The competition for the carousel could be announced in the first quarter of 2016

České Budějovice - An architectural competition for the selection of a new design for the revolving auditorium in Český Krumlov could be announced in the first quarter of next year. This was stated today by Jaromír Talíř, the deputy mayor of České Budějovice. UNESCO has yet to nominate its representatives to the jury. The current revolving auditorium has various shortcomings due to its age. Minister of Culture Daniel Herman (KDU-ČSL) said this to reporters today after a meeting of the commission addressing the revolving auditorium in Český Krumlov.

Talíř believes that the architectural competition will be announced as soon as possible. "But we are already off schedule because if everything went ideally, we could have been selecting a project by now," said the deputy. The costs for the new revolving auditorium in Český Krumlov are estimated to reach 250 million crowns. The project plans to replace the fixed structure with a removable one. České Budějovice, which owns the rotunda, is submitting a request for a grant for the project under the IROP operational program.

According to Herman, UNESCO is not taking on a role of dictating any conditions for a new design of the rotunda to the Czech side. "It is a partnership dialogue, and we will see what the result will be (of the architectural competition). I expect that we will arrive at some acceptable result and that this live art, this theater stage will be an enhancement to the historical site," the minister stated.

The UNESCO commission this year recommended placing the stage outside of the castle complex, but it also accepts a solution with the auditorium inside the garden. Therefore, a decision has been made that the rotunda will remain unchanged until 2017.

The State Castle and Chateau Český Krumlov, where the rotunda is located, has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List alongside the city center since 1992. Conservationists have been striving for many years to remove the revolving auditorium from the garden. The former leadership of the Ministry of Culture originally promised UNESCO that the rotunda would be removed by 2015.

Every summer, South Bohemian Theatre performs its shows on this stage. Over the course of 55 years, more than two million viewers have seen productions from the revolving auditorium.