Jilemnice plans to construct a mourning hall, as it currently has none

Jilemnice - Jilemnice is planning to build a mourning hall, as there is currently none in the six-thousand-strong town in the foothills of the Krkonoš Mountains. Construction is set to begin in the cemetery area no earlier than 2022, with a completed study so far. According to it, the construction of a two-story hall with a capacity of 40 seating places will cost nearly 40 million crowns. By the end of next year, the town hopes to have a construction permit. The start date for construction will depend, according to Mayor Vladimír Richter (ODS), on how the town's revenues develop.

"There are many unknowns. Right now, no one can even say how revenues will look next year, let alone the year after," Richter told ČTK today. For this year, the city council approved a budget for Jilemnice with revenues exceeding 176 million crowns. The mayor also does not yet know whether it will be possible to draw any grant for the construction. "If there will even be any for this purpose. One of the options is that we will pay for everything from the city budget," he added.

In Jilemnice, which dates back to the first half of the 13th century, there is currently no mourning hall. "There is a demand among people for this service. They have to travel elsewhere, mostly to Horní Branná," said the mayor. Horní Branná is about five kilometers away from Jilemnice, and the Harrachovská burial site of the Holy Cross from the mid-19th century, consisting of two coaxial octagonal prisms, serves as a mourning hall there.

According to the study, a classic rectangular building with a green roof is to be created in Jilemnice. The load-bearing structure is to be made of wood and metal. Jilemnice has chosen a part of the cemetery near the historical caretaker's house, which previously served as a morgue, for the location of the mourning hall. In the area where the mourning hall is to be built, German soldiers who died in a nearby hospital were buried towards the end of World War II. The study states that according to available information, most of the remains were already removed during the rescue excavation.