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Making the most of the riverfront

Plans in works for a promenade inspired by Paris and Amsterdam

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 1st, 2007 issue

Anthony Robins/The Prague Post
The embankment is currently an overlooked piece of real estate, used mostly to load passengers of riverboats.
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COURTESY PHOTO
Prague 1 Town Hall's vision of a hotspot promenade to rival those of major European cities.
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Four years ago, as Prague 1 Councilor Filip Dvořák strolled the edge of the Seine in Paris, he noticed that the riverside promenade was a hit.
Back home in Prague, his Vltava was lined by a lonely, low-lying area that stretched along its right side.
“That area used to be a horrible-looking area like a trash heap, often flooded, and there was mud. A lot of building companies were using that area to dump old, used building materials,” Dvořák said.
For the past few years, he’s been trying to change that image. His plans to transform the Vltava’s banks into a lively riverside promenade are now taking shape. Four stands in what will eventually be a 5-kilometer (3-mile) long promenade opened July 26.
When complete, it will run from Vyšehrad to Štvanice Bridge.
“We would like more harmony between the river and the city, to bring the river closer to the people,” Dvořák said.
Prague 1 Mayor Petr Hejma envisions the same. “People will be coming here to experience the life of the city,” he said at the promenade’s opening ceremony, during which roving musicians played Moravian music and the 75 or so people in attendance drank slivovice and champagne.
Hejma said he hopes the riverfront one day will be as alive as Old Town Square.
Plans for the promenade, which should be completed by 2011, are inspired by documents Dvořák obtained from Paris and take ideas from other European promenades like those in Berlin, Vienna and Amsterdam.
Cafés, restaurants, beaches, souvenir stands, crafts stands, playgrounds, performance spaces and other venues will line the river. A bike path will also run the length of the span. Restrooms, too, will be added.
The hours will be 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. during the week and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends.
Supporters of the project hope the developments will continue a long-standing relationship between Prague citizens and the Vltava.
“Even back in the old days, the lives of the citizens of Prague were always connected with the river,” Prague 2 Mayor Jana Černochová said during the opening ceremony.
Private project
Despite the heavy involvement of City Hall in making plans for the riverbank, no city money is being used to build it, according to Pavel Uher of Parking Praha, the company financing the project.
The city agency Technical Administration of Communications (TSK), which handles transportation infrastructure in Prague, is leasing the embankment to Parking Praha. That company is, in turn, leasing spaces to Taiko, which runs the Christmas stalls on Old Town Square. Uher would not specify how much this is costing Taiko, only calling the amount “reasonable.”
TSK is charging 1.2 million Kč ($58,600) for the embankment this year. That number will rise to 1.8 million Kč in 2008 and 2.3 million Kč in 2009, according to Tomáš Mrázek, a spokesman for TSK.
Taiko is in charge of renting the promenade stands. So far, four stands have been rented and 20 vendors are on a waiting list, according to Petr Benáčan, sales director for Taiko. About eight more stands will be added in the next few weeks.
The stands are being planned to reflect the unique domestic crafts available, and will not sell, for instance, the Russian babushka dolls that pack other souvenir shops here, Benáčan said. Almost all the crafts will be Czech. “We are not in Russia. It doesn’t belong to us,” he said of such items.
Benáčan said he hopes to have 80 percent of the promenade covered by the end of this year. Starting in November, a Christmas fish market will be opened and may remain open if popular, he said.
In 2011, a water tram will run between ports planned for Holešovice and Libeňský Island, according to Černochová.
“I hope [the promenade] will run forever and that the life around the river will develop and modify,” she said.
— Naďa Černá and Hela Balínová contributed to this report.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com


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