Prague will apply for the declaration of the Anchor as a monument in the first quarter of 2016

Prague - The leadership of Prague wants to send a request to the Ministry of Culture in the first quarter of next year for the inscription of the Kotva department store as a cultural monument. The city is currently determining whether to request protection for the entire building or just for certain parts of it. This was stated by councilor Jan Wolf (Troika/KDU-ČSL) to ČTK. Kotva was built in the 1970s according to the designs of architects Věra and Vladimír Machonin. The first attempt to register it as a monument took place in 2007.
"It is clear that the overall architectural concept of Kotva, its original honeycomb shape, and especially the facade are considered very valuable," said Wolf. The intention to protect Kotva as a monument was announced by the councilor this September.
The magistrate now has a study available on options for protecting the department store as a monument. "There is a strong opinion that interior solutions also deserve monument protection. A discussion is currently underway about the scope of protection," said Wolf. He wants clarity by the beginning of the new year. "In the first quarter of 2016, the documents with the request to the Ministry of Culture for the inscription of certain parts of Kotva, ideally the entire structure, will be sent as a national monument," he added.
In the past, there was already one attempt to have Kotva listed as a heritage site. This was proposed by architectural historian Rostislav Švácha, but unsuccessfully.
Kotva was built between 1970 and 1975. The building has five above-ground floors, and its floor plan consists of several interlocking hexagons. Before the construction of the department store, there was a church and several houses on the site, all of which were demolished.