Český Krumlov files a lawsuit against the Minister of Culture's decision regarding the bridge

České Budějovice/Prague - The dispute between heritage officials, the Ministry of Culture, and the city administration regarding the stone bridge over the Polečnice stream in Český Krumlov will be resolved by the court. The ministry declared the construction a cultural monument, which the city claims has prevented flood protection measures from being implemented near the bridge. According to today's edition of Mladá fronta Dnes, the city council has therefore filed a lawsuit against the Minister of Culture.
     "The lawsuit targets the decision of the minister, not the minister himself," said Petra Ulbrichová from the ministry's heritage care department to ČTK today. According to her, filing a lawsuit with the administrative court is a standard procedure when declaring objects as cultural monuments.
    The bridge on Chvalšinská Street causes several floods in the city each year. It has a pillar in the middle, which allegedly restricts the water flow. This year alone, the Polečnice overflowed its banks near the sports tennis center twice. In 2002, Krumlov experienced the highest water impact not from the Vltava, but from the Polečnice.
    "We have filed an administrative lawsuit against Minister of Culture Martin Štěpánek in the municipal court in Prague, who rejected the city's appeal against the decision to list the bridge as a protected monument," said Český Krumlov councilor Milan Marko to the newspaper.
    In the first instance, the Ministry of Culture decides on the declaration of an object as a cultural monument. If a party to the proceedings appeals, the minister decides, as his office has no higher administrative authority above it. To avoid deciding alone, he has recommendations from the appeals committee at his disposal. The ministry declared the bridge in Krumlov a monument, the city appealed, and the minister decided in the second instance. This exhausted the regular legal remedies, and the extraordinary ones include a lawsuit to the administrative court, where one can challenge a decision in the same manner as the first-instance was contested by an appeal, Ulbrichová stated.
    City councilors claim that the historical value of the bridge is not significant, as it has been insensitively repaired several times. Therefore, they dispute this monument and consider it an unnecessary obstacle to the construction of flood protection measures, added Deputy Mayor Dana Kuchtová.
    "Neither the Vltava River Authority, which commented on the proceedings, nor the city of Český Krumlov ever stated what flood protection measures are being planned there," Ulbrichová reminded.
    According to heritage officials, the bridge from 1768 is valuable as it is the last of a series on the old road to Kájov. The project for flood protection measures on the Polečnice stream amounting to 80 million crowns was commissioned by the Vltava River Authority, which had already secured funding for its implementation. If the bridge remains on the list of cultural monuments, the project will have to be rewritten. For substantial floods, an underground tunnel would have to be built.