In recent years Bratislava has lost a number of historical industrial buildings and preservation activists are now concerned that the capital could lose another site called Cvernovka, several buildings on Páričkova street nearby the main bus station where thread was formerly produced. The Club for Protection of Technical Historical Monuments, the Bratislava Otvorene initiative, the Design Factory and other organisations concerned with architecture and protection of historical monuments have called on Bratislava mayor Milan Ftáčnik as well as Dušan Pekár, the mayor of the Ružinov district, and other city representatives to take steps to preserve this historical site, the SITA newswire wrote.

The Cvernovka property recently changed hands when Sekyra Group, a Czech developer, sold the site to JF Hamilton Group, a French firm.

“Based on recent media information, it [JF Hamilton Group] plans to build apartments, stores and offices on its property,” the preservation groups said, adding that “the firm does not count on preserving historical objects apart from one, the main manufacturing building, which has protected status.”

The developer plans to begin construction work this March, according to the organisations.

The organisations say Slovakia’s Monuments Board, by proposing in 2007 to declare four of the buildings on the Cvernovka premises as national cultural monuments, has acknowledged the buildings’ value. However, the Culture Ministry only declared the main building as a national cultural monument at that time.   

The Club for Protection of Technical Historical Monuments has challenged the ministry’s decision before the Monuments Board.

The set of buildings from the Uhorská Cvernová Továreň factory date back to 1903 and are framed by Páričkova, Svätoplukova, and Košická street and preservationists claim they are an almost completely preserved industrial urban area that documents the technological sequence of production at the factory.

The preservationists regard the buildings to be a unique historical monument and say that Bratislava has already lost important industrial monuments such as the Kablo, Danubius-Elektrik, and Gumon factories and a tobacco factory from the first half of the 19th century.

“Cvernovka is an ideal premise, which due to the type of production it previously housed, can easily be adapted to new uses,” the preservationists stated.

Caption: Preservationists want to save the Cvernovka buildings.
Photo: Sme – Gabriel Kuchta