Preparations for the demolition of the former Prior in Brno in November are starting

photo: František Kressa

Brno - The brutalist building of the former Prior near Brno's main train station will be demolished in the second half of this November. Preparatory work for the demolition will begin this week. The development company Crestyl announced this in a press release today, stating that it will build six buildings on the site between the main station and the shopping center Galerie Vaňkovka as part of the New Dornych project.

Before the demolition of the building, where several stores are still open, rerouting of utility networks will begin in the surrounding area. People will feel the first restrictions from August 15, when access to the outdoor part of the premises at Dornych Street will be closed. Access to the neighboring Vaňkovka on the ground floor and from the footbridge on the first floor will remain open throughout this period. Approximately 75,000 people pass through here daily.

"Tenants of the stores in the current department store have already received notices to vacate; the building should be cleared by the end of October. As for the closures and restrictions, they will be continuously adjusted as the preparatory work progresses, especially concerning the rerouting of utility networks. The actual demolition will then begin in the second half of November and will last approximately four months. This will be followed seamlessly by the construction of the new project," said Crestyl's development director Jaromír Krb.

A partially covered public space and six buildings, the highest of which will have eight floors, are to be created in the area next to the main railway station. There will be a connection to the underpass beneath the main station and also a footbridge over Úzká Street. The new buildings are expected to include 186 rental apartments, complemented by 26,000 square meters of office space and 27,000 square meters of retail space.

The buildings are designed to be environmentally friendly, which includes the use of rainwater for flushing and irrigation, energy-efficient lighting, and charging stations for electric cars and bicycles in garages and bike rooms. The total investment is expected to exceed seven billion crowns, with completion slated for 2027.

The former Prior building is one of the last representatives of the architectural style of brutalism in Brno. It was completed in 1984 and is a fragment of a much larger original project that envisioned the entire area south of the Grand bus station and included the relocation of Brno's main train station. It was supposed to create a large regional center with two department stores and a trade and services building with 22 floors. It began to be developed in the 1960s, but after the arrival of Soviet troops in 1968, it was postponed, resulting in only a modest variant being built, which was just the OD Prior.