The winter stadium on Štvanice has served sports and entertainment since 1932

Publisher
ČTK
28.05.2011 11:20

The business card of the winter stadium at Štvanice, whose demolition started today:

The Štvanice winter stadium was opened to the public on November 6, 1932 (construction began in the summer of 1930). It is the oldest facility of its kind in the Czech Republic and former Czechoslovakia.
The design of the stadium was created by architect Josef Fuchs, one of the designers of the Prague Trade Fair Palace. The ice surface was divided into two parts; the larger one was used for hockey, while the smaller one was for public skating. The stadium also featured a café, a warming room, changing rooms for athletes, a gym, and accommodation for two teams. The stadium received its roof only in 1956.
In 2000, the stadium was declared a cultural monument.
Even before its official opening, on January 17, 1931, the first match on artificial ice in the then Czechoslovakia took place at the unfinished stadium - a game between LTC Prague and a university team from Canadian Manitoba was watched by around seven thousand spectators, and the radio broadcast was commented on by popular reporter Josef Laufer.
Several generations of hockey players and figure skaters grew up at the stadium, including the famous figure skater Ája Vrzáňová.
Overall, Štvanice was the venue for four World Championships - 1933, 1938, 1947, and 1959.
In February 1955, the first television broadcast of a hockey match in Czechoslovakia was aired from there. The team from Prague faced the Swedish club IF Leksand. Initially, only two-thirds were to be broadcasted, but enthusiastic phone responses from viewers prompted the television station to air the entire match.
The stadium underwent its last major renovation in 1968; later, it began to deteriorate, with individual sections ceasing to serve their purpose and gradually closing. In August 2002, the stadium was devastated by flooding, and operation was resumed in November 2002. The costs of reconstructing the machine room and facilities of the stadium were about 21 million crowns.
In October 1997, the council of the Prague city assembly (Prague is the owner of the stadium) decided to lease the stadium to the company APeX CLUB o.s., which reinvigorated the sports facility at a cost of approximately 15 million crowns. This January, the construction office in Prague 7 ordered the stadium to be closed. The decision was justified by the poor condition of the building, in which part of the roof had collapsed. In February, a court ruled that the APeX CLUB association must vacate the building because the rental agreement is invalid. The city hall took over the keys to the winter stadium in early April.

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