The Church filed an appeal in the dispute over the Flower Garden in Kroměříž

Kroměříž - The Olomouc Archdiocese has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in the case of the dispute over the Květná Garden in Kroměříž. Jiří Gračka, spokesperson for the archdiocese, told ČTK today. The District Court in Kroměříž ruled last March that the monument, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage list, does not have to be returned to the church. After the archdiocese's appeal, the Zlin branch of the Brno Regional Court upheld the ruling in November.

"I can confirm that we have filed an appeal. We want to complete what we started with the lawsuit. This means the effort to fulfill the role of a good steward who seeks to use all means to prove whether the property belongs to the archdiocese or not," Gračka told ČTK.

However, according to him, the church also understands the efforts of the opposing party, namely the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ). "It does not want to recklessly relinquish property; it wants to ensure that the claim is indeed justified. When two such legitimate opinions stand opposed, it is far best to have the court assess it," Gračka added.

The courts considered the case based on the lawsuit of the Olomouc archdiocese, which claimed that the garden forms a functional unit with the Kroměříž Castle and the Podzámecká Garden. The church acquired them as part of a property settlement in 2015. According to the ruling, however, the Květná Garden can function independently.

Petr Šubík, director of the NPÚ regional office in Kroměříž, had previously told ČTK that the law on church restitution does not permit the return of new constructions within the Květná Garden. "The courts have merely confirmed what the legislation allows and does not allow. They agreed with the opinion of our lawyers. Essentially, the law is simply being followed," Šubík stated.

The Kroměříž Castle and both gardens mentioned were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list together. The archdiocese argued that this is one of the pieces of evidence of their functional connection. Through its legal representatives, it also stated that the gardens and the castle have always had the same owner, first the church and then the state.

The historic area of the garden is intertwined with the new constructions that arose during the time when the church did not own it. According to the NPÚ, these cannot be separated, and thus, according to the restitution law, they cannot be returned. In the garden, among other things, work worth 230 million crowns, co-financed by European funds, was completed in 2014. Thanks to this, a part of it has returned to its 17th-century form when it was founded by the Olomouc bishop Karl of Liechtenstein-Castelcorn.