UNESCO committee recommends Prague not to demolish railway bridge at Vyšehrad

The World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recommended that Prague should not demolish the railway bridge at Vyšehrad. It also warns against further construction of high-rise buildings in the Pankrác area of Prague. This follows from the decision that the committee adopted on Wednesday in Paris at the end of its 47th session. A representative of the Czech Ministry of Culture confirmed this recommendation to ČTK.

The reconstruction of the listed building was previously recommended by an advisory mission of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS, which visited Prague last December, in response to the intention of the Railway Administration to replace the railway bridge at Vyšehrad with a new one. The current railway bridge at Výtoň dates from 1901. According to critics from the ‘Nebourat’ (‘Don’t tear it down’) initiative, the bridge suffers from neglect of maintenance.