The heritage zones in Brno remain in effect, the court dismissed Brno's lawsuit

Brno/Praha – The heritage zones that encompass the wider Brno center and parts of Žabovřesky, Černá Pole, Husovice, and Královo Pole, which were declared by the Ministry of Culture in 2022 and 2023, remain in effect for now. Brno's lawsuit, which the city council decided to file last June, was unsuccessful. The Municipal Court in Prague dismissed it on Wednesday, said court spokesman Adam Wenig to ČTK. Czech Radio pointed out the decision and stated that the court rejected objections regarding both the declaration process and the conditions of protection.

City leadership has not yet commented on the decision and is waiting to receive the reasoning for the judgment. According to Wenig, it should be prepared within the standard 30 days from the decision, and the city can file a cassation complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court.

By declaring the city heritage zone in Brno, the Ministry of Culture partially addressed the issue of so-called late-registered monuments which lost protection due to legislative changes in 1988. A new law on heritage care took effect in 1988, abolishing the state list of cultural monuments. Its fund transitioned to the new Central List of Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic. The previous legislation recognized the status of a monument not only for properties on the list but also for buildings considered as cultural monuments. Heritage officials were supposed to register all of these properties and add them to the list. However, in 2015, the Ministry of Culture decided to remove all late-registered monuments from the list. Almost half of the buildings are in Brno, which unsuccessfully contested this in court.

The newly announced zones are intended to protect villa neighborhoods and apartment buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries in the broader center, as well as architecturally significant buildings without heritage protection. Zdeněk Vácha, director of the Brno branch of the National Heritage Institute, repeatedly pointed out that the protection applies to the exterior appearance of buildings, not their interiors. Politicians, when they decided to file the lawsuit, argued that the administrative burden would increase for property owners and officials, as changes would need to be approved not only for the exterior parts of the building but also for the interior.

Vácha expressed very critical views on the lawsuit last June. "It is a sad example of the disrupted relationship of the current representation of the city to its history and unique architectural heritage. Through this, it effectively renounces a part of not only the city's architectural heritage and with the mentality of eastern raiders, it basically puts it at risk," he stated. Now, Vácha admitted a higher administrative burden for Czech Radio, but he welcomed the decision. "I do not know any other tool besides zones – and this was the only one that could be used to prevent further damage to the architectural fund of Brno's historic areas," he said. During the period when heritage protection was not in effect, many property owners could make alterations to the buildings that would likely not have been allowed under heritage protection.