Hotel Intercontinental is not a monument, the ministry has decided

Prague – The Ministry of Culture has decided that the Intercontinental Hotel in Prague will not receive heritage protection. The proposal from the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) was overlooked by the office due to problematic aspects of the building. This follows a decision available to ČTK, against which an appeal can still be filed. ČTK is gathering statements from NPÚ and the ministry.

Since January 2019, the hotel has been owned by the R2G fund, led by entrepreneurs Oldřich Šlemr, Eduard Kučera, and Pavel Baudiš, who are currently renovating it and planning changes to the surroundings. These include construction on the piazzetta next to the hotel, which is criticized by some local residents and politicians.

Several years ago, NPÚ submitted a proposal to declare the brutalist hotel, built between 1968 and 1974, a cultural monument; however, according to the previous statement from ministry spokesperson Petra Hrušová, the ministry only began addressing it at the beginning of last year. According to the institute, the monument's values include the unique solution of the building, its location in the historical core of the city, and the preserved exterior and interior elements.

The ministry stated in its reasoning that the advisory committee did not reach a consensus on granting heritage protection. The decision further states that the NPÚ proposal did not take into account the problematic aspects of the building in the context of its location in the historical core of the metropolis. The ministry stated it must assess the building as a whole, including its problematic elements.

According to the reasoning, these problematic elements include, for instance, the connection of the hotel to neighboring historical buildings of the Old Town, the riverfront forecourt of the hotel, the later addition of a swimming pool, or the raised roof of the garage on the piazzetta next to the hotel, which occupies a large part of it. "The very placement of the hotel building in a visually and significatively exposed place on the Vltava riverfront is, after all, debatable (...)" the document states.

Recently, there has been discussion in the capital surrounding the project to modify the area around the hotel, which its owners are planning. Critics are against the plan, which includes a series of modifications, particularly the intention to build a glass building on the piazzetta. Some local residents and opposition councilors of Prague 1, especially former mayor Pavel Čižinský (Praha 1 Sobě), are opposed. The city council, prompted by his brother Pavel Čižinský, who is the chairman of the representative club of Prahu Sobě in the Prague council, approved a dissenting opinion regarding the building on Monday and the filing of objections in the zoning procedure.

Representatives of the hotel owners argue against the resistance from some politicians, most recently in an open letter to Jan Čižinský. The chairman of the R2G board, Michal Smrek, stated, among other things, that the Čižinský brothers are in a conflict of interest because their mother lives near the piazzetta. The politicians have rejected this claim.

The current piazzetta was previously built up, but part of the buildings was destroyed at the end of World War II and the rest was demolished at the end of the 1960s. Currently, most of the space is occupied by ventilation and access to the hotel's underground garages, which are expected to disappear after the renovation. According to the investors, the new building will occupy 8.5 percent of the new square area. The space has been named after the director Miloš Forman since 2018.