Desirious spirit

The author of the Grand book about Liberec spoke out quite clearlyin his narration – Liberec will never be pretty. As if the disregard for the existing cultural and historic monuments was encoded in its genes. The construction of new buildings usually doesn’t aim at the completion of the whole but oftentimes at the demolition of the old. In Liberec, the new doesn’t follow up on the old (there are of course a few exceptions). The city seems incomplete and disharmonious. Roman Karpaš likes to point out that while today’s inhabitants like to complain about the booming construction of shopping malls and the shameful neglect and disregard of the city’s historic buildings, the German inhabitants of the inter-war period treated the city in much the same way. Is it possible that there’s something like a spirit of the city? And if so, is it truly only about the reckless making of money? Testimony was gathered within the Living Memory of Liberec – Reichenberg project.