Punishment for the pillbox did not fall, the student wants to buy another one

Znojmo - The building authority in Vranov nad Dyjí has not yet decided whether the owner of the border bunker in Vratěnín, Jaroslav Zelinka, will receive a fine. Zelinka said this to ČTK today. He is facing a fine because in the spring, art student Ondřej Bělica cut off one of the upper corners of the fortress with a diamond rope with his consent. The student described it as an expression of art. However, according to the authority, it was a violation of the building law. The act also provoked many dissenting reactions on social media and drew the attention of the media and people from the area to the bunker. Student Bělica is now seeking support that would allow him to buy another bunker in the Znojmo region.

Zelinka is now preparing to comply with the authority's order to cover the hole in the bunker. "Ondřej Bělica and I have agreed to cover it in a way that looks cultivated. However, we haven't gotten around to it yet due to a lack of time, so I will probably just go there and do it temporarily," said the bunker owner, known as a řopík. The second order, to remove the cut-off part and dispose of it environmentally, was revoked by the authority, which Zelinka considered absurd.

Since the artistic project sparked a heated debate, including condemnations that spoke of disrespect for history, Bělica decided to buy one of the other bunkers that the Ministry of Defense is selling. There is also a řopík available in the Znojmo area near the village of Vrbovec. "In an effort to cool passions and approach the topic rationally, the author comes up with the BunkerKauf project. It is about purchasing a bunker ... as part of the BunkerKunst project," Bělica stated on the website www.startovac.cz, where people can financially support various projects. The ministry is selling the bunker for 30,000 crowns.

If the bunker is successfully purchased, the people who contributed to it will jointly decide, according to Bělica, how to use it. "The process of joint decision-making about the object is a reaction to past controversies and an opportunity for meaningful use of the potential of Czechoslovak fortifications at present," Bělica added.

He has previously received support from the Brno University of Technology, where he studies at the faculties of architecture and fine arts. According to the school's statement, the cutting of part of the bunker may have been an unusual act in the eyes of the public, yet it does not go against the values of Czech history. "On the contrary, its goal was to highlight the legacy of military history and the technical execution of buildings associated with it," the school stated in its statement.

Czechoslovakia built a system of smaller and larger bunkers in the 1930s as part of the defense of the republic against the impending aggression of Nazi Germany. Currently, most bunkers are left to the ravages of time, while some have been bought by military history enthusiasts who care for them. Some of these sites have small museums recalling the time of their creation and historical purpose.