Stalin Plaza - Prague

Stalin Plaza. Ink on Canvas. 11" x 17". The spot is at the pedestal of what was once the world’s largest Joseph Stalin monument. Construction began in 1949, with it ultimately being unveiled in 1955 (the designer of the monument committed suicide right before completion), only to be demolished by the Czech government with 800 kilograms of explosives in 1962. The space would become a pirate radio station after the fall of communism in the early nineties, in addition to the location of Prague’s first-ever rock club, all while keeping the name of the twentieth century’s second most notorious psychopath. (The park’s official name is Letna Park, but apparently, nobody calls it that.) It is hard to find info on exactly when skaters pried the loose marble slabs out of the stairs and created ledges, but it can’t be much later than around then. For a sixty-year-old park with almost three decades of skate history on its corners, Stalin Plaza is in AMAZING condition. For one, the locals take care of it. All the modern names synonymous with the spot — your Roman Lisivkas, your Marek Zapraznys, other guys you’ll recognize depending on how deep of a dive you’ve done into the @stalinplaza account on Instagram — show up later in the day when the heat dies down, sweep the spot, and do general maintenance before they begin skating. - from a Quartersnacks article Part of an on-going series titled "Boarding Pass". "Boarding Pass" is a series of Posters celebrating some of Skateboarding's most iconic, beloved, and amazing skate spots, world wide.