The reconstruction of Clementinum will begin at the beginning of the year

Prague - The reconstruction of Prague's Klementinum could begin in January. It will be divided into four phases, with the library management initially wanting to renovate the areas vacated by the National Technical Library, the Baroque Library, and the Mirror Chapel. The first phase will cost 400 million crowns, and the selection process for the construction company will conclude by Christmas, said Pavel Hazuka, the general director of the National Library (NK).
    While the National Library already has the building permit and the approvals from all institutions for the first phase of the work, the extent of further modifications to the historic Baroque complex is not entirely clear. Original plans, which included demolishing the wide entrance from Platnéřská Street or tearing down the services hall, were criticized by some architects and preservationists. They even labeled the plan as a whole as "fundamentally inappropriate."
    Therefore, the library management decided to partially change the intention. The services hall should be preserved, and underground garages may not be built. Cars could be parked in the parking lot that the city council plans to construct under Mariánské Square.
    The National Library will probably also abandon the plan to break through the large entrance from Platnéřská Street, which would be about 40 meters wide and over two floors high. "It is similar to the proposal (of the late architect Jan) Kaplický. Many people like it, and for many, it evokes very, very negative reactions," said Hazuka. Although Kaplický's proposal for the construction of a new headquarters for the National Library won the architectural competition in 2007, it met with strong disapproval from Prague politicians, so the library officials could not implement it.
    However, Hazuka has not entirely given up the idea of building a more representative entrance. According to him, visitors to the library could enter from Platnéřská Street through smaller entrances that would lead to the covered Theater Courtyard. From there, elevators and stairs would lead to other parts of the Klementinum. Hazuka aims to have all approvals in place by the end of next year.
    The reconstruction of the Klementinum is expected to last until about 2017 and will cost around two billion crowns. The repairs are intended to modernize the complex, with new study rooms, exhibition spaces, and facilities for students and professors of Charles University being created. The NK plans to continuously modify the Klementinum. "The operations of the National Library must continue, even if perhaps under somewhat more modest conditions," said Hazuka.
    Simultaneously with the modifications to the Klementinum, the National Library plans to expand its depository in Hostivař. For 400 million crowns, spaces should be created to solve the capacity problems of the NK. "The Klementinum is gradually filling up and filling up. Today, it is filled with books from the basement to the attic," noted Hazuka.
    After the expansion of the depository, around 2.5 million books, primarily historical volumes and frequently borrowed works, would remain in the Klementinum, according to the NK director. Approximately four million copies, mainly from the modern era, would be stored in Hostivař, including the so-called National Conservation Fund. This fund preserves one copy of each title printed in the Czech Republic since 1935.
    A digitalization workplace should also be created there for an additional 400 million, with the task of gradually converting all the NK's collection into electronic form. The capacity of the expanded depository is expected to be sufficient for 30 to 50 years. The NK must annually store about 40,000 book items and several tens of thousands of newspapers or magazines.
    The previous management of the NK wanted to solve capacity problems by constructing a new building in Letná according to Kaplický's design. Hazuka already considers this site to be unusable. The so-called blob was supposed to be built alongside the Blanka tunnel complex, according to him.
    Kaplický reportedly did not agree to place his design in a different location, according to Hazuka. If his heirs, who own the rights to the "octopus," changed their minds, the reconstruction of the Klementinum would still be necessary, believes the director of the National Library. The expanded warehouse in Hostivař could then be used by other cultural institutions that have storage difficulties in Prague.