces. Last spring, work began on the reconstruction of the lower part of Wenceslas Square for CZK 326.6 million. There are also plans to make adjustments to the top, for which it is not clear when they will begin. The transformation of Charles Square, George of Podebrady Square and Victory Square is also being prepared for a long time.
Source: CTK
