Svitavy opens an architecturally original café

Svitavy, September 2 (ČTK) - The leadership of Svitavy and the project authors today introduced to journalists the newly built Information Center and Oskar Schindler Café on the edge of Jan Palach Park, behind the city hall building. It was created from a former barn with the help of European Union grants. In addition to seating and tourist information, the center is expected to attract visitors with its architectural design, said Mayor Jiří Brýdl.
    "Architect Petr Stolín succeeded in the competition with an extraordinary idea. He managed to preserve the monument while giving it a face of the modern era," Brýdl stated.
    The team of Svitavy natives Petr and Jan Stolín and Alena Holubová based their redesign on the concept of a "house within a house." They placed a modern café space inside the old barn, which can be circled around its perimeter via an internal gallery. The supporting structures are exposed original brickwork, rafters, steel beams, and air ducting; the glass ceiling of the café interior offers a view of the beam roof. Suspended beneath it are neon tubes that light up and dim in an irregular rhythm accompanied by industrial sounds.
    The information function is fulfilled by two metal "black gates" in front of the entrances to the building, where information for tourists is displayed. Texts about the history of the city and its surroundings are continuously projected onto the interior walls of the café, while four screens on the gallery provide details about the landmarks and attractions of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands as well as cultural events in the area. The building is connected to the park, which features a children's play area, and is equipped with a mobile stage for cultural and other events that can be placed in the courtyard behind the building or in the park.
    Free wireless internet is available both in the café and outside it, and laptops can be borrowed inside. The city hall expects that, thanks to the audiovisual and other technical equipment, smaller conferences and seminars could also be organized in the café.
    The construction of the café and information center cost Svitavy nearly 25 million crowns excluding VAT, of which over nine million crowns were provided by the European Union. The building will open to the public on September 3.
    The center's name commemorates Oskar Schindler, the famous native of Svitavy who, although a Nazi and an agent of the German intelligence service, saved 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. In 1994, a memorial plaque was unveiled to Schindler in Svitavy.