Praha 6 wants to announce a competition for the design of a monument to the Prague Uprising in June

Prague – Prague 6 intends to announce an architectural and artistic competition in June for the design of a monument to the Prague Uprising. The statue commemorating the liberation of Prague at the end of World War II is set to be placed in Interbrigade Square. The square in Bubeneč itself is also expected to undergo changes. This is stated in the resolution of the council of the sixth district of Prague.

"The goal of the architectural and artistic competition is to obtain a design for the monument to the Prague Uprising within a financial limit of seven million crowns and to make modifications to the area of Interbrigade Square within an anticipated financial range of 20 million crowns," the document regarding the resolution of Prague 6 states.

The planned competition will be two-phase. In the first round, participants will propose the design of the monument, including its placement in the public space and the adjustments to the square. In October, the judging panel, which will include sculptors, architects, and urban planners, will select about five designs for the second round. The winner of the competition will be chosen by the jurors in February 2023.

Preliminarily, the monument and the modifications to the square based on the winning design could be implemented in the years 2025 to 2026. The estimated total costs for the competition are 2.9 million crowns. The teams that take the top three places in the competition will share 1.65 million crowns.

Previously, the monument to Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev stood in Interbrigade Square. The city council had the statue removed in April 2020 based on a decision made in September 2019, which also decided that the Konev monument would be replaced by a memorial to the liberation of Prague at the end of World War II. The statue of the military leader, who was involved in the liberation of Prague from the Nazis but also in the bloody suppression of the anti-communist uprising in Hungary in 1956, was often a target for vandals. The Russian embassy described it as outrageous. Czech communists, as well as Russia through its embassy in Prague and President Miloš Zeman, strongly protested against the actions of the city council at that time.