Prague will identify a suitable building for the Museum of Totality from its own property

Prague - The Prague City Hall will identify a building within its assets suitable for establishing the planned museum of totalitarianism. The city will not be purchasing the former Borůvka sanatorium on Legerova Street for the museum at this time. Councillor Jan Chabr (TOP 09) stated this to journalists today. He did not specify exactly where the museum will be located. It could be opened to coincide with the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in November. The establishment of the museum of totalitarianism is promoted primarily by representatives of Prague Sobě (PS) and United Forces for Prague (TOP 09 and STAN) within the governing coalition.

According to Chabr, the city has already identified some potential locations "These are places that have a thematic connection with unfreedom. That means places where, for example, the Ministry of Interior operated and had interrogation rooms, or those that reference unfreedom with their ownership symbols," said Chabr. He did not want to name specific locations.

In recent weeks, there have been media reports that the city would purchase the former Borůvka sanatorium on Legerova Street. However, the leadership of Prague is currently not planning to do that. "I am not in favor of the city wasting financial resources to establish an institution. It should primarily find this within itself; if that fails, then it should start looking for redundant properties from private owners," he said.

Councillor Hana Marvanová (for STAN) emphasized the importance of building the museum to help the country remember its past and not forget it. "We recently commemorated the 50th anniversary of the self-immolation of Jan Palach; this year we will commemorate the 30 years since the Velvet Revolution in the fall. We would like to establish this museum for this anniversary, to support the memory of what totalitarianism meant," said Marvanová. She pointed out that, for example, in Poland there are four such museums, while in Prague or the Czech Republic, there are none.

During post-election coalition negotiations, PS advocated for the establishment of the museum in the former Borůvka sanatorium, where Jan Palach and Father Josef Toufar died. The United Forces wanted it to be located in the basement of the former Stalin monument. This second option was also abandoned, as the leadership of Prague wants to create a space for temporary exhibitions and events in the base of the monument.