Kroh's cultural house in Mnich was declared a cultural monument

photo: Viktor Mašát (NPÚ)

Jihlava – Vysočina has new cultural monuments. The Ministry of Culture declared the forge with a bell tower in Věžnice in the Havlíčkobrod region, the former postal station in Stonařov in the Jihlava region, the cultural house in the village of Mnich in the Pelhřimov region, and the railway facility at the Rozsochy railway station in the Žďár region as cultural monuments. Ilona Ampapová from the Telč workplace of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) announced this in a press release.

The forge in Věžnice from the second half of the 19th century also served as a municipal granary, which was later converted into a classroom and the teacher's apartment. Thanks to the sanctus bell on the roof, it also served as a bell tower. "The historical, architectural, and heritage value of the forge in Věžnice lies in its age, authenticity of preserved elements, original layout, multilayered construction development, and also in the connection of the craft operation with the function of a rural bell tower," said Miloslav Záškoda from the NPÚ Telč workplace. The building has several authentic elements, including a blacksmith workshop with a brick forge.

The cultural house in the village of Mnich was built between 1948 and 1950 according to the design of architect, painter, and scenographer Jiří Kroha near the Slavonic Brotherhood Memorial, which commemorates the clash between the local population and partisans with the retreating German army at the end of World War II. The building has maintained its intact mass to this day. The commission was requested directly by the communist Minister of Agriculture Július Ďuriš. Today, professionals describe the architecture of the building as distinctive. "The architecturally valuable and detail-oriented representative structure of the village cultural house is developmentally, ideologically, and functionally linked to the nearby Slavonic Brotherhood Memorial, which is why most of the village with its building stock is included in the protective zone of the memorial," said Pavel Macků, director of the NPÚ regional expert workplace in Telč.

The Rozsochy railway station area on the local line Žďár nad Sázavou - Tišnov is located about two kilometers north of the center of the village. The object completed in 1904 was declared a cultural monument, which at the time of its creation served as public toilets, a lamp room, a storage room, and a laundry. "The object enriches and complements the heritage fund of the Vysočina Region with an example of small but simultaneously quality architecture, as railway construction facilities are very sparsely represented here," Záškoda stated.

In addition to 3,000 immovable cultural monuments, including 16 national cultural monuments, there are three urban and three rural heritage reserves in the Vysočina Region, 22 urban and five rural heritage zones, and one landscape heritage zone. The NPÚ workplace in Telč also processes proposals for declaring objects or items as cultural monuments and subsequently participates in their registration.