Memory of the city

We are continuing to develop a guide to the invisible layers of the city through the use of people’s original stories from various points in history.

In collaboration with the Prague 7 municipal district and the City of Prague Museum, we hope that in the spring of 2017 we will be able to start placing plaques on local buildings with information on each building’s history. These “stories of the 20th century” – information on the lives of the buildings’ owners, tenants, or architects – will eventually be included in various guided walking tours, each with a different theme. Over time, we intend to expand this broad-based project in order to systematically explore these peoples’ paths beyond the borders of today’s Czech Republic. Working with historians, schools, and survivors, we hope to seek out and complete the personal stories of the people who lived in this part of town.

At the same time, we have begun working on an electronic guide to these places. The application, which will be tied in to the memorial’s permanent exhibition and educational programs, will offer visitors several walking routes illustrating the fate of the city’s former inhabitants. These routes are illustrated through the use of old photographs, films, artworks, commentary, and literary citations. Visitors hear about the “peaceful lifestyle” of interwar Prague through the stories of Jewish, Czech and German families, including the relationships between these communities. The drama culminates with the wartime journey of the deported Jews and the postwar expulsion of Prague’s German population. The loss of the city’s identity is accentuated by its faded glory.

The project is being put together in collaboration with historians, urbanists, and teachers. In the future, the same approach may be used to create similar guides presenting the traditional cultural and social life of Prague’s Jewish population. To this end, we anticipate the creation of guides for Prague’s Old Town and the Vinohrady neighborhood.

The project’s initial phase will focus on the neighborhood immediately adjoining Bubny station.

A prototype application for electronic media devices has already been completed and is now awaiting completion of the permanent exhibition. We are currently working on the form of the exhibition Memory in the Street of Prague.