During the repair of Charles Bridge, 240 stones were crushed

Prague - During the repair of the Charles Bridge, 240 historical stones were destroyed; workers threw them into a crusher at the beginning of the reconstruction. This is reported by today's Lidové noviny. According to employees of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ), the exchange of stones has diminished the monument's cultural value. Jan Kněžínek, the director of the Prague Department of Heritage Care, rejects the criticism.
    "We requested documentation of the actual construction from the contractor, which includes a record of each individual stone. It follows from this that in the first phase of the reconstruction, 240 stones were crushed," said NPÚ employee Zdeněk Chudárek, who has been overseeing the repairs since last year. Chudárek believes that among the stones were also original pieces of the so-called Prague sandstone, which was used in the construction of the bridge and its repairs between the 14th and 19th centuries.
    According to Kněžínek, however, these were only small or low-quality stones. "Often, these were also conglomerates and always stones in very poor condition, simply such junk," Kněžínek said.
    He added that the NPÚ has no right to criticize the destruction of the stones because it itself participated in their selection in the past, "Whether the director of the institute and the chief supervisory heritage expert has changed, I certainly cannot take that into account," he stated, referring to the recent management changes at the NPÚ.
    Recently, the Plzeň regional office pointed out that builders are replacing many more stone blocks on the national cultural monument than necessary. Last week, it fined the capital city 3.25 million crowns for devaluing the cultural value of the Charles Bridge during its reconstruction.