The Svět Palace in Prague 8 is still not being repaired

Prague - The Svět Palace on Elznicova Square in Libeň continues to deteriorate. The building, made famous in his short stories by writer Bohumil Hrabal, has been owned for nine years by the Italian company Crispino Real Estate. The Prague 8 city hall has no information regarding any developments concerning the building. This was stated today by its spokesperson Helena Šmídová.
According to her, the city cannot intervene because the building is owned by a private company. "The building is not in a state where collapse is imminent," Šmídová said. Crispino last contacted the city hall last summer, when they presented a study. The city council approved it. According to the plan, there will be retail spaces, a restaurant, and a café on the lower floors, and apartments on the upper levels. The company is said to be preparing an architectural project. In its preparation, it will have to take into account the conditions set by heritage conservationists as well as the city hall.
The Svět Palace is a unique structure. The building is founded below the level of the groundwater in a lead bath. This bath cracked in previous years, causing the lower part of the building to flood. The condition of the house was further worsened by the floods in 2002. According to previous reports, the owner began repairing the basement only after the floods, investing about three million crowns into it.
The palace was built in the 1930s by builder František Havlena and is named after its owner Jan Svět. In the basement, there was the Svět cinema, on the ground floor a spacious buffet, on the first floor a library, a restaurant, and a café with a terrace, while the upper floors contained apartments.
The Prague City Insurance Company acquired the palace from its first owner in 1941, which was nationalized in 1947. It was transferred to the ownership of Prague 8 in 1962. In the early 1990s, seventeen tenants of the local apartments won a privatization project for the use of the building, but no investor was found with the 15 million crowns needed for repairs. The property was then sold to Ekoagrobanka - later Union Bank, which wanted to establish a branch in the building. The current owner, the company Crispino Real Estate, which is owned by another firm based in the Bahamas, purchased the Svět Palace in 1998.