The repairs of St. Bartholomew's Church will be completed by the end of next year

Kolín - Repairs around the Church of St. Bartolomew are ongoing in Kolín. The main part of the work should be completed by the end of June 2019, and the repairs of the ossuary, including restoration work on the bones, should be finished by the end of next year. The costs will reach approximately 60 million crowns, said Deputy Mayor Michael Kašpar (Change for Kolín) to ČTK.

Currently, the company is repairing several buildings in the church complex; work is ongoing, for example, on the city wall, in the interiors of the bell tower, and in the ossuary. For the winter period, primarily restoration and carpentry work is planned, such as the repair of the staircase in the bell tower.

"The historical center of Kolín will gain a completely new dimension, it will be renovated, offering many interesting exterior and interior features, and most importantly - after many decades, the historical heart of Kolín will be opened to all,” said Kašpar.

The tender for the project was won by BFK service, which has already done several reconstructions and constructions in Kolín. Their victory in the tender was aided by a consortium with the company Gema Art, which specializes in the rescue and restoration of monuments. The leadership of Kolín had previously stated that the Church of St. Bartolomew must be renovated by a company with experience in monument restoration. At the same time, Kolín will ensure that the work is supervised by monument conservators. The conditions of the public contract were set so that the construction company had to collaborate with a conservation firm.

As part of the reconstruction, the construction company also conducted a historical building survey, and approximately 20 to 30 centimeters below the surface of the area between the church and the building of the old school, original old pavement was discovered.

The city will have the pavement, public lighting replaced around the church, will add furniture, and will renovate the buildings of the bell tower, ossuary, and old school. According to Kašpar, the key point is that the project was developed for the entire surrounding area of the church. A replica of an 18th-century classroom will be placed in the renovated building of the old school.

The Church of St. Bartolomew in Kolín is a significant Gothic sacral building. It was built in the second half of the 13th century, from which the three-nave structure with a pair of octagonal western towers has been preserved. In the 14th century, Peter Parléř built a new cathedral choir with a wreath of chapels. At the beginning of the 16th century, a bell tower was added.