Šternberk is the Historical Town of the Year 2008

Prague - Today, at Prague Castle, Šternberk was named the Historic Town of the Year 2008. The award is a reward for the best care of monuments within the program announced by the Ministry of Culture. The winner receives one million korunas for further repairs of their monuments.
    The announcement traditionally took place in the Spanish Hall of the Castle, with Jilemnice and Beroun also nominated. For the first time this year, winners of regional rounds also received money, alongside the three finalists, with mayors from another 11 towns taking home 100,000 korunas.
    This year, Šternberk was in the finals for the third consecutive time, focusing primarily on unique hand-cranked mechanisms that were installed in the historic center of the town last year, in addition to the renovation of heritage buildings. They provide auditory information about specific places to tourists. The recording starts in the chosen language only after people turn the crank that triggers the mechanism.
    Šternberk has participated in the competition for the best historic town since 1997. "We reached the regional winners, we got close in 2006 and 2007, and I thought, when else do we need to stand on that Olympus. I believed it would happen this year, and it did," Sedlák told ČTK. According to him, the competition gives the town the opportunity to compare whether it is taking good care of historic monuments. "Now we know that even though it's not an easy job, the monuments are meaningful and we give them what they need, even though we are a small town," he added.
    Even in the regional round of the competition, the town received recognition for continually enhancing the former Augustinian monastery and preparing a new Time Exhibition worth 65 million korunas dedicated to historical clocks. Mayor Sedlák has two possible uses for the 1.1 million korunas obtained from the competition. He could either build a stage for cultural programs in the town, revitalizing the historic center, or use it for facade repairs. The town is seeking repaired facades from property owners, and the town hall is thus in a complicated situation; the money could help as a contribution to these repairs, Sedlák told reporters.
    His historic center has been a municipal heritage zone since 1992 and has 31 cultural monuments. Since obtaining the title, the town of fourteen thousand inhabitants hopes for greater interest from tourists, with tens of thousands of visitors arriving in Šternberk every year. Last year, 45,000 visited the castle alone.
    In Šternberk, the national opening of the European Heritage Days will also take place in the autumn. This year's motto is: Monuments Measured by Time.
    The program for the regeneration of urban heritage reserves and zones has been functioning since 1993, during which time 3.8 billion korunas have been distributed, including this year. The towns themselves have spent ten billion korunas, and thanks to the program, local companies also receive work, which stimulates the economy, the organizing Association of Historical Sites of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia points out. Together with the association, the competition is announced by the Ministries of Culture and Regional Development.