Kotva Department Store
| File:Od kotva 2014.jpg | |
| Location | Náměstí Republiky, Prague |
|---|---|
| Opening date | February 1975 |
| No. of floors | 5 |
| Parking | 360 spaces |
| Website | od-kotva |
Kotva Department Store is a department store in Prague at the Náměstí Republiky (Republic Square). Its name comes from neighboring older building.
Contents
Historic build-up area
On the site of department store stood Romanesque church of St. Benedict. Before the mid of 13th century, there was built a commandry of Prague Teutonic Knights which had a fortress character and was related to current fortification built the Old Town. Strahov premonstratensians in the 17th century established a campus Norbertinum here and baroque church was rebuilt according to plans by Domenico Orsi, newly consecrated as St. Norbert. The church was demolished in the late of 18th century due to the construction of the New Town noblewomen Institute. Due to the construction of the department store were demolished some valuable houses from the 19th and early 20th century and especially was destroyed archaeologically significant area, which for reasons of time could not be sufficiently explored.[1]
Construction
The Kotva Department Store was created between 1970 and 1975, designed by Czech architects spouses Věra Machoninová and Vladimir Machonin. It was built by the Swedish construction company SIAB, which was at that time very unusual. Floor plan consists of many Hexagons, which are intertwined. Kotva has five stories above ground, a total of ten interconnected Escalators (two shafts of five escalators) and about the same number of underground, serving as a garage and supermarket. After its opening should have become a symbol of abundance and wealth socialism it was the largest department store in the former Czechoslovakia. The Kotva did not avoid supply problems, which just showed the weakness of the entire country's economy. Until the 90s, there were all kinds of goods represented almost equally, however after this time, began to deal more clothing and fashion goods.
Proposal for monument declaration
Architectural historian Rostislav Švácha in 2007, suggested the Ministry of Culture to declare the building as a cultural monument because it represents a high level of Czech architecture of the first half of the seventies and its visual and structural concept is peculiarly dealing with the suggestions of several directions in the post-war world of architecture. A similar architectural character began to be used before the Second World War by Frank Lloyd Wright.[2]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Jana Nováková: Stane se Kotva památkou?, Lidovky.cz, 15. 2. 2007
External links
- OD Kotva, official website, MARKLAND Kotva a.s.
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