New association aims to protect monuments even where the state falls short

Prague - The new association of organizations for the protection and development of cultural heritage aims to fight for the preservation of cultural monuments. It criticizes organizations that are supposed to oversee the protection of cultural heritage and seeks to collaborate with similar associations elsewhere in Europe. Today, its vice president Martin Kadrman informed CTK about the newly established association, which comprises groups that have so far focused on the preservation of individual monuments in the regions.
    "We are responding to the initiative of ordinary people from the regions, who are patriots, notice their surroundings, and care about the state of cultural heritage," says Pavel P. Ries, a documentary filmmaker and director who was elected president of the association at Saturday's inaugural meeting. Ries has been engaged for many years in the deteriorating complex of former spa buildings in Kyselka near Karlovy Vary.
    The leadership of the association believes that the legislative tools defining the protection of cultural heritage in the Czech Republic are not properly and consistently utilized and often fail to fulfill their purpose. They cite, apart from Kyselka, the case of the railway station building in Ústí nad Orlicí. The chair of the association "We Won't Give Up the Station!" is precisely the association's vice president Kadrman.
    The association played a role in having the Ministry of Culture declare the building a cultural monument, and is now trying to ensure that the building is included in the project for the modernization of the track and is renovated. "Individuals and associations now have to convince governmental authorities that a specific object is valuable and it is not in the public interest to demolish it. The public thus takes on the role of these offices," says Kadrman.
    According to him, changing the current system is up to lawmakers, but the association wants to unite forces and be more consistent in the fight for the protection of cultural heritage.
    One of the first things the association wants to address is the reconstruction of the Charles Bridge. "We have serious information that proves that laws are being violated to an extent that is unprecedented on a European scale," Ries stated. The association plans to present its findings at a press conference in two weeks.