The property office canceled the auction of the Štiřín castle, no one submitted a bidding deposit

Prague - The Czech Office for State Representation in Property Matters (ÚZSVM) canceled the electronic auction of the Štiřín chateau in Central Bohemia. No bidder submitted the required auction deposit of 30 million crowns, according to the information on the auction website. The property office offered the chateau for sale with a starting price of 3.3 billion crowns; if the sale had been successful, it could have become the most expensive property ever auctioned by the ÚZSVM. Following the unsuccessful auction today, the property office will announce a new round of bidding for the sale of the chateau.

The chateau previously served as a hotel with a restaurant, wellness center, and golf course. Štiřín was originally administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which announced that it did not need the premises and transferred it to the property office in June last year. At the time of the transfer, the area was already closed, according to the office. This year, the office announced that no other state institution had expressed interest in the chateau, and therefore it will begin selling it to private bidders.

"The law-preferred method of handling unnecessary state property is through a transparent bidding process. In the case of the Štiřín chateau, the ÚZSVM found no reason to deviate from this procedure, also due to the high costs incurred by taxpayers for maintaining empty and unnecessary state property," the office stated today. The conditions for the new round of the auction will be published on the website www.nabidkamajetku.cz.

According to the ÚZSVM, the costs of maintaining the site are high. The director of the office, Kateřina Arajmu, told members of the parliamentary control committee in March this year that the empty premises cost the state 600,000 crowns per month, with the largest expense being the maintenance of the golf course.

The control committee protested against the sale and proposed that the administration of Štiřín be transferred to the Chamber of Deputies, for example. The municipality of Kamenice also opposed the auction, suggesting a joint project with the state. According to them, part of the chateau could house clinics and a kindergarten, while the rest could continue to be used by the state. The mayor of Kamenice, Pavel Čermák (ind.), told ČTK in early September that he did not expect the chateau to be sold in the first round of the auction. He stated that if the auction were unsuccessful, there could be room for further negotiations with the state regarding the use of the property.

The Štiřín chateau was built in the mid-18th century. It gained its current appearance around 1900 after modifications based on the design of architect Jiří Stibral. Between 1985 and 1993, modifications were made to the chateau to allow it to be used as a hotel. In 1945, the state became the owner of the chateau. In the past, Štiřín was used by scouts, who later unsuccessfully sued for the chateau. However, in 2005, the court ruled that the current scouting organization Junák had no rights to the chateau.