What will happen to the current Radio Free Europe building?...

The National Museum at the top of Wenceslas Square, with the Radio Free Europe building just visible on the left.






Well, my advice would be to knock it down and build a 5-star hotel on the site. The location, at the top of Wenceslas Square right next to the National Museum, makes it one of the most attractive in the city for tourists.

That's not the Czech government's plan, though. According to today's Prague Monitor the National Museum will take it over and


National Museum revamp seen completed by 2018
By ČTK / Published 28 February 2008
Prague, Feb 27 (CTK) - The historical building of the National Museum (NM) in Prague and its new premises in the nearby building of the former federal parliament [ed. That's us] should be fully functional in 2018 when the museum will mark the 200th anniversary of establishment, NM director Michal Lukes has told CTK.

The historical neo-Renaissance building of the National Museum in the upper part of Wenceslas Square in Prague's centre was built in 1885-90 and it has never been completely reconstructed since.

The national heritage building and the reconstructed federal parliament building from the early 1970s will be connected by an underground tunnel. The new premises will extend the museum's exhibition space by several thousand square metres.

The former federal parliament building now houses Radio Free Europe (RFE) that is to leave it by March 31, 2009 at the latest when its new seat further away from the centre is to be completed.

The decision to move RFE from the centre was made after the terrorist attacks on the United States in September 2001 for security reasons.

"We would be glad if it were possible to make the (museum) complex accessible right from the metro (underground)," Lukes said.

Together with the NM reconstruction the whole Wenceslas Square is to be revitalised and the city arterial road passing by the museum is to be relocated.

Lukes said the museum also prepares a reconstruction of its depository in Terezin, north Bohemia, where all stock and libraries from the historical NM building are to be moved in 2010.

The reconstruction is to cost 4.5 billion crowns. [ed. $272million]


I'm not sure about the tunnel idea, considering that probably the most used metro station in the city (linking the green and red lines) sits underground between the National Museum and our building. And if today they are saying it will be done by 2018, my money is on completion by 2025 (if ever). I hope I'm still around to witness the grand opening.