The gigantic building, which rises above the Nuselsky Valley in Prague, was opened 42 years ago, in April 1981. It was supposed to serve primarily the needs of the ruling Communist Party. It also hosted the then Soviet leader Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. After 1989, the former American presidents George Bush and Barack Obama or the Dalai Lama spoke here. A similar building does not exist in the Czech Republic. How was it built and what does it look like inside?
Pakul, Lidojem, Moby Dick. This is also the name of the former Palace of Culture, today the Congress Center. In the bowels of the massive building standing on the edge of the Pankrák plain, 70 halls and lounges are hidden, the largest of which can accommodate almost 2,800 spectators. There are also 46 lifts. Or a gas boiler resembling a small power plant, which is capable of reaching a maximum output of 24 megawatts, which is comparable to the demands of the four-hundred-meter skyscraper Empire State Building in Manhattan.
Paving is laid on the floors of the neo-functionalist palace in such an amount (2.5 ha) that it would be enough to pave two thirds of Wenceslas Square in Prague. And the pipes from the gigantic air-conditioning machine room could easily be stretched from here all the way to Germany, they have a total length of 100 kilometers. In short, the Prague Congress Center is gigantic.
Communist President Gustáv Husák ceremoniously opened the building with huge bands of dark windows, which offer an impressive view of the capital, after five years of construction. This happened on April 2, 1981. In the middle of April, over a hundred thousand curious people crowded into the endless queues, so that after many hours of waiting they could see the novelty of the Prague panorama from the inside.
American presidents and the leaders of the USSR arrived
The Palace of Culture welcomed as the first event – just a few days after the ribbon-cutting ceremony – the XVI Congress of the ruling Communist Party (KSČ), which was then celebrating its 60th anniversary. The building was primarily intended for her. For her megalomaniacal conventions. In the end, she only hosted two. In December 1989, the composition of the first post-colonial government of Czechoslovakia took place here, in September 2000 the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank met here, and two years later NATO held meetings here. There were big names in world politics.
The huge hall in which the delegates can sit is technically unique. It has movable ceilings, walls and a stage, in short, it can handle high-quality acoustics. After all, as far as acoustics are concerned, the hall here ranks among the thirteen best concert halls in the world.
Critics of the gigantic palace from the workshop of the Military Project Institute point out that it is a nuisance that disrupts the city’s panorama, or that it requires enormous energy. And also a close connection with the communist regime. However, it is noteworthy that from an architectural point of view, according to experts, the building is a copy of a similar building that was built in the mid-1960s in the then West German Hamburg. After all, this was also admitted by one of the authors of the palace, Jaroslav Trávníček, who said years ago that he and his colleagues consciously followed best practices. “It’s not a product of architecture, but don’t let anyone tell me it’s a bad concept,” Trávníček defended his work.
Since 2014, the majority owner of the Congress Center has been the state through the Ministry of Finance, the minority is the capital city of Prague with a share of 45.65 percent. The building regularly hosts various congresses, and cultural performances are also held in its halls. However, due to the pandemic and government measures, the center had to cancel a number of events since last March. Nevertheless, the construction of another building is planned for the needs of congresses, which is to stand on the current parking lot behind the palace.
