The building of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Prague has become a cultural monument.

Prague – The building of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Prague, designed by architect Josef Fanta, has become a cultural monument. The Ministry of Culture stated this on its website today. It noted that it is a high-quality representative architecture in the style of modern classicism and represents a valuable testimony of historicizing architecture with great emphasis on detail solutions.

The proposal to declare the building a monument arose during the evaluation of significant, yet undeclared ministerial and other public buildings in Prague, selected in connection with the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. The decision to declare it a monument came into legal effect in May.

The extensive structure on the Vltava waterfront was created for one of the ministries of the new republic. The building was deliberately designed in an archaic architectural style of neoclassicism between 1925 and 1932. The concept of the building, as well as the artistic and craftsmanship equipment, is made from quality materials in the spirit of the so-called gesamtkunstwerk, meaning that all built-in elements such as windows, doors, staircases and railings, fittings, flooring, stone and wooden cladding, wall and ceiling lights, ashtrays, partially original furniture, fireplaces, mirrors, and stained glass are part of the construction.

The prominent and dominant feature of the building is the dome, including its divisions, details, and plastic decorations. According to experts, the solutions of the eastern facade with the mass of the corner rotunda with a portico, as well as the original architectural and decorative solutions of the courtyard facades of both parts of the building, are also remarkable.

The building underwent structural modifications in 1949, 1952, 1961, 1974, and 1986. It was also partially repaired after the floods in 2002 when the basement areas were renovated. From 2003 to 2006, the attic spaces were transformed into offices and archives, with these modifications reflected in the exterior through roof windows. In 2007, the internal atrium in the western part of the building was covered. Further structural modifications occurred in 2012 after the space in the basement was vacated following the departure of the Czech Post. Despite these structural modifications, the building as a whole is preserved in a high degree of authenticity of most interior equipment and original furniture in the representative spaces, according to the ministry.

Architect Josef Fanta (1856 to 1954) is the author of several buildings or renovations of houses in Prague, primarily in the Art Nouveau style, but often also in a historicizing style. Among them is his own apartment building on today's Husitská Street in Žižkov, modifications of the Industrial Palace in Holešovice, the Main Train Station building in Prague, a student foundation dormitory on Jenštejnská Street in New Town, and the restoration of St. Wenceslas Church in Zderaz.