Prague by design
Prague has a graffiti problem. This becomes apparent as the train pulls towards the nineteenth-century Masarykovo Nadrazi station, through the old industrial east of the city. Huge derelict warehouses, some from the communist era, others much older, are covered top to bottom in scrawls and daubs amidst collapsed roofs and glassless windows. It’s unlikely to stay this way for long, though; Prague’s answer to gentrification is swiftly transforming previously rundown areas of the city, making it worth a venture off the beaten track. For all the genteel architecture at its heart, the graffiti is a sign of a city unafraid to show discontent. Trapped behind the Iron Curtain for so long, progress was, for decades, conducted at the whim of communist governments.
