Resilience of Historical Public Buildings against Blast in a Context of Monument Preservation

Abstract

Last terrorist attacks have shown, that among so called soft targets of attackers are included places with the concentrated mass of innocent people. Among such a places belong theatres, concert halls etc., having a seat in historical buildings. Historical heritage is important part of every nation self-conscience, pride and memory. Many historical buildings, preserved as cultural monuments create genius loci of urban environment and at the same time they serve as a public buildings in compliance to the most of the safety measures demanded in Slovak legislation. Some exceptions could be legally made and should be made to retain their authentic historical values, protected by international documents on monument preservation. A case study of historical Slovak National Theatre building is analyzed in the paper.