Floodwaters that have wreaked havoc on lives and property in Eastern and Central Europe have also taken their toll on many architectural treasures in Prague.

The Web site of the Architects' Journal is reporting that "thousands of priceless drawings, models, and photographs of important 19th- and 20th-century Czech architects from the Cubist and Functionalist schools" have been lost. The Journal said the "entire collection of 'unique works' for the National Technical Museum of Prague" was stored in the basement of the House of Invalids, a Baroque building in the eastern part of the city, which was deluged by the flood. "Glass cases were smashed and the collection was left covered in mud," the Web site reported.

Architects in the unique collection include Jan Kotera, Joze Plecnik, Pavel Janák, Josef Gocár, and Josef Chochol, according to the Web site, and the materials span a collection of more than a million plans, sketches, original photographs, personal diaries, letters, and plaster models of buildings.

Recovery efforts, including freezing and defrosting the documents, are ongoing.

Torrential rains that swept across central Europe caused the Vlatava River in the Czech Republic to rise and overflow its banks, taking 17 lives and causing massive destruction. Some 30,000 people have been left homeless. CNN is reporting that cultural monuments and institutions such as museums, galleries, theatres, libraries, and church buildings suffered at least $2.3 billion in damage. The network also reported that about 90 percent of the cellars in the historic section of Prague were flooded and that Prague's historic Jewish Quarter was also severely damaged.

More losses
An archive listserve (in German and English) Web site is reporting that the "Archive of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Troja is completely destroyed. The Archive of Architecture and the Military Archive at Invalidovna suffered great losses; the same applies to the archival materials of the Prague City Archive that were in the depository in Karlin and the archives of the Czech Insurance Company outside of Prague. ... At the Pinkas Synagogue (in the former Jewish ghetto) the inscriptions of the Holocaust victims will have to be restored, and at the Staronova Synagogue all the furnishings had to be removed before the flooding. In a word, it is horrible."

Prague's chief conservationist took on criticism that more could have been done to save the country's architectural resources. In the past there has been contention between conservationists and preservationists about efforts to build "anti-flood" defenses because of concerns that they would ruin the cityscape, Radio Prague reported. However, a correspondent noted that a compromise had been reached before the flooding to construct removable flood defenses. The compromise is not perfect, though. The reporter points out that had the planned defense been built, the waters of the Vltava still would have overflowed the barriers.

In more uplifting news, many collections and structures were rescued from damage. For example, Radio Prague noted that thanks to the hard work of its staff, the Prague National Gallery collections were saved from flooding.

Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.