Public Defender of Rights Stanislav Křeček launched two investigations regarding the demolition of historic buildings in Brno and Prague. The goal is to map and assess the legality of the authorities’ procedure and find out how state authorities could prevent similar situations in the future. The Ombudsman’s office announced this on its website.
The Ombudsman will examine the circumstances surrounding the demolition of a Neo-Renaissance villa in Hlinky Street in Brno this Easter, as well as the demolition of a historic house on the corner of Lannova and Revoluční Streets in Prague 1. According to him, both cases are connected not only by the historical value of both buildings and the effort to include them among immovable cultural monuments, but also the investor’s intention to build new buildings in their place.
“Both cases aroused strong reactions from the professional and lay public. The last moments before the demolition of the Brno villa on Hlinky Street are especially striking. The owner announced this to the building authority on Good Friday, just a few days after the Ministry of Culture issued a decision declaring the building a cultural monument During Easter, he completed the demolition,” Křeček summarized the circumstances of the Brno case. The investigation will deal with the procedure of the individual authorities, so he appealed to the Brno municipality, the Brno-střed district, the National Heritage Institute and the Ministry of Culture to send him the available documents.
According to available information, the process of “commemorating” the villa began in December 2020. However, according to the office’s website, in February 2021, the Neo-Renaissance wooden porch disappeared from the building, the rich Neo-Renaissance architectural morphology of the facade was removed, and the building’s roofs were also gradually removed. At the start of the procedure for the declaration of a property as a cultural monument, the Ministry of Culture always warns the owners that until the end of the procedure, they have an obligation to protect the building from damage or destruction.
The public defender of rights was first concerned with the construction of a multifunctional building on the site of the original historic house on the corner of Prague’s Lannova and Revoluční streets ten years ago. Stanislav Křeček, as deputy ombudsman, closed the case in October 2013, at which time the Ministry of Culture canceled the binding opinion of the Department of Historic Preservation of the Prague Municipality on the permissibility of demolishing the house and returned the case to him for a new hearing. In the past, the Ministry of Culture led proceedings to declare the house as an immovable cultural monument, but it was not declared as such. This house has also been demolished by the owner.
The ombudsman started investigating both cases at the moment when the cities lost historically valuable buildings. According to the office, the aim of the investigation is to map and assess the legality of the authorities’ procedure and to find out how state authorities could prevent similar situations in the future. The ombudsman also wants to find out if the current legal regulation, in particular the Act on State Monument Care, contains effective rules for the protection of buildings that are not cultural monuments, but have historical value. He could then use the findings from the given investigation, for example, in comments on the new monument law being prepared.
Source: Ombudsman and CTK
