Kotva department store: They opened the display cabinet for standardization purchases 47 years ago. Customers were watched over by soldiers

The Kotva department store in Revoluční Street in Prague was created on the basis of a public tender in 1969. According to experts, this very fact was very unusual and it was probably the last echoes of the Prague Spring, which temporarily relaxed the atmosphere in Czechoslovakia. At first glance, it looks like the new department store filled the gap left by the bombed-out building during the Second World War. war. But the reality is completely different.

The Romanesque church of St. Benedict stood on the site of the department store. In the 17th century, the Strahov Premonstratensians established the Norbertinum university campus here and also rebuilt the church in baroque style according to the plans of Domenik Orsi, newly dedicated to St. Norbert. The church was demolished at the end of the 18th century due to the construction of the Novoměstské Institute of Nobles. These houses were demolished during the clean-up and replaced by a showcase of socialist consumerism – the Kotva department store, then the largest in Czechoslovakia and the fifth largest in Europe.

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The exquisite brutalism of the Machonin couple

The resulting form of the anchor was the result of an open architectural competition won by the couple Věra and Vladimír Machonin. The procedure was very unusual for that time and it was not the only peculiarity. The Swedish firm Siab was chosen to build the department store, which also worked on the Máj department store at the same time. ""The Swedish concern Siab was chosen to implement the construction. The Swedes won the contract because they were able to build the building quickly and well. They were also able to supply Western technology, such as elevators or escalators," explains Petr Klíma, author of the book "Anchors of Máje"

The Swedes were professionals and we certainly can't say that they messed around with the construction, despite the fact that they had a squash court built right on the construction site - a completely unheard of thing for that time. The doors of the largest department store in Czechoslovakia were opened on February 10, 1975, with the participation of then city and state representatives. The ribbon was cut by the head of the Prague organization of the Communist Party of Czech Republic, Antonín Kapek, who was seconded by Trade Minister Josef Trávníček. On the other hand, the authors of the project, Mr. and Mrs. Machonin, were absent from the ceremonial opening, who were displeased with the leadership of the Communist Party at the time and were so happy that they could at least carry out technical supervision on their construction.

Better goods? Just a few years...

At the grand opening, the Machonins at least mingled with the crowd. It was so numerous that it had to be pacified by soldiers from the nearby barracks (today the Palladium department store, editor's note). On 22,000 square meters, the new mall was able to serve up to 75,000 customers a day with the assistance of 2,000 salespeople.

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Enthusiastic Czechoslovaks were hoping at the time if they could get slightly better goods in Kotvo than in other stores. This was successful for a while, but over the years the offer was no longer so widespread. Tonak hats and OP Prostějov ready-to-wear continued to be available, as soon as the most common sizes were sold out, restocking was not successful. So everyone had to dream about Western electronics again. Even then, every visit to Prague was not complete without a visit to Kotva. And it was not only Czechoslovaks, but also tourists from Russia and other countries of the Eastern Bloc.

Hard blow of capitalism

After the revolution, Kotva slowly lost its charm as the largest department store in Czechoslovakia, until it lost it definitively. The unique Brutalist building also sought the status of a cultural monument for a long time. This was finally achieved after long vicissitudes in 2019. In 2020, Kotva was bought by the new owner, Generali Real Estate, for roughly 4 billion, which is planning an extensive renovation. According to earlier information, it was supposed to start last year, so far Kotva is open, but abandoned as it has been for the past 30 years.

Photogallery of 70 photographs. This is how it looked before the Kotva was built. Author: David Malík, ČTK, ČT