Staletá Praha 37, 1/2021, 2-85 | DOI: 10.56112/sp.2021.1.01

Urban Planning of Podskalí Quarter in Prague in the Last Third of the 19th Century

Josef Holeček¹, Josef Holeček ml.²

¹ soukromý badatel, CZ-110 00 Praha 1

² ČVUT v Praze, Fakulta architektury, Ústav teorie a dějin architektury, Thákurova 9, CZ-166 34 Praha 6-Dejvice

Based on urban plans of the last third of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century the study analyses building morphology proposed for historical Prague territory, mainly the Podskalí Quarter in The New Town, where the comprehensive rebuilding process commenced and lasted the longest. Its advanced level preceded the development in other Prague areas. In addition to the early plans based on 1864 building regulations, the study focused on neglected layout plans following the 1886 building regulations for Prague and adjacent municipalities, especially on a completely unknown major layout plan of 1888, which regulated most of newly built buildings, sanitation included. The traditional descriptions understand period urban planning as a priori, schematic concept of house block formations. However, the rebuilding process was more layered. Regulations often complicatedly followed each other; in Podskalí, for example, there are about ten rebuilding layers. At the same time, at certain periods, the tasks have been addressed in variants. The complicated search for the definitive urban shape was strictly bound by period law and aimed mainly at the creation of a continuous street network, derived in principle from Prague historical ground plan, which differed fundamentally from adjacent municipalities outside the walls. The influence of period competitions was limited; the dominant role was played by engineers of the city building office, who also were the winners of the most important period urban competitions. Particular attention is paid to morphology of the most comprehensively rebuilt, sanitised territories, and to typical Prague urban features brought to the historical space by this epochal task. Especially, the street infrastructure is monitored, forming of corners and diagonality in the plan in confrontation with plans emerging outside the authority, especially with later proposals by known architects for the front of the Emmaus Monastery, rejecting the existing logic of urban planning. This is a single section where the original layout plan was replaced by authorial urbanism according to the design by the architect Bohumil Hypšman.

Keywords: Prague - New Town - 2nd half of the 19th century - Podskalí - Emmaus - Emmaus Hill - Emmaus block - Palacký Riverfront - Palacký Square - Na Moráni Street - Palacký Bridge - historical ground plan of the city - city urbanism - sanitation urbanism - rebuilding - building regulations - layout plan - rebuilding plan - building lines - sanitation of Podskalí - Josef Václavek - František Bulíř - Alfred Hurtig - Bohumil Hypšman

Published: June 15, 2021