When parts of two buildings in Prague collapsed recently, fresh attention focused on the condition of many of this country's older structures, with experts saying such accidents are increasingly common and may endanger the public.

Since February, at least 10 buildings around the country have either become so derelict they were declared uninhabitable or have collapsed altogether.

Most recently, a large section of the National Museum's facade tumbled to the ground July 12, and four days later, a historic residential apartment building gave way while undergoing reconstruction on nearby Vodičkova street.

No one was injured in either incident, but the accidents have cause tens of millions of crowns in damage and have underscored a harsh reality: The old buildings that give this country much of its charm are suffering the consequences of poor, communist-era maintenance and decades of negligence. And the decline has only been accelerated by last winter's extreme cold, and this summer's extreme heat.

"These old buildings were quite neglected," says Vladimír Štulc, an architect and inspector with the Czech Architects' Chamber. "Basically no repairs were made over the past 40 years, so of course the scope and volume of the repairs would become too great."

In recent inspections, City Hall's Construction Office discovered 11 threatened buildings in Prague that the city will reconstruct this year, part of nearly 687 million Kč ($30.4 million) estimated as needed for reconstruction in 2006. That amount could increase as regular checks continue to uncover more buildings in an emergency state, according to Jan Kněžínek, director of cultural heritage at Prague City Hall.

A nationwide problem

A structure in Brno, south Moravia, will have to be torn down after a nearby demolition damaged it late last month. In May, tenants barely managed to escape a collapsing building in Tábor, south Bohemia.

The apartment collapse on Vodičkova July 16 is still under investigation. Tram traffic through the heart of New Town was rerouted after construction crews closed part of the street to clear debris. The collapse was "a completely exceptional and unprecedented case," says František Polák, a spokesman for Metrostav, the company in charge of the reconstruction.

The director of the National Museum sounds less surprised that a piece of statuary and part of the museum's front facade broke away, causing the temporary closure of the building's main entrance. Wenceslas Square's most visible structure has been neglected for years, and its overall safety is in doubt.

"The museum desperately needs a general reconstruction," says director Michal Lukeš. "It's only a question of time before we'll be forced to close the museum to the public. It goes without saying that there is still danger of another collapse."

Price of safety

Avoiding another potentially fatal accident is a costly undertaking. The National Museum alone needs 6 million Kč to make it immediately safe for visitors, but several tens of millions more to stave off another accident, Lukeš says.

Since 2003, the amount the city has spent repairing and reconstructing such crumbling buildings has more than quadrupled, says Jan Kněžínek, director of cultural heritage at Prague City Hall.

The totals City Hall has pledged for reconstruction efforts this year are higher than the amounts earmarked for reconstruction in the past three years combined.

The National Museum celebrates its 115th anniversary this year, but there has never been a general reconstruction of the building despite official calls for major repairs for more than a quarter of its life.

The main problem is financial: The museum was unable to push through an investment project last year that would have led to a full reconstruction.

Previous repairs came only after major damage — caused from a bombing in 1945, Soviet Army fire in 1968 and the construction of the metro in the 1970s.

One week after the accident, the government pledged a museum reconstruction project to begin next year. The project is now the focus of a public tender.

Private interests

Metrostav blames the Vodičkova collapse on communist-era oversight. "We are seeing the result of long-term servicing negligence," Polák says.

Metrostav also says the demolition of an adjacent building in the mid-1990s was partially responsible for weakening the structure.

An architectural expert for Prague Municipal Court who examined the site corroborated Metrostav's explanation for the accident, but asked not to be identified by name.

Buildings may also be suffering as a result of communist-era wheel greasing, where a wink and a bribe could help contractors cut corners and reduce stacks of paperwork.

Štulc, of the architects' chamber, says he hasn't come across anyone avoiding inspections personally, but he still hears of it.

"You still come across cases where no one supervised a building's construction," he says. "I expect that might still occur now."