Heritage protectors cannot initiate the restoration of the courtyard in Zákupy, the ÚOHS will decide

Zákupech – Heritage conservationists still do not know when the restoration of the dilapidated farmyard at the castle in Zákupech, costing approximately 125 million crowns, will begin. They selected a company in the tender that will carry out the repair of the most valuable part of this national cultural monument, but the excluded applicant filed a complaint with the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS). The Director of the Regional Heritage Preservation Office in Sychrov, Miloš Kadlec, told ČTK that they sent the requested documents to the ÚOHS last week and are now waiting for the office's decision.

"If we had to repeat the entire competition, it would be a significant threat because implementing the project within the set deadline imposed by the program period would be very difficult," Kadlec stated. Grant recipients in the current program period must complete their projects by the end of 2023 at the latest. If work in Zákupech could begin after this winter, the reconstruction of the southern wing of the complex should be completed by mid-2022.

Heritage conservationists have unsuccessfully been trying to select a company to carry out the repair of part of the farmyard since the middle of last year. The first tender had to be extended several times due to companies’ comments on the tender documents and was eventually canceled because the offers exceeded the established financial limit. The repeated tender was limit-free, and the conservators received four bids. However, the applicant with the lowest price was excluded for failing to meet the qualification requirements. "These were primarily based on references in statics. Because statics is one of the key problems of the farmyard in Zákupech due to the various systems of tunnels, groundwater, and so on. This is still a big unknown, even though extensive hydrogeological surveys have been conducted," Kadlec stated. According to him, one of the members of the excluded group of companies turned to the antimonopoly office, considering the set qualification requirements to be discriminatory.

The farmyard in Zákupech, dating from the second half of the 17th century, is one of the most endangered national monuments in the Liberec Region. It has been state-owned since 2003, and it is estimated that a total of 600 to 700 million crowns are needed for its complete restoration. In the first phase, the conservators want to save the former stable in the southern wing, where up to 60 horses were stabled in the past. For the transformation of the stable into exhibition spaces, the conservators managed to obtain a European subsidy of over 95 million crowns.