Hradec Králové Region will receive Škroup's House from the municipality of Osice and will repair it

Hradec Králové - The Hradec Králové Region will renovate the dilapidated Škroup's House in Osice, located in the Hradec region. Today, the regional councilors approved the conclusion of a donation agreement for the house and associated land. The region will acquire the property and land through a gratuitous transfer from the municipality of Osice. Škroup's House was built in 1928 from a collection of citizens as a tribute to František Škroup, a native of Osice, composer, and co-author of the Czech anthem, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia.

"The purpose is to renovate the house and utilize it for cultural and social events not only in Osice but also in the wider area," said the regional councilor for property and investments Václav Řehoř (ODS) today.

The renovated house will then be managed by the Regional Museum of East Bohemia. "We can have the honor that (František Škroup) was born in our region and that we can represent Czech statehood through this project itself," Řehoř told the councilors.

Škroup's House, designed by architect Jindřich Smetana in the interwar modern style, is currently in a dilapidated condition. The building served its purpose until 1951. It hosted theater performances, dance parties, and balls, and local schoolchildren and Sokol members came there to exercise. From 1966, the house had a cinema, and it also previously housed a post office, library, barbershop, and clubroom of the Socialist Youth Union. In 1988, the roof of the house collapsed. The property consists of a hall, a lobby, two rooms on the ground floor, and three on the first floor.

Composer and conductor Škroup was born in Osice in 1801. He worked at the Estates Theater in Prague until about the middle of the 19th century. He spent the last two years of his life at the Rotterdam Opera. In addition to the song "Kde domov můj," Škroup is also known as the author of the first original Czech opera "Dráteník."