Bruntál's Petřín has transformed into a center for education and leisure

source: mubruntal.cz

Bruntál - During the reconstruction costing more than 90 million crowns, the cultural monument Petrin in Bruntál was transformed into a multifunctional center for education and leisure. In the previously purely school building from 1926, in addition to an elementary school, there is now also a kindergarten, a city library, and a station for young naturalists. Today, representatives of the authorities and institutions ceremonially opened the renovated building.
    The spokesperson of the Bruntál town hall, Jiří Ondrášek, stated that a new communal central reception and a small exhibition have been created on the ground floor; primarily, the branch of the Pionýrská Kindergarten and the library with a reading room and an auditorium are located there. On the first floor, there is a Leisure Center with facilities for clubs, which also includes the station for young naturalists located in the basement. The elementary school is on the second and third floors.
    "The project included a complete reconstruction of the internal distribution systems, changes to the layout and internal arrangement in accordance with the needs of the users," Ondrášek stated. The building is now barrier-free and has a new elevator. "For example, the city library will now finally be accessible to immobile citizens, who did not have this option at the former library location on Brožíková Street," Ondrášek mentioned.
    The spokesperson of the Moravian-Silesian Regional Council, which distributes European funds in the region, Michal Sobek, indicated that the city obtained a grant of 48.8 million crowns for the project. This covers 85 percent of the eligible costs. Additionally, outside of the subsidized project, the city paid for the restoration of the facade and windows from its own resources.
    The building was established as a boys' seminar and was officially opened in 1926. During the war, it served the German army. "In 1946, a Grammar School for the Brothers of the Most Holy Sacrament was established in the building under the patronage of the congregation named 'petrini' or 'petríni' after the Czech Budějovice priest Václav Petr. This gave rise to the established name of the building," stated the Bruntál spokesperson.
    In the early 1950s, Petrin briefly housed the disabled, and then the building became home to the Higher Military School of Infantry Officers of the Czechoslovak Army. Since 1957, Petrin has been an elementary and secondary general education school, later annexed to the gymnasium. The building has continuously served education up to the present day.