The Olomouc Meat Markets are for sale again

Olomouc - The historically protected Masné krámy in the center of Olomouc are once again for sale. A Vietnamese trader who bought the site in the city center and reconstructed it four years ago amid significant criticism from heritage officials is selling the property. He is making alterations in the closed passageway that he has no permission for. Authorities are already investigating the case. This is reported today by the Central Moravian edition of Mladá fronta Dnes.
    "The building authority found discrepancies during their inspection of the property, which they are further investigating," said Ivan Rašťák, spokesperson for the Olomouc magistrate, to the newspaper.
    The owner of Masné krámy, Thanh Long Pham, confirmed that he has closed the passage with shops and is selling it. "We are looking for a buyer because we are struggling. We already have interested parties with whom we are negotiating," Thanh Long Pham told the newspaper. However, he did not want to discuss what will happen to the heritage site next.
    The shopping passage has been closed for about a week. According to former tenants, the original owner is selling the property to another Vietnamese who wants to turn the passage into a market. The building authority and heritage officials have not granted the owner of Masné krámy any permission for alterations, and even on Friday morning, they had not received any reports that the Masné krámy had been closed. "We know absolutely nothing about this. The last time the property owner was here for a meeting was a quarter of a year ago, and he did not mention considering a sale," said Vlasta Kauerová, head of the heritage care department of the magistrate, who immediately sent a control team to Masné krámy.
    The two-story Renaissance building known as Masné krámy has stood at Dolní náměstí since the end of the 16th century. Above the butcher shops on the ground floor, there used to be the first theater hall in Olomouc. The building suffered greatly during the communist regime, when after the abolition of the butcher stalls in the 1940s, the heritage site served as a wholesale storage for the national enterprise Technomat. This operation was only terminated in 1988. Following the political changes in 1989, descendants of the affected butchers began to show interest in the historically significant building, but the court rejected their claims to ownership rights. The building was then acquired at auction by the firm of Vietnamese trader Pham Thanh Long, who purchased Masné krámy for 15 million crowns and invested another 30 million crowns in reconstruction. This reconstruction was mainly criticized by experts from the National Heritage Institute.