Palác Svět, Constructivist palace in Libeň, Czech Republic

Palác Svět is a concrete building with geometric forms and industrial materials that displays the principles of constructivist architecture. The structure shows clear lines and functional elements typical of this design approach.

Palác Svět was built in 1932–1934 by the builder František Havlena on the site of an old farmstead, for the real-estate entrepreneur Ladislav Svět, after whom it is named. The Prague Municipal Insurance Company took over the building during the wartime protectorate; it was nationalised in 1947 and transferred to the Prague 8 housing enterprise in 1962. It was placed under monument protection on 26 September 2003.

The name comes from investor Ladislav Svět, and the ground-floor Automat Svět was frequented by writer Bohumil Hrabal, who lived nearby in Na Hrázi street and set several of his short stories there. The cinema hall, founded with the building, has been called Kino Dukla since 1955.

The building stands at the corner of Elsnicovo náměstí, Chocholouškova and Zenklova streets in Libeň, near the Rokytka stream. Renovation began in April 2018 under owner Crispino nemovitosti; by May 2012 the work was still at a rough stage, and the palace is in a state of emergency disrepair. View the boarded windows and the "COMBAT" graffiti on the lower left wall from the street.

The foundations lie below the groundwater level, so a large lead tank was built under the building to keep water out. From the 1960s water seeped through cracks in this tank into the foundations and the cinema hall.