Bém says Lidové noviny got it wrong

Prague mayor Pavel Bém has rejected claims that town hall officials have proposed Vyšehrad as an alternative site for Jan Kaplický’s controversial design for the Czech National Library. The mayor’s statement came in response to an article in Saturday’s Lidové noviny which said that Prague councillors and the National Library’s management have discussed the possibility of building the so-called Octupus in Prague’s Vyšehrad district, close to the Prague Congress Centre. The futuristic purple-and-gold design for a new National Library, which was to have been built on Prague’s Letná Plain has caused a storm of controversy, with Prague town hall claiming that it would ruin the panorama of the city. Its future remains uncertain.