Middle Bohemian monuments are awaiting costly renovations this year

Prague - This year, a number of monuments in Central Bohemia will undergo reconstruction and extensive restoration. In Kutná Hora alone, whose historic center is listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, five significant monuments will be reconstructed with the help of the state, the region, and the city. More extensive repairs are also needed for national cultural monuments, such as the castles of Karlštejn and Křivoklát, as well as the Central Bohemian castles of Konopiště, Březnice, Lysá nad Labem, and other cultural heritage sites. This information comes from Jiřina Pospíšilová, a councilor for the Central Bohemia Region, who provided it to ČTK.
This year, work will continue on the restoration of the most sought-after monument in Kutná Hora, the Church of St. Barbara. Last year, the Ministry of Culture allocated approximately 30 million crowns for repairs to the Kutná Hora church, with an additional seven million crowns contributed by lawmakers from the state budget. This year, the state has promised 50 million crowns for repairs, while the owner will cover about 700,000 crowns. "This will primarily involve the restoration of the external facade, the restoration of stone elements, static stabilization, and the restoration of stained-glass windows," Pospíšilová specified. The completion of the work is planned for 2008.
This year, the first phase of the reconstruction of the former Jesuit College, which is set to transform into a center for modern art by 2008, should be completed. The investment amount for securing the first phase is approximately 320 million crowns, funded from both the state and regional budgets. The owner of the property is the Czech Museum of Fine Arts. According to its director Ivan Neumann, the college should become a "living" center for visual arts, featuring a permanent exhibition, a hall for theater, concerts, and films, an internet café, and a shop for artistic items or literature on visual arts.
The Křivoklát Castle will see the restoration of the governor's office building and roof repairs for the chapel this year. The reconstruction of buildings along the southern city wall will also be completed, which last year received over 800,000 crowns from the Ministry of Culture as part of the architectural heritage rescue program. Additionally, one of the most visited castles in the Czech Republic, Karlštejn, will not avoid repairs. This year, the restoration of the castle walls will continue.
The Central Bohemian castles of Konopiště and Březnice are planning to focus on repairs to the castle walls this year. At Konopiště, repairs to access roads are expected to be completed. In the castle park in Lysá nad Labem in the Nymburk region, the restoration of rare baroque sculptures will continue. These sculptures were created by several prominent artists, including Matyáš Braun, who made more than forty pieces here. The town hall began their repair with the help of regional and state subsidies in 2004, annually restoring about six sculptures. Last year, it received 750,000 crowns in subsidies from the Ministry of Culture, 125,000 from the region, and the city contributed 700,000 crowns from its budget.
The Lysá nad Labem town hall plans to not only repair all remaining sculptures for 21 million crowns but also to renovate the entire French section of the park. It is counting on a grant from the European Union. "In three years, it would be possible to repair the sculptures, paths, greenery, the garden house, the boundary wall with busts and vases," said Věra Bodnárová, head of the department of education and culture, earlier to ČTK.
The Central Bohemian Region contributes approximately 27 million crowns annually to the reconstruction of monuments. Last year, the region satisfied 282 applicants from the monument renewal fund, distributing a total of 26.6 million crowns.