House of Trade Unions - Prague, Czech Republic - Photos Then and Now on Waymarking.com

Dum odborových svazu (House of Trade Unions), the former Všeobecný penzijní ústav (General Pensions Institute), is one of the view points of Winston Churchill Square of the Prague´s quarter Žižkov.

House of Trade Unions was built in place of the former Prague Municipal Gasworks. However, the Žižkov gasworks was pulled down due to modernization process and the first Prague skyscraper was raised in its place – the palace of General Pensions Institute. In 1929, the pension insurance act was issued and so a decision was taken to build a completely new building which would serve this purpose.

The construction with a cross layout was fragmented and designed according to the slope of the plot. It was exceptional for that period that the northern and western wings were designed to have eight storeys, the eastern and southern even thirteen. The construction works of Všeobecný penzijní ústav started exactly on April 1st, 1932. The ceremonious opening took place two years later. The construction of the institute was unique not only because of its appearance but also due to the costs which exceeded more than sixty millions of the contemporary crowns.

Dum odborových svazu is tiled by small, light, ceramic plates. Due to the small plates the building got a nickname kachlíkárna (tile house). There are about seven hundred offices behind the walls of Kachlíkárna. From 1951 the functionalist building was used by Ústrední rada odboru (Central Trade Union Council), later by Revolucní odborové hnutí (Revolutionary Trade Union Movement), and currently it is the residence of Ceskomoravská konfederace odborových svazu (Bohemian-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions.

Year photo was taken: 1945

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