The Palace Gardens will be operated by NPÚ

Prague - The Palace Gardens under Prague Castle will be operated by the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) starting in November, which is also their owner. The NPÚ has operated the gardens in the past, but with financial losses. Since 2004, this attractive tourist attraction between Malá Strana and Prague Castle has been rented out to a private company. However, due to alleged financial disadvantages, the contract was terminated in 2006, which displeased the company PS Holding and led them to resist legally. The court dispute has now definitively ended, said NPÚ spokesperson Zdeňka Kalová to ČTK.
A statement from a representative of PS Holding could not be obtained. The company was created by transforming the original company named Protocol Service Česká Republika, which has debts and is undergoing insolvency proceedings.
The company PS Holding (then Protocol Service) rented the gardens in 2004 and 2005, and in 2006 the institute terminated the contract. According to the contract, the company paid the heritage institute a quarter of a million crowns annually. At the same time, tens of thousands of people visited the gardens, paying several million crowns in admission fees. The then Minister of Culture Pavel Dostál (ČSSD) dismissed the former director of the NPÚ Jiří Kotalík due to the unfavorable rental agreement.
The company considered the termination invalid. The subsequent court disputes were interpreted differently by both parties. PS Holding claimed that the court confirmed the invalidity of the termination, while NPÚ insisted that the company should vacate the gardens. The company even initiated enforcement proceedings against approximately 140 monuments managed by the NPÚ, including Karlštejn, the Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape, and the castle in Litomyšl. In December last year, the court halted the proceedings, and neither party appealed.
Even afterwards, however, two disputes continued - more than a year ago, both NPÚ and the company appealed to the Supreme Court (NS) regarding the termination. On June 17, 2010, the NS rejected the appeal of PS Holding. The NPÚ's lawsuit, in which the institute sought the eviction of the properties, was dismissed because by the time of the hearing the premises had already been vacated.
The complex of baroque gardens includes the Ledebour Garden, the Small and Large Pálffy Gardens, the Kolowrat Garden, the Small Fürstenberg Garden, and the Large Fürstenberg Garden. The gardens are open to the public from April to October.