A remarkable event – the General Global Exhibition, was held in the Capital City of Prague in 1891. On that occasion an extensive new site was built at the border of Holešovice and Bubny cadastre. The site consisted of many buildings both big and small. Some of them were permanent, but others faded into obscurity after the exhibition was closed down. The Industrial Palace was a central dominating feature of the site. The building was later called Congress Palace as it held many Communist party conventions such as the well know convention held on 22nd February 1948, which passed the resolution requiring nationalization of factories and companies with over 50 employees.
The pseudo-baroque building mainly consists of a mighty hall construction of vaulted steel girders and of two long lateral wings designed by Architect Bedřich Münzberger and Ing. František Prášil. The credit for the work of art was shared by Architect Bedřich Ohmann and Alois Dryák and also for the title of the main exhibition with architect Antonín Wiehl. The first Czech-Moravian factory for machinery in Prague took care of the successful completion of the complicated construction of the Industrial Palace.
The Front silhouette of the palace is supported by three towers also made of steel. The central tower is clearly dominant. It has a four-square shape consisting of four corner pillars merging into a domelike roof and finished with a clock. Its metal circular stairs lead up through the central opening space to the dome. The gallery of the tower is 45m high whereas the top of the pole reaches 52m high. The St. Wenceslas crown, which was on the top, was replaced by a red star during the past regime. The tower was open to the public during the General Global Exhibition.
