The repair of the lock in Červená Řečice will not start this year

The repair of the castle located not far from the center of the small town with about a thousand inhabitants has been in preparation for several years. The cooperative secured a grant of over 82 million crowns with the condition of completing the repairs by 2021. "The project for the grant application was worked on for approximately two and a half years before it was supposed to be realized, but unfortunately, during that time, prices skyrocketed so high that no one applied to the tender," David said. Before the new tender, the work must be valued at prices corresponding to the year 2019.

However, the final price cannot be increased in relation to the grant obtained from the Integrated Regional Program, so the scope of work will have to be reduced. "First, we will forgo things like video mapping and other features that we wanted to use to make the castle more attractive," said David.

Historically, the Červenořečický castle belonged to the Archdiocese of Prague. In the 13th century, there certainly stood a fortified manor with a church on the site of the castle, which was later rebuilt into a fortress. In the 16th century, the castle was owned by Šebestián from Leskov, who had the complex renovated in a Renaissance style and added a unique fortification for that time. A century later, Červená Řečice returned to the ownership of the Archdiocese of Prague, which owned it until 1948.

The castle suffered from long-term neglect, and heritage experts ranked it among the most endangered monuments in the region. Its prospects improved thanks to the resolution of property rights issues. In recent years, partial rescue work has already been carried out at the castle with the support of the Ministry of Culture's Architectural Heritage Rescue Program.