The current look of the space in front of the garages. (source: Jana Liptáková)
A few years ago during on a journalists’ tour of the Slovak National Gallery (SNG), just undergoing refurbishment, its director general Alexandra Kusá, with a joking sparkle in her eye, said that if the old garages at the new main entrance are not demolished, they will put a label reading that it is an art exhibit. Then mayor of the Bratislava’s Old Town, Radoslav Števčík, who attended the tour himself, assured that this would not be necessary as they are working on demolishing the garages.
Today the situation is diametrically different. The garages are still standing and their demolition is no longer even being considered. The Old Town borough, in cooperation with the SNG, has restored and is planning another use for them.
“We see demolition as the first solution as a relic of the times - we believe that it has already passed,” Veronika Gubková, spokesperson for the Old Town, told The Slovak Spectator.
Gubková noted that many buildings belonging to the city or city boroughs have been demolished - for example, the legendary PKO on the Danube embarkment or just recently Istropolis on Trnavské Mýto and that it is time for different thinking, searching for new uses and functions, preserving its distinctive atmosphere. This is why the Old Town is no longer planning to demolish the garages.
