UNESCO weighs in on Vyšehrad railway bridge saga
Prague’s Vyšehrad Railway Bridge, built in 1901 and granted national monument status in 2004, has long been in need of repair. But the dispute over how those repairs should be carried out have intensified since an architectural competition to design a new replacement for the bridge was held, with even UNESCO recently trying to intervene.
The organisation Nebourat’s name means ‘Do not demolish’ – and that pretty accurately sums up what the group is all about. They spoke out especially loudly when, in May last year, an architectural competition to expand the bridge from two to three tracks was announced by the Railway Administration, with the winning design announced last November. Ina Koldová is one of Nebourat’s three board members.
“The competition conditions didn’t allow for the bridge to be saved. For instance, the distance between the rails in the competition conditions was 4 metres, and the bridge itself is only 3.8 metres wide. So how can you save the bridge when the conditions don’t allow it? And that means, of course, that it’s not a competition for a new bridge, but a competition for destroying a historical cultural monument.”
Koldová explains that the bridge is in a unique location in the UNESCO-protected historical centre of Prague and an indispensable piece of the skyline between Prague Castle and Vyšehrad.
“This bridge makes a symphony with both Vyšehrad and Prague Castle. It’s part of the panoramic view from Vyšehrad to Prague Castle. Secondly, the construction itself is a very good example and a memory of the industrial development of Prague in the beginning of the 20th century. And we don’t have so many memories of this period – this is maybe the last one that remains. And thirdly, the three arches are unique in the Czech Republic.”
A petition started by Nebourat to save the bridge has almost 16,000 signatures so far, and recently the UNESCO World Heritage Centre weighed in by sending a letter to the Czech authorities asking them not to go ahead with the plans to demolish and replace the bridge.
“As UNESCO itself said in its letter to the Minister of Culture, the new bridge, the winning design, it doesn’t have the same quality – it’s just a common construction that can be used on any highway. It absolutely doesn’t belong in the historical centre of Prague.”
The railway authority claims that keeping the bridge and just replacing parts of it would be too difficult and expensive, and that the bridge as it is can’t cope with the heavy traffic – an idea which Koldová fundamentally rejects.
“The bridge deck can be reconstructed with modern technology so that it will be modern, safe, less noisy, and faster, and the arches can remain as they are. Of course, it means changing some of the most worn parts, some of the rivets, but it can be done. We have the technology, we know how to do it.
“We don’t understand why Czech engineers say no to this. I cannot imagine that Czech engineers are not able to do what engineers in Switzerland, in France, in Portugal can do. In my opinion, it’s a question of will, not a technical problem.”
At the moment, it is still not clear what the final verdict will be. Koldová says Transport Minister Martin Kupka promised an answer by the end of the year. In the meantime, Nebourat is continuing to collect signatures for its petition and trying to garner attention with a series of events – the next one being what Koldová describes as a “punk fairytale art happening” near the bridge on Saturday.
