Kolín received 90 million for the renovation of the surroundings of St. Bartholomew's Cathedral

Kolín - Kolín today received nearly ninety million in European funding for the renovation of the surroundings of St. Bartolomew's Church. The town hall will announce a tender for the contractor, believing that the competition will further reduce the price. The grant will cover 90 percent of the costs. If everything goes according to plan, work will begin in the spring and last for about a year and a half. City representatives told this to reporters today.

"We have been working on obtaining the grant for about a year and a half; during that time, we were excluded from the grant application, then reinstated, and today it was confirmed that we were reinstated justifiably," said Kolín's deputy mayor Michael Kašpar (STAN). The grant comes from the Integrated Regional Operational Programme (IROP) for the revitalization of monuments.

The city will replace the pavement, public lighting, add furniture, and thoroughly reconstruct the buildings of the belfry, ossuary, and old school. "It is crucial for us that the project was developed for the entire area around the church. Among other things, the old school will also be restored, where we will place a replica of a classroom from the 18th century," Kašpar said earlier.

In addition to the project and the grant, the city will also revitalize the green-covered embankments and build a new entrance using a spiral staircase from Politických vězňů Street. "The green embankments are no longer part of the cultural monument, so the grant cannot apply to them," Kašpar said. The costs for repairing the embankments and building a new passage are estimated by Kašpar to be between six and seven million crowns.

The Church of St. Bartolomew in Kolín is an important Gothic sacred building. It was built in the second half of the 13th century in the forms of early Gothic. From this construction phase, the three-nave structure with a pair of octagonal western towers has been preserved. In the 14th century, a completely new, tall, cathedral choir with a wreath of chapels was built by Petr Parléř. At the beginning of the 16th century, a belfry was added. The church is listed as a national cultural monument.