Czech Krumlov wants UNESCO to know its opinion on the rotunda

Czech Krumlov - The representatives of Czech Krumlov want the UNESCO committee to know their opinion on the placement of the open-air theatre. Therefore, by a resolution, they reaffirmed that they want to preserve the theatre in the castle garden. According to the Czech commitment, however, it should disappear from the UNESCO heritage site by 2015. The residents of Czech Krumlov are requesting the Ministry of Culture to negotiate with UNESCO about an acceptable solution to the problem, Mayor Dalibor Carda (ČSSD) said today after the town council meeting.
     "UNESCO only knows the opinions of Czech heritage experts who want to remove the theatre from the garden, but the opinions of the city representatives and the tens of thousands of people who signed the petition for the preservation of the theatre are not known," the mayor stated. The city's position re-emerged while formulating the regular report on the state of the UNESCO heritage site. The representatives wanted to include it in the report.
     The open-air theatre, according to the Czech commitment from 2007, should disappear from the garden, which, along with the castle and the historic center, is on the UNESCO World Heritage List, by 2015.
     In early January, discussions about the fate of the theatre were resumed at the Ministry of Culture. The participants concluded that the city of České Budějovice, as the owner of the theatre, would announce an architectural competition for a new design of the open-air theatre. The new structure should be partially or completely disassemblable, and the technical facilities will be outside the garden. The competition could be announced in March or April.
     The city had already planned to announce the competition last year, but the discussions of the minister's working group on the fate of the theatre were interrupted after personnel changes. At the January meeting, participants agreed that under certain conditions, the theatre could be preserved in the garden. The ministry informed the members of the working committee that it was preparing a visit for representatives of the UNESCO committee to Prague and Český Krumlov.
     A compromise solution with a removable theatre is based on similar examples around the world. A similar solution is applied, for example, during theater performances in France at the Neptune pool of the Palace of Versailles or at the Chambord Castle in the Loire Valley.
     In the past, tens of thousands of people have signed the petition for preserving the theatre in its current location. Representatives of the South Bohemia Region, České Budějovice, and Český Krumlov have been advocating for the modernization of the stage at its current location for several years.