A new church will begin to be built in Barrandov, Prague

Prague - A new church with a community center is set to be built in the Barrandov district of Prague within two years. The cornerstone of the new Church of Christ the Savior will be consecrated on November 1 by the Prague Archbishop Cardinal Dominik Duka. No new church has been built in Prague for over ten years. The Barrandov church is being constructed due to the growing interest of Barrandov residents in the activities of the local parish, according to the Prague archdiocese. Another church with a community center is being prepared for the Černý Most housing estate, said Stanislav Zeman, spokesperson for the Prague archdiocese.

The parish of Prague Hlubočepy is based at the Church of St. Philip and James in Zlíchov. However, with the growing interest of residents in parish activities, the little church has become insufficient, leading to the idea of building a new one with adequate capacity. The chosen location is where the parish previously operated a Mission Center - between Grussova, Lamačova, and Gabinova streets.

A commission of parish representatives and experts selected the Ateliér Žiška project in the spring of 2013. The main purpose is to construct a sacred space, but the building will also serve social purposes. The interior of the church will be dominated by a glass cross with a statue of Christ the Savior made of bleached linden wood and a circular chapel with a tabernacle. After the construction dries, new organs will be installed in the choir. The authors of the liturgical elements, such as the altar, tabernacle, and baptismal font, are Stanislav Kolíbal and Petr Váňa.

On the ground floor, there will be a café facing the children's playground, and in the basement with a glass wall, a community center with rooms for mothers with children, youth activities, scouts, and seniors. The social hall will be used for lectures, chamber concerts, dances, and as a film club.

The construction has an area decision from 2015 and a valid building permit from 2017, with Metrostav becoming the general contractor this year. The energy is to be provided by an ecological heat pump, for which a test drilling has already been conducted. Cut-down trees will be replaced with new ones. The construction company will be prohibited from working on Sundays and during church and state holidays.

Funding for the church comes from private donors, with one-third of the costs covered by the Prague archdiocese. Currently, there are about 63 million crowns in the transparent account.

The first church built in Prague after 1989 was the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary in Strašnice, consecrated in 1994. The youngest in Prague is the Community Center with the Church of Mother Teresa in Jižní Město, opened in 2007. A similar but smaller facility for cultural, spiritual, and social activities was created earlier in the western part of the metropolis in Nové Butovice. A church and community center in the eastern Černý Most housing estate have been planned for years, but there are still unresolved issues with land preparation, said Zeman.

While the city center of Prague has been intertwined with churches throughout its centuries-long history and the population there is not increasing, the city's peripheries are home to tens of thousands of people, and when housing estates were being developed, sacred spaces were not taken into account given the times.