Prior – guided tour

Prior department store – a guided tour in English: 6 May at 3 p.m.

The Prior department store was built between 1980 and 1984 to a design by the architects Zdeněk Řihák and Zdeněk Sklepek and was considered the most modern shopping centre in Moravia at that time. It is now one of the last architectural monuments from the second half of the 20th century close to the historical centre of Brno. However, it is due to be demolished this year after several of delays. It will make way for a large complex of six buildings with offices, shops and apartments. Our guided tours provide one of the last opportunites to look around the interior of this Brutalist monument. We will go around the building, which we will enter via the cargo ramp, and visit the empty warehouses, the former employee canteen and other areas not usually accessible to the public. The tour will end in what is currently OC Dornych shopping mall. You will be guided around the building by architectural historian and curator Šárka Svobodová, who is an expert on post-war architecture, and architect Eva Truncová, co-author of the Prior_Brno Instagram profile, which maps the history and construction process of this building.

We will meet outside the entrance on the first floor terrace (which leads to the footbridge to Vaňkovka shopping mall).

The capacity is limited to 35 people. The entrance fee for the guided tour is 100 CZK.

The guided tour is held by the Brno Architecture Manual, www.bam.brno.cz, a project that is run by the Brno House of Arts, www.dum-umeni.cz