Kotva Department Store is a

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

in Prague at the Náměstí Republiky (Republic Square). Its name, meaning

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄ� ...

in English, comes from an older neighboring building. It has been a member of the

International Association of Department Stores The International Association of Department Stores (IADS) is a retail trade association founded in 1928 by a group of department stores with the goal of introducing modern management methods derived from the scientific management movement to their ...

from 1993 to 2000.

Historic build-up area

On the site of the department store stood the Romanesque church of St. Benedict. Before the mid-13th century, there was a

commandry In the Middle Ages, a commandery (rarely commandry) was the smallest administrative division of the European landed properties of a military order. It was also the name of the house where the knights of the commandery lived.Anthony Luttrell and G ...

of Prague

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...

which had a fortress character and was related to current fortifications built in the Old Town. Strahov

premonstratensians The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

in the 17th century established a campus Norbertinum here and a baroque church was rebuilt according to plans by Domenico Orsi, newly consecrated as St. Norbert. The church was demolished in the late 18th century due to the construction of the New Town noblewomen Institute. During the construction of the department store, valuable houses from the 19th and 20th century were demolished. Due to time pressure during construction, significant archeologic areas were lost.

Construction

The Kotva department store was created between 1970 and 1975, designed by Czech architect couple Věra Machoninová and Vladimir Machonin. It was built by the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

construction company SIAB, which was at that time very unusual. The floor plan consists of multiple intertwined

hexagon In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...

s. Kotva has five stories above ground, a total of ten interconnected

escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s (two shafts of five escalators) and about the same number underground, serving as a garage and supermarket. It was intended to become a symbol of abundance and wealth in socialism. At the time of construction it was the largest department store in the

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ČSSR, formerly known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic or Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 to 29 March 1990, when it was renamed the Czechoslovak ...

. Kotva did not avoid supply problems, which showed the weakness of the country's economy. Until the 1990s, the store offered a diverse range of products, today its focus is on clothing and fashion goods.

Monument declaration

In 2007, architectural historian Rostislav Švácha suggested the Ministry of Culture declare the building a

cultural monument A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage regist ...

because it represents a highpoint in Czech architecture of the first half of the 1970s and its visual and structural concept is peculiarly dealing with the suggestions of several directions in the post-war world of architecture. A similar architectural character began to be used before the Second World War by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

. This request failed. In April 2019, Kotva Department Store became a Czech cultural monument, following a 2016 request for it to be added to the list.

References

External links

* {{Shopping malls in the Czech Republic Shopping malls in Prague Buildings and structures in Prague Tourist attractions in Prague Retail buildings in the Czech Republic Brutalist architecture in the Czech Republic National Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic 1975 establishments in Czechoslovakia Shopping malls established in 1975 20th-century architecture in the Czech Republic