Leaders in Prague 8 are toughening their stance with the owner of the decrepit Palace Svět. The city now says that Antonion Crispin must either reconstruct the building or sell it to someone who will. CTK reports that Crispin has been fined in the past by Prague 8, but that this has failed to bring a resolution to the problem. “You can’t have a ruin like that sitting in tihe middle of Libeň for the next decade,” said Prague 8’s mayor Petr Vilgus, who went on to claim that the building itself has enormous cultural value. A pub made famous by the Czech literary giant Bohumil Hrabal once operated on the ground floor of the building. Vilgus is stepping up the pressure on the Italian owner of the property because the city is undertaking the reconstruction of the area surrounding it. But he seems intent on working with Crispin for the moment, rather than looking for more radical measures.
