Workers are repairing the Chinese pavilion in the Podzámecká Garden in Kroměříž

Kroměříž - Workers are repairing the Chinese pavilion in the Podzámecká garden in Kroměříž, a construction on the island of the Wild Pond. The wooden monument likely dates back to the mid-19th century. Its repair will cost 1.2 million crowns. Part of the funds comes from a collection organized by the non-profit organization Czech National Trust, which is still ongoing.

The restoration of the monument began, according to the castle's curator Martin Krčma, last year when builders secured the unstable island with stones. The work cost about 250,000 crowns and came from the budget of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ). The current second phase is financed by donations. NPÚ halted investment due to the claim made by the church on the gardens and the castle.

The second phase, according to site manager Ondřej Soukeník, includes the construction of a foundation made of stone masonry and steel elements, into which workers will anchor the historical structure. They removed the wooden cladding of the columns, stabilized the pavilion's unstable structure, and lifted it by several dozen centimeters to excavate the foundations. The static stabilization of the pavilion will cost 330,000 crowns.

According to Krčma, restoration work on the pavilion is expected to follow next year, which is intended to serve as a decorative element in the garden, listed among UNESCO heritage sites. It was installed at a time when Asian art was popular in Europe. "It was an interesting element that people liked," said Lenka Křesadlová, a specialist in garden art heritage from NPÚ, today to ČTK.

However, the origin of the monument is not precisely known. "Personally, I lean towards the theory that it was built in the 1860s when Archbishop Bedřich of Fürstenberg made further modifications in the newly established landscape park. He decided that the Wild Pond would not be used as a trap for hunting wild birds, but that he would make it a recreational area. Therefore, he placed an island in the pond and built a Chinese-style structure on it," Křesadlová stated.

According to a second theory, there were already some buildings in Chinese style in the park earlier. "We had a fanciful bridge that looked like a Chinese building, and a mechanical puppet of a Chinese person, who would bow and ring bells when you stepped on the right stone along the path, as well as a so-called Mandarin House, which stood on the edge of a stream. It is very similar to what stands today on the island in the Wild Pond. There is a speculation that someone might have moved it," Křesadlová added.

According to her, few Chinese pavilions have survived. "They were made of wood, at most from sheet metal. The non-durable materials deteriorated and the building had to be removed," said Křesadlová. According to her, there is another Chinese pavilion in the garden in Zdislavice in the Zlín region. Compared to the pavilion in Kroměříž, it is younger and constructed from stronger materials.