Hradec Králové will strive for inscription on the UNESCO list

Hradec Králové - Hradec Králové will strive to have the neighborhood of First Republic modern architecture by Josef Gočár listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first step will be to advocate for the location to be included on the national indicative list for UNESCO. The city will submit a proposal for the inscription to the Ministry of Culture, as decided by the city council today. The idea of inscribing the city's modern architecture on the UNESCO list has been debated in Hradec Králové since 2006.

The city commissioned a comparative study, which states that similar architecture found in Hradec Králové has no direct competitor among the candidates for listing on the UNESCO list. The inscription of the monument on the national indicative list is a prerequisite for the monument to subsequently be entered on the actual UNESCO World Heritage list.

The head of the monument preservation department at the city hall, Jan Falta, told the council members that the chance of Hradec Králové being included on the national indicative list is about fifty percent. "The chance of being inscribed on the world list is much lower. Success would be even achieving a national list, where we would be in the company of Karlštejn or Ještěd," said Falta.

According to the comparative study, the modern architecture of Hradec Králové is not only completely exceptional on a national scale. The most valuable are the buildings in the complex of the Church of Priest Ambrož and the school district with a kindergarten, elementary school, and high school on Tyl's Embankment. According to Falta, the modern architecture of Hradec comprehensively documents the development of urbanism and architecture from the late 19th century to the beginning of World War II.

The only Czech modern building listed on the UNESCO list is the Tugendhat Villa in Brno, which was completed 88 years ago.