Repairs to the Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc will begin on April 8

Olomouc – The repair of the Column of the Holy Trinity in Olomouc, which is on the UNESCO World Heritage list, will begin on Monday, April 8. This was announced by the spokesperson for the city hall, Radka Štědrá. The contract was awarded to academic sculptor René Tikal in a tender. The repair of the 32-meter-high landmark of the historic center will cost 30.2 million Czech crowns including VAT, 85 percent of the costs will be covered by a grant. Initial estimates of the contract price mentioned an amount of 31.2 million Czech crowns. The sculptor will have 990 days to complete the work from the date of taking over the construction site.

According to the head of the investment department of the city, Marek Drešr, experts last cleaned the Column of the Holy Trinity ten years ago and a more extensive repair is now necessary. "The subject of the public contract is the execution of a complete restoration intervention on the stone and metal elements," states the announcement of the public contract. There will be scaffolding around the baroque column, and experts do not currently plan to dismantle the sculptures. However, restoration research will show whether it will be necessary. The councilors expect that the demanding repair of the column will take place over two summer seasons.

The last major renovation of the baroque monument lasted almost a year and a half and was completed in 2001. The renovation at that time cost nearly 17 million Czech crowns. Among other things, experts removed sculptures from the column that were in a critical condition. A hundred people worked on the monument. Restoring the more than 30-meter-high column was considered one of the most extensive works in the Czech Republic at that time. In the following years, the monument underwent several other expert interventions.

The Column of the Holy Trinity is the work of Václav Render and his successors. The sculptural decoration was contributed by Filip Sattler and Ondřej Zahner. The baroque column was built between 1716 and 1754. According to city officials, the monument, due to its inscription on the UNESCO list, serves as a magnet for tourists from all over the world, attracting visitors from Japan, China, and South Korea to Olomouc.