In Liberec, the repair and security of the Valdštejn houses have been completed

Liberec - The repair and securing of the Valdštejnské domky has been completed by builders in Liberec. The timber-framed houses, or rather their remains, are among the oldest preserved buildings in the regional capital and are part of the Secondary Industrial School of Building Liberec. Essentially, it was a rescue operation; the roofs were replaced, it was necessary to statically secure the rafters and anchor them to the neighboring brick house, the timber-framed facades were also repaired, said Radek Cikl, the school's director, to reporters today. The work cost nearly one million crowns.

The original unprocessed wooden shingles began to rot, so the craftsmen replaced them. The roof was covered with new split shingles, but this time they are treated, and next year they will receive another coat. The roofs, which are now light, will then be dark like the timber framing. The copper cladding has been restored. "The timber framing had to be completely scraped and repaired; there was much more work on it than we expected. Lime coatings work better with clay, but not with cement, which was somewhere there," added Petr Šverma from Durago, a company specializing in the reconstruction of historical buildings.

The group formerly known as Valdštejnské domky was also called Černé loubí. The buildings represent the last evidence of timber-framed development in Liberec's New Town, founded by Albrecht of Wallenstein from 1622 to 1634. However, the preserved houses are younger, according to literature from 1678-1681. In the 1970s, they were already in a dilapidated state, and the city even issued a demolition order for them. However, thanks to the school's efforts, it was possible to preserve at least the gabled facades, which the builders incorporated into the extension of the construction school. They originally housed offices, but today they are empty.

About a quarter of the original timber houses have survived, consisting of one floor and an attic with low ceilings. "We want to insulate them, and the interiors should be as white as possible in the future; we want to transition to a timber-framed system," said educator Karel Vitouš. According to him, the school would like to use one of the houses for a museum that would collect school supplies. Another could house offices, and one could serve for members or chairs of graduation committees. Work on the repair of the houses will thus continue in the coming years, and students should also participate in them.