E15: Kuks will receive a huge grant from the EU for an educational center

Kuks (Trutnovsko) - The Baroque hospital in East Bohemian Kuks can begin to draw a massive grant of 450 million crowns from European funds for its transformation into an educational center. This will be the most extensive renovation of the complex in its 300-year history. Construction work is expected to start in early October, after the end of the main tourist season, and finish in 2015, said the castle manager from Kuks, Libor Švec, to today’s edition of the daily E15.
    A condition for the release of funds was the building permits, which the hospital obtained in recent weeks. In the past few decades, the area has seen mostly regular maintenance costing around a million crowns annually. In the context of heritage protection, the currently unusually high grant was secured precisely by the plans to establish an educational center. It will primarily serve students and the public. The courses will mainly cover so-called hospital activities, such as the history of pharmacy, herbalism, or caring for the sick.
    "We have nine partners from primary education, through artistic schools to the Faculty of Pharmacy at Charles University in Hradec Králové. So, for example, young pharmacy students will come to us for a course and learn about the history of pharmacy. They will receive credits for this in school. Moreover, they will have accommodation and meals provided," Švec told E15. According to him, classes will start in 2015 after the construction work quiets down. The tuition fees for the courses are expected to cover the operating costs of the educational center.
    The hospital was built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries by Count František Antonín Špork. The complex served as a care institute for elderly men until World War II.
    Kuks is the most visited monument in the Hradec Králové Region, attracting around 60,000 paying visitors annually.