Prague Urban Development in the First Half of the 20th Century

The online collection PRAGUE URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY contains 52 segments from the film newsreels Deglův žurnál, Elektajournal, Aktualita, and others, which captured the development of Prague in the time between the World Wars. Prague’s transformation into a modern city began in the second half of the 19th century with the gradual removal of city walls and culminated after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. After the First World War, Prague became a European metropolis, a future functioning organism supporting the life of a rapidly growing population, while at the same time properly representing the young, prosperous republic. The previously fragmented urban agglomeration, which was largely located outside the city limits, was added through the creation of the so-called Greater Prague. The annexation of nearly forty peripheral areas (Karlín, Libeň, Žižkov, Vinohrady, Vršovice, Nusle, Vyšehrad, Smíchov, Košíře, Holešovice, Bubeneč, Střešovice, Dejvice, and others.) to the capital city’s cadastre marked the largest city limits adjustment in its history to this date. This resulted in a large city of 172 km2, with a population of 676,000 people and a steep population growth (in 1940, the number of Prague inhabitants exceeded one million).

Along with the modernisation of the city came the necessity of constructing new roads, as well as vacating city centre plots of land and thus partial demolitions of historical buildings. Although the second wave of Prague’s redevelopment didn’t come close to the scope of the first wave that affected Josefov and part of Nové Město at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, it significantly influenced the appearance of the historic centre in a similar vein. After World War I, the urban interventions mainly concerned areas with unsatisfactory sanitary conditions caused by the unregulated Vltava River, i.e. Podskalí, Výtoň, Vojtěšská and Petrská districts and the St. Agnes Monastery area along with the Na Františku area. Rare film footage from the company Bratři Deglové captured several views of old buildings around Vltava’s banks, a demolition of streets near the Powder Gate and of several buildings in Nové Město and the baroque Dientzenhofer Pavilion in Smíchov before its removal.

A segment showing the modification of the Vltava riverbed in Maniny serves as a proof of the new urban planning and regulatory solutions. Regulations of Vltava, like the closing of its arms, the removal of islands near Florenc and the completion of the embankments, facilitated a modernisation of the Holešovice transhipment point and the construction of ports in Libeň and Karlín. At the same time, they allowed for the redevelopment of the Štvanice island and, above all, construction of new Prague bridges of a width and design that accommodated the rising car and tram traffic. In addition to segments showing the construction of Libeň, Troja and Jirásek bridges, the collection also includes a segment from 1939, which informed about a project to bridge Nuselské údolí (Nusle valley). This project, alongside the planned construction of the Prague metro, was suspended due to the Second World War. Dynamic urban development was also captured in the footage of modern buildings in Na Příkopě and Na Můstku streets and on Charles Square, the construction of an arcade in the historic centre, the reconstruction of Peace Square (Náměstí míru) or the construction of a railway underpass between Dejvice and Střešovice.

The included newsreel segments offered an insight into the construction of publicly important buildings, state institutions, universities and hospitals that were centralised in the capital. For example, the new representative Ministry of Industry building located on the previously neglected land in Na Františku, the Ministry of Transport at the site of the burned down Helm Mills (Helmovské Mlýny) on Petrské Embankment and the building of the Státní plánovací komise (State Planning Commission) on the opposite bank. The area Na Františku also saw the construction of the Charles University Faculty of Law building; a building complex of the Ministry of Healthcare and Ministry of Public Works was erected close by, upstream of Vltava. Among the most important architectural projects were the realisation of the functionalist SVU Mánes building standing in place of the former Šítkovský Mill, the rondocubist palace Adria on Jungmann Square, the Trade Fair Palace in Holešovice, the Mining and Smelting Company’s Palace in Jungmannova Street, the Czech Escompt Bank near the Powder Gate (Prašná brána) and the current Czech National Bank in Na Příkopě Street. The construction of the Vítkov Memorial was a happening of national significance; its main purpose was to honour the memory of Czechoslovak legionaries and the resistance during the First World War. Of course, state funds were also directed towards health and education. For example, some newsreel segments documented the construction of the Kolonka student colony in Letná, which was built thanks to significant financial support from President Masaryk, the almost completed complex of buildings of the Bulovka hospital, the construction of the Bakula Institute in Smíchov, the French Lycée in Dejvice, or the realisation of the late purist Štefánik and Medical House for the Czechoslovak Officers’ Union in Sokolská Street.

Not even the Prague Castle was spared from the construction activities. The collection contains segments documenting the completion of one of the city’s symbols, the mediaeval St. Vitus Cathedral, which was ceremoniously completed in 1929 to celebrate the St. Wenceslas Millennium. Other film footage was devoted to the reconstruction of Prague Castle and its surroundings, showing the renovation of the Old Royal Palace, the reconstruction of its Theresian wing and the adjustments to the road and gardens near the Queen Anne’s Summer Palace (Letohrádek královny Anny). A number of new religious structures were also built in Prague during this period. This is illustrated by the footage of the constructivist Church of St. Wenceslas in Vršovice, the functionalist Church of St. Jan Nepomucký in Košíře, the consecration of the modernist The Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Our Lord (kostel Nejsvětějšího Srdce Páně) in Vinohrady, or the laying of the foundation stone of the functionalist Church of St. Agnes (kostel Sv. Anežky) in Spořilov.

The modern concept of the urban landscape of the time was related to the trend of living in family houses on the city outskirts; this is documented, for example, in a segment dedicated to the establishment and construction of the Baba settlement. A project of similarly generous dimensions was the Barrandov Hill area in Hlubočepy, with its film studios, luxury villa district and the country’s most modern restaurant, Barrandov Terraces (Terasy Barrandov). The industrial production of consumer goods led to the genesis of department stores, the subject of segments featuring construction of the Bílá Labut’ department store in Na Poříčí Street, which required the demolition of an entire block of original houses, and the completion of the ten-story Baťa department store on Wenceslas Square. Major sports venues had also become a component of the modern city. Newsreel cameras have captured the construction of the Letná Stadium, Strahov Stadium, the Sokol House (Sokolovna) in Vyšehrad and the ice rink on Štvanice Island.

The modern city as we know it today was built in the interwar period and while at a great financial cost, the foundations for its further development were successfully laid. A number of leading Czech architects of great renown contributed to the new architectural form of Prague - such as Josef Fanta, Antonín Engel, Jaroslav Rössler, Jan Kotěra, Josef Gočár, Jože Plečnik, Pavel Janák, Otakar Novotný, Alois Dryák, František Roith, Jan Zázvorka and many others.