Position of ČKA on the proposed construction of a rotating auditorium in the garden of the castle in Český Krumlov

The historical baroque garden of the Český Krumlov castle is a completely unique monument of garden architecture and a significant part of the whole listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The placement of the rotating auditorium of the outdoor stage in this garden meant a fundamental devaluation in the 1950s; this act was unfortunately confirmed again in the early 1990s. The Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA) believes that it would be unreasonable to repeat these mistakes of the past – rather, it is desirable to take the opportunity to rehabilitate this unique work of landscape architecture when the existing rotating auditorium object needs to be dismantled, which would undoubtedly benefit the castle complex itself as well as the town of Český Krumlov.
The South Bohemian Theatre's rotating auditorium can remain in Český Krumlov without it coming at the cost of further fatal intervention into the complex of the unique baroque castle garden – the results of a student competition announced in 2012 by the Faculty of Architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague demonstrate this. The currently prepared competition, initiated by the city of České Budějovice as the founder of the South Bohemian Theatre, should explore various solutions and suitable locations for a new rotating auditorium stage outside the castle garden, without devaluing it, which could even lead to the removal of the town of Český Krumlov from the UNESCO World Heritage List.
ČKA supports architectural competitions, especially when it involves significant public contracts, such as the potential construction of a new theater stage in Český Krumlov – in such cases, ČKA offers support to organizers in preparing quality competition conditions and organizing the competition itself. However, the Chamber considers it unreasonable and, from the perspective of its own competition as well as the handling of public funds, counterproductive to prepare a competition for any location within the historical garden of the Český Krumlov castle.
We believe that this is not at all a dispute between heritage protection on one side and so-called live culture on the other. It is a fundamentally essential question about our culturalness, which also lies in our ability to reflect and value the values we have inherited from previous generations.
Through this statement, ČKA expresses its unequivocal disagreement with the confirmation of the location of the rotating auditorium of the South Bohemian Theatre's outdoor stage in the castle garden in Český Krumlov and calls for respect for the incalculable significance of this monument.

Ivan Plicka, Chairman of ČKA