Functional Use of the Area of Prague Castle with Emphasis on the Normalization Period

This paper deals with individual typological types and units in the Prague Castle area. It also focuses on the urban and historical development, as it is significantly influenced by the situation in the period under study. It focuses more closely on the period of the second half of the 20th century, and especially the period of normalization - the 1970s and 1980s. Prague Castle was and still is the seat of the monarch, or today the President of the Czech Republic. The historical context has had a considerable influence on the shape of the Castle (the succession of ruling personalities from different dynasties, the transformation from the position of the seat of the Habsburg monarchy and therefore the most important center in Central Europe to the position of the summer residence of the ruling family, etc.). Also unprecedented is the concentration of the main buildings of secular and ecclesiastical power in one area. The castle is a huge complex, combining morphological assumptions with the result of the work of a huge number of people. A number of foreign artists worked here, reaching world-class standards and both understanding and supporting the local genius loci. There are also many contrasts - political and constructional. For example, the imprints of monarchy and republic, church and secular power, ancient and modernist architecture, contrasts between the smallest buildings of houses and the largest palaces. On the basis of archival research and the study of expert literature, the reader is introduced to the progressive changes in the layout of the Castle complex and the associated changes in the functional use of the buildings and spaces in the aforementioned complex.