K.Vary consider the protection of monuments to be good, but they do not reject UNESCO

Karlovy Vary - Karlovy Vary consider the current level of protection for their monuments to be sufficient. Nevertheless, they do not oppose a potential inscription on the UNESCO list. The concerns that the city hall refuses to protect the entire spa area, but only selected buildings, are regarded by the city's leadership as a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the situation. The entire spa area has long been under strict heritage protection, said the city spokesman Jan Kopál to ČTK today.
    The historical part of Karlovy Vary has been a city heritage zone since 1992. This allows experts from the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) to intervene in construction activities in this area. Therefore, it is not necessary to inscribe the entire spa locality on the UNESCO list, the spokesman noted.
    "It is already protected. This is forgotten. That is why we wanted to get specific buildings on the UNESCO list, to emphasize their importance more," Kopál stated. The Karlovy Vary city hall preferred that only the colonnades, the city theater, and the Imperial Baths be placed under UNESCO protection.
    The city leadership denies the information that it has rejected the UNESCO inscription. According to Deputy Mayor Tomáš Hybner, no such decision has ever been made. He stated that all events surrounding the proposal to inscribe the historical part of the spa town remain an open matter. Hybner mentioned that the city hall wants to protect the monuments, but it is necessary to find the optimal variant. "We don't want local residents and entrepreneurs to blame us for restricting their activities once the protection becomes stricter," Hybner remarked, adding that discussions about all possibilities are ongoing.
    The city primarily wants to discuss the NPÚ's proposal to declare the most valuable urban complex in the center of the spa area of Karlovy Vary as a heritage reserve. According to heritage spokeswoman Zdeňka Kalová, this could help defend the nomination of Karlovy Vary for UNESCO listing. The proposal for declaring a heritage reserve is, according to Kalová, not conditional but recommended.
    The NPÚ considers basing the nomination of Karlovy Vary solely on the quality of a few buildings taken out of a coherent urban complex to be risky in terms of preparing a defense and the overall concept of the nomination. Various inaccurate media comments on the developments in Karlovy Vary, however, according to NPÚ, shift the question of the city's nomination to the political level, which is not a solution for the matter and can only complicate the situation.