Pražská městská pojišťovna Building

Welcome to the heart of old Prague. You are standing in front of an impressive set of buildings that dominates the outskirts of the Old Town Square and continues deeper into the Salvatorska Street. In front of you, there is a building that, by its appearance, is impressively connecting the period of the new Baroque and Art Nouveau elements. It is a place where the trade ambitions of the last century meet with high art construction. Feel its power and the way it fills space in one of the oldest parts of our city. Now let's stop at how this building came into being and why it actually stands here. The whole complex was built in the years of a thousand eight hundred ninety-nine to a thousand hundred ten. The Prague City Insurance Office was established here at that time. Imagine, then, that financial matters, contracts and claims from citizens and entrepreneurs across the region were previously addressed in these walls. Architects Osvald Polívka and František Roith were responsible for the design and implementation of this ambitious project. The first part of the construction, the facade towards us, speaks to us from the end of the 1990s to the foreign century, while the residential building in the Salvatorska Shell was completed only in the year 1000-ten. Later, in the year one thousand three hundred thirty-three, the complex continued to expand with new wings that served as offices and garages. Now please pay attention to the architecture itself. Look carefully at the front of the building. Note the rich plastic decoration that decorate the surfaces and gives the construction depth and dynamics. This decoration is not only a decoration, but it expressed at that time the prestige and stability of the institution that was based here. If you had the opportunity to look inside, you would feel the greatest admiration looking at the courtyard. It is unique in its engineering solution, specifically thanks to the use of metal construction, which at that time was a very modern and courageous solution which enabled the creation of a spacious and bright interior. The insurance company is no longer in the building, but it has become the seat of the Ministry of Local Development of the Czech Republic, which confirms its permanent administrative and state importance. But if we look deeper into history, we'll find that the creation of this complex wasn't without drama. The names of personalities such as Vojtěch Frič or Vladimír Srb are connected to this building. Why? Because the construction was created in the so-called Prague rendering. This was an extensive process of rehabilitation of the city centre, in which old, often in-house buildings were removed to create new, wider streets and modern houses. In this particular place, however, the rendering meant the collision of three historic houses. This caused strong protests at the time, especially from the Club for Old Prague. People rebelled against destroying the city's authentic tissue in favor of modern administrative palaces. It was a clash of two worlds: one that wanted to preserve the memory of the past, and the other that aimed at modernising and developing the metropolis. And this is where we come up with the most interesting detail that you might miss at first glance. Look again at the west side of the facade. Notice how it's designed. The architects have taken a very strange step here. The western part of the facade deliberately mimics the appearance of one of the demolished houses, namely the Golden House. It's a fascinating paradox. A building that was created at the cost of demolishing old houses, in one part of it, seeks a visual citation of what it helped to remove. It's an architectural compliment to the past, or perhaps an attempt to ease the criticism that accompanied the construction. It's a quiet dialogue between new and old, written right in stone and plaster. When you stand before this complex today, you see the result of the ambition of the turn of the century. You see a building that carries a trail of controversy, as well as the peak of the then technical championship in the field of metal structures and plastic decoration. It is a place that reminds us of how the face of Prague changed and what sacrifices were made in the name of modernization. Now I'm going to invite you to take a closer look at the building, walk past its facade, and try to replenish the missing houses that once stood here. Then you can continue to explore the narrow streets of the Old Town that surround you. Thank you for your attention and I wish you a pleasant continued journey towards the mystery of Prague's history.