The Central Bohemian Archives are investing in new spaces

Kutná Hora/Kladno – Central Bohemian archives are investing in new spaces. In Kutná Hora, the reconstruction of the district archive, costing over 50 million crowns, is nearing completion, and a completely new building is set to be constructed in Kladno. It will have seven floors and estimated costs are around 300 million crowns, said Daniel Doležal, director of the State Regional Archive in Prague, to ČTK.

In Kutná Hora, builders have been repairing the current headquarters of the archive in the former Lidka chocolate factory building on Benešová Street since last April. "The reconstruction has been truly extensive; we will have both new public spaces and facilities for archivists, a restoration workplace, and especially quite substantial capacity storage rooms," said Vojtěch Vaněk from the State District Archive in Kutná Hora to ČTK. According to Doležal, the building should be completed in September and opened to the public by the end of the year.

In Kladno, on the other hand, a completely new building will replace the former vocational school in Rozdělov. This building is unsuitable for the needs of archivists and will be demolished. "A modern archive should be built there to serve the entire Central Bohemia, with high capacity and reserves for other archive activities," Doležal stated. The new building is to have seven floors, three of which will be underground. Work is currently underway on the project. If a building permit is secured by next autumn, construction could start in 2023.

Investments are also needed in Příbram, where the archive has structural issues. Part of the building had to be vacated, and documents were moved to a temporary storage facility outside Příbram. Problems with the technical condition of the building from 1997 began to arise five years ago. The archive commissioned a structural survey, which concluded that the foundation slab is not capable of bearing such a significant load over the long term. As a result, it filed a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator for public endangerment, but, according to Doležal, the police have shelved the case. The author of the architectural solution, Karel Cvrček, had previously told ČTK that the error could have arisen on multiple sides and that the structure might have been overloaded.

The archive's management aims to build an extension on the adjacent plot in Příbram. A feasibility study has been prepared, but currently, there are no funds for construction due to the costly projects in Kutná Hora and Kladno. "Further steps will depend on financial resources and personnel capacity of the archive. Work must be done gradually," Doležal said.

Central Bohemian archives operated in a minimal mode during the pandemic and were completely closed only briefly. Researchers could study, but in limited numbers. "We have already relaxed the regime twice. As of early May, we are at 50 percent capacity in our reading rooms. Unfortunately, researchers still have to book in advance because some of our reading rooms, typically in Kolín, are very small and cannot accommodate more than one or two people. However, there are reading rooms, like those in Příbram or at the headquarters, which are large enough that even half capacity is never fully utilized," Doležal added.