Dec 10 2024 15 mins 4
In the late 1950s, the communist authorities came up with a plan to demolish Prague's district of Žižkov, replacing it with modern, prefabricated housing. Their plans moved slowly, and it was only in the 1970s that they commissioned photographer Pavel Štecha to document the poor conditions in the district. However, his photographs had an unintended effect: rather than justifying destruction, they helped rally preservation efforts. The compelling story is now explored in a new online exhibition by the Institute for Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, titled Předvečer Asanace (The Eve of the Clearance). I spoke with its curator, historian Petr Roubal :
