This Year, Open House Prague will Make 65 Buildings Accessible! One of them is EXPO 58
The unique Open House Prague festival will allow all who are interested in the capital city of Prague and the public space, to have a look into unique buildings - palaces, administrative buildings, modern houses as well as railway stations. These are places to which you would not normally set off to and perhaps even often during your walks in Prague you don´t even realise their existence.
In addition to the architectural experience the organisers prepared for you an interesting accompanying programme, such as guided tours of the city with notable architects or children´s workshops focusing on architecture. The aim of the festival is to stir up a debate on the look of the city in which we live. According to the Director of the festival, Andrea Šenkyříková as well as the patroness architect, Eva Jiřičná, it is precisely this issue which is very important.
What buildings will be accessible?
A list of all buildings may be found on the webpage of the festival. Among them there is for example the refurbished apartment block by the architect Kamil Roškot, the modern palace DRN at Národní třída, Kramář´s Villa, Libeň Château, Municipal Court or Invalidovna in Karlín. Links to information about the interesting buildings that we have selected from the list may be found below this article.
One of the big attractions is undoubtedly the Brussels Pavilion EXPO 58
In 1958 it was this luxurious edifice which can be found in the Prague Letná Park (Letenské sady), which represented the Czechoslovak Republic and made it famous at the EXPO exhibition. The Brussels Pavilion was built here in 1960. At that time it was a really progressive construction - for example near it there was built the first ever escalator in our country. You can admire the luxurious lines of the building and its wing supported by pillars - that certainly was not a common sight here in the middle of the last century. The interior is dominated by a well-maintained, notoriously known internal fusiform staircase with a blue mosaic.
For a full 30 years a restaurant was run in the pavilion, but in 1990 it became a private property, was closed and began to fall into disrepair. In 2001 it underwent refurbishment, but the building has long not been freely accessible to the public. However, you can visit and see this luxurious building for yourself now, thanks to the Open House Prague festival.
