The renovated Libušín could be approved for use by mid-June

Prostřední Bečva - The restored Libušín at Pustevny in the Beskids could be certified by mid-June. It could welcome its first visitors in the last week of July. Jindřich Ondruš, the general director of the Czech National Museum in Nature, which manages the monument, said this today to ČTK. The cottage, built in 1899 according to the design of architect Dušan Jurkovič, served as a dining hall and burned down six years ago. The museum then decided on a scientific reconstruction of the building, which was declared a national cultural monument in 1995.

"We are in the phase of intense completion," Ondruš stated. The construction is basically finished; they are removing unfinished work or defects and conducting tests.

"Just today, the final tests of the fire protection system were conducted," Ondruš noted. For instance, the flooring needs to be planed, then it will be painted. Furniture is being finished, some of which is already prepared at Libušín, as well as the equipment for food services.

According to Ondruš, the construction should be completed by May 21, the food service and furniture by June 5, followed by the final inspection. The museum is now looking for tenants not only for Libušín but for the whole area, including the neighboring Maměnka, which was also designed by Jurkovič and serves as a hotel with about thirty beds. Offers should come in by next week. "According to the proposed contract, we expect to hand over the entire operation to the tenant 20 days before the opening so that they can equip and prepare it," Ondruš said. The museum has announced the rental tender multiple times. "In the first competition, there were two interested parties; we concluded that perhaps due to the crisis measures, someone missed that the tender was announced, and we announced it again," Ondruš stated.

According to him, five to seven percent of the original elements were used in the reconstruction of the building, particularly some beams and some original windows. At the entrance, two original beams from 1891 from the first cottage that was on the site of Libušín can be seen. The logo of the Pohorská jednota Radhošť, which built the area, will also be on a beam.

The restoration of Libušín was characterized by the use of traditional wood processing methods, predominantly manual work, hand-hewing of beams, or manual planing. Combining modern technologies, such as the self-extinguishing system, with the log wooden structure, which is expected to still "settle" for some time, turned out to be even more challenging than initially anticipated. After the reconstruction, Libušín will return to its form from 1925.

The cost of restoring Libušín was about 111.5 million crowns, of which the construction itself required about 96 million crowns. Including costs for fire site clearance, securing the construction site, or pre-project documentation, the expenditure from the fire to the building amounted to over 117 million crowns.