Pankrácké Square was established in 1931 and since then it has borne the same time. It recalls the previous settlement of Pankrác, i.e. a group of houses aggregated around the church of St Pankrác in the beginning of 19th century. In 1854 the Pankrác settlement was unified with Nusle in one cadastral village. By act dated on 31st December 1898 Nusle was promoted a town straight from the position of settlement. The name of Nusle – Pankrác disappeared and the new town, named Nusle, was joined to Prague in 1922.
A great battle, which went down in history as a Battle of Vyšehrad, occurred in the area of the present Pankrácké Square on 1st November 1420. An attempt of King Zikmund to release the beleaguered fortress ended in defeat of his army, compounded from Hungarian, Czech and Moravian noble units. At the same time the local settlement of Krušina was destroyed, which had been there since the end of 12th century.
Now, the area of the square is divided by numerous motor and pedestrian roads. The north-south trunk road is passing through there. It happened after spanning the valley in Nusle. Nusle Bridge, named the Bridge of Klement Gottwald at that time, started to be used on 22nd February 1973. The bridge is two-level and underground of route C is going through the lower storey. The designers were Vojtěch Michálek, Stanislav Hubička and Svatopluk Kobra.
The shape of the Pankrácké Square and of the whole foreland of the Nusle Bridge was finally changed by construction of the Palace of Culture, nowadays the Congress Centre. Its designers were Jaroslav Mayer, Antonín Vaněk, Josef Karlík and Vladimír Ustohal. The grandiose building of the palace was ceremoniously opened on 2nd April 1981 and then on 6th -10th April the sixteenth meeting of KSČ took place there
