Park Maniny Starts This Year: Prague Digs Down to Let the Vltava Back In

Work on Park Maniny is due to begin this year, CAMP reported on 21 August, with completion set for 2035. The park will occupy the ground between Hlávkův Bridge and the tip of the Libeňské kosy — part of 56 hectares along the right bank of the Vltava's Prague meander that currently holds a concrete plant, one of the city's oldest allotment colonies, the A2 cycle route, the Přístav 18600 cultural venue, the Rohan City office park and a good deal of urban wilderness.

The design and how it was chosen

The scheme comes from the Belgian-Czech team OMGEVING + FIŠER + VRV + ŠINDLAR, which won an international competitive dialogue run by IPR Praha with Prague City Hall. The dialogue was launched in spring 2022 and drew thirteen multidisciplinary teams from around the world; a jury shortlisted four, drawn from studios in Belgium, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, which developed parallel proposals. The winner was picked in May 2023.

The brief was unusually specific about its own doubts: it asked the teams to test an earlier plan to excavate the site and cut a new channel, and to find the most appropriate approach given current land ownership and available funding. The output is not a single park design but a pair of documents — a study for Park Maniny and a concept for Rohanský and Libeňský ostrov as a whole.

"The leitmotif that guided us from the beginning was the river. […] We want the Vltava here to become what it is for Vyšehrad or Prague Castle, what it means for Troja and Stromovka. Right now the river in Karlín and Holešovice is asleep."

— Michal Fišer, architect and co-author of the winning design

Digging down

Rohanský ostrov really was an island until the 1930s, when river regulation removed one of the Vltava's arms and the ground gradually merged with the city. The terrain then rose further: in the 1960s spoil was dumped here from around Prague, including from metro construction. That history is what the design attacks.

"Today's terrain lies relatively high above the level of the Vltava. In the 1960s soil was brought here from various parts of Prague, among other things in connection with metro construction. One of the key steps will therefore be lowering it, which will create room for water to spread during floods and at the same time bring people closer to the river. Part of the flood-protection measures will also be the restoration of a lateral river arm, which will return here after roughly a hundred years. Water will flow through the park's territory and rejoin the main course of the Vltava in front of Libeňský ostrov."

— Martina Bauerová, architect, Public Space Office, IPR Praha

The city's stated aim is a natural flood park that strengthens Prague's flood protection while restoring the connection between city, people and river. Those two goals are usually in tension; here they resolve into the same earthwork.

What people will find

The existing cycle path becomes a green promenade, with new terraces stepping down to the water. Activity concentrates around Libeňský Bridge, where the design puts sports pitches and a river swimming area, with residential terraces and a lagoon for bathing closer to the Vltava. An orchard is added; the allotment colony on the Libeňské kosy, among Prague's oldest, stays. Towards the kosy the park deliberately gets quieter and more natural, keeping the urban-wilderness character. The concrete plant's structure is to become a cultural centre once production ends — a landmark for the whole site.

Delivery is in three phases: site preparation and parkland along Rohanský ostrov street first, then the central section, then the riverfront. The final form will continue to be refined with landowners, local associations and other actors already operating there.

The neighbours

Three further projects adjoin. UNIT architekti have prepared the concept for the Libeňské kosy to the east. Downstream, IPR is working with JK ARCHITEKTI and Rehwaldt Landscape Architects on the Povltavská promenáda around Povltavská street, Pelc-Tyrolka and the Rokytka; the city council approved that strategic study in 2022.

The third runs straight through the park. The Libeňské soumostí reconstruction includes a new inundation bridge to let floodwater pass with minimal obstruction — but work stopped in September 2025 after the competition authority prohibited performance of the existing contract, finding that TSK had changed the project fundamentally from what was tendered. Per CAMP, the latest version called for demolition and a replica in place of the reconstruction originally planned.