The embankment in question, from Křižovnická Street through Křižovnické Square, Smetanovo nabrezi, the little square behind the National Theatre, Masarykovo nabrezi to the connection to Náplavka and the northern part of Myslíkova Street, is perhaps the most prominent of all Prague’s banks in terms of its location, foundation, history and architecture. From Mánes, Slovansky ostrov and the National Theatre, places that are synonymous with Czech cultural identity, past the grand buildings on the corner of Narodni trida, where the history of our republic began to be written, to the block of decorative, once luxurious apartment buildings on Smetanovo nabrezi, the place with the best view of the panorama of the Prague Castle and the Mala Strana, the Novotný footbridge with its branches into the pithy alleys of the Old Town, and on to the foreground of the Charles Bridge, now surrounded by buildings of exceptional scale and importance, the Church of St. The bridge, which is of great significance for its size and importance, the Salvatore Bridge, the Crusader Monastery with its own church, the Klementinum and finally the blocks of art colleges, to stop at J. Palach Square.
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Location
- Prague1
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Project works
- 2024
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Cooperation on projects
- Marek Tichý
- Magdalena Kurfürstová
- Hana Pokorná
By its character it is definitely an area with the internal integrity of an urban communications, but at the same time it is an area with many forms and links, defined mainly by the character of the surrounding parts of Prague. The connections to the streets of the New Town around Manes are different from the transition to the historic growing structures of the Old Town around Anenska and Náprstkova. Exceptional places of their kind are the crossing of Smetana Embankment with Narodni trida, which is itself dominant in the urbanism of the city, in addition to being extended by the Legion Bridge, with the Zitek building at the crossing of the two urban axes. And then the previously mentioned forecourt of the Charles Bridge, another important intersection with the character of a square, a view into the history of Prague and its rich architecture of many styles. At the same time one of the busiest places in the city. Of the many other locations in the area, one can point to the generously established promenade from Legii Bridge to Novotny footbridge, with blocks of apartment buildings dating from the period shortly after the regulation of the Vltava embankment and its raising.
Special attention must be paid to the phenomenon of the embankment’s elevation and its long-term impact on the city. While the decision to raise the riverbank undoubtedly had valid engineering justifications, at the same time it is certain that in many places the strong links between the city and the river were broken. With a growing effort to transform the embankment into a more livable urban space, the importance of reestablishing these connections becomes ever clearer and places are being found where it would be possible to come down to the level of the water, approach the Vltava, or wander around it for a while. Though these interventions may not lie directly within the scope of the current revitalization zone, their identification, inclusion, or even suggestion within the design is of great importance – as rightly emphasized by the Prague Institute of Planning and Development in its conceptual brief.
