Hradec Králové Region will announce a competition for the documentation for Škroup's House

Hradec Králové - The Hradec Králové Region wants to announce a tender for the project documentation for the reconstruction of the Škroup House in Osice by the end of October at the latest. The region will pay two million crowns for the documentation. The actual repair and extension of the building from the 1920s is expected to cost 20 million crowns and start next year. This was stated by representatives of the region to journalists today.

The owner of the building is the Hradec Králové Region, which received it as a gift from Osice at the end of 2018. "A multifunctional facility intended for culture, education, and sports should be created," said the councilor for investments Václav Řehoř (ODS).

In addition to the reconstruction of the building, the region plans an extension on the ground floor; part of the space will serve as a restaurant with facilities, and part as an anteroom and facilities for the main hall. "The extension should include spaces for facilities, allowing for an increase in the utility value of the building. The construction will also include a solution for outdoor operations and parking," stated Řehoř.

On the ground floor of the Škroup House, there is a hall with a stage and facilities for performers. This connects to an entrance area with a cloakroom and sanitary facilities, as well as two rooms. Upstairs, there is a gallery of the hall and spaces of the original apartment.

The Škroup House, designed by architect Jindřich Smetana in the style of interwar modernism, is currently in a dilapidated state. The building served its purpose until 1951. It hosted theater performances, dance parties, and balls, and local schoolchildren and Sokol members would come to practice there. Until 1966, there was a cinema in the building, and it also housed a post office, library, barber shop, and a club of the Socialist Youth Union. In 1988, the roof of the house collapsed. The building consists of a hall, an antechamber, two rooms on the ground floor, and three on the first floor.

Composer and conductor Škroup was born in Osice in 1801. He worked at the Estates Theatre in Prague until about the mid-19th century. He spent the last two years of his life at the opera in Rotterdam. Škroup's song "Kde domov můj" (Where is My Home) first sounded in the play by Josef Kajetán Tyl "Fidlovačka aneb Žádný hněv a žádná rvačka," and in 1918 it was enacted as the national anthem.