The town hall unexpectedly replaced the lamps in the center of Olomouc

photo: Ester Havlová

Olomouc - The Olomouc City Hall today unexpectedly replaced the lamps at the Upper Square in the historic center of the city. Workers removed the original lanterns and installed new Philips UrbanStar lamps, which have illuminated the neighboring Lower Square since last year. Due to the lamp replacement, the city hall entered into a dispute with Prague architect Jan Šépka, co-author of the renovation of the Upper Square. A court issued a preliminary injunction in July, prohibiting the lamp replacement until the dispute was resolved.
    The mayor of Olomouc, Martin Major (ODS), claims that the city hall was able to replace the lamps. According to him, a part of the preliminary injunction included a call for architect Šépka to file a lawsuit against the unauthorized interference with his work by a certain date. "This did not happen by the given deadline, and thus the preliminary injunction has lapsed. There are no legal obstacles preventing the previously approved decision by the council to replace the lighting at the Upper Square," wrote Major on his Facebook profile today.
    Šépka disagrees, arguing that the city hall could not replace the lamps because he filed the lawsuit within the proper timeframe. According to the architect, the city now faces a fine of 100,000 crowns for violating the court's preliminary injunction and additional financial costs for restoring the lighting to its original state. "It is arrogant behavior that, in my opinion, will backfire on the city. I do not recall any city acting in this manner against a court," said Šépka to ČTK.
    Olomouc has been discussing how best to illuminate the Upper Square for several months. After the renovation of the square was completed in 2001, it was found that the lamps installed at that time, Thorn, do not provide sufficient light. The fixtures are already significantly worn out. Therefore, the city hall proposed in the spring to install Philips UrbanStar lamps in the center by the end of this year. However, this has not pleased heritage conservationists or the authors of the Upper Square renovation project, who initially advocated for lamps designed in the city center repair project. Instead, Thorn columns were eventually purchased, which the authors of the Upper Square renovation project approved.
    Šépka previously stated that the installation of Philips UrbanStar lanterns would violate copyright on the city center repair. Therefore, he requested a preliminary injunction, which the court granted. The city hall appealed against the preliminary injunction. In July, Major told ČTK that the city had commissioned a legal analysis indicating that the judge's resolution regarding the preliminary injunction contained several serious deficiencies.
    Šépka claims that he can seek a ban on the lamp replacement or financial compensation in court. According to Šépka, the originally proposed lamps are half as expensive as the Philips UrbanStar lamps, have twice the luminous flux, and their maintenance is not complicated. The architect’s lawyers pointed out that the Philips lamps do not even need to be installed at the Upper Square since repairing the Thorn lanterns would suffice.