In Jablonec, the Schlaraffia castle was not saved; its demolition has begun

Jablonec nad Nisou - A part of the historic building that was once the seat of the gentlemen's society Schlaraffia in Jablonec nad Nisou was demolished today. Milan Kroupa (ANO), the mayor of Jablonec, told ČTK. According to him, the company did not have building office permission. The residents of Jablonec have long been striving to save the castle in a historicizing style. The building is located in the premises of the company MALINA-safety, which wanted to demolish it earlier. Its position is being verified by ČTK.

"Today something happened in our city that cannot be overlooked. The company MALINA-safety decided to demolish the Schlaraffia castle without the permission of the building office. Therefore, in the very early hours of today, they allowed the tower of the castle to be demolished to such an extent that the entire building was probably irreparably damaged, making any future reconstruction impossible," said Kroupa.

Vladimíra Šrýtrová, spokesperson for the Liberec regional police, told ČTK that the police received a signal from citizens in the morning, who reported the demolition of the building. "The demolition has been temporarily halted; we are investigating the circumstances," said Šrýtrová. According to her, the organizers of the demolition work had permission to demolish. "However, we stopped the work to verify all circumstances, whether the permission is valid or if there is any appeal against it. We will know this no sooner than Monday when the building office reopens," added the police spokeswoman.

A petition that sought to register the building as a cultural monument was unsuccessful in 2013, having been signed by around 3,000 people in Jablonec. The court that also dealt with the case ruled that the Ministry of Culture no longer had to deal with the issue. However, the Ministry has started to consider the possibility of registering it as a cultural monument again this year after the mayor met with Minister Antonín Staněk (ČSSD). Adéla Říhová from the Jablonec city hall informed ČTK. According to her, the Ministry of Culture has not yet made a decision. A demolition order was issued for the building in the MALINA-safety complex, which is still pending, as the Regional Office in Liberec has not yet decided on the appeal against the demolition, added Říhová.

"Given that this was a very unique building in the Jablonec context, I have been trying since taking office as mayor to preserve this building in cooperation with other Jablonec patriots for all of us. For this purpose, I also personally appealed against the demolition order and visited the Minister of Culture requesting the declaration of this building as a state-protected monument, which the Ministry of Culture is currently processing," Kroupa stated.

The company wanted to demolish the house because it had no use for it and it obstructed its development. Based on the petition, five years ago it offered the building for one koruna to anyone who would relocate it. The former city leadership also considered purchasing it. However, they ultimately did not pursue the building, as according to former mayor Petr Beitl (ODS), it was in such condition that it could not be saved or could only be saved by very costly reconstruction.

The castle near the Jablonec bus station was built in 1909 for the Schlaraffia society. It is the only preserved architectural monument of the society, which was founded in 1859 in Prague. It was a kind of English club for "couch potatoes" in Czech conditions. The basic values that this men's organization upheld were friendship, art, and humor. It brought together personalities who advocated for the implementation of generally beneficial projects and also financially supported them.