Telč today commemorated 25 years since its inscription on the UNESCO list

Telč - The inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list meant for Telč, according to Mayor Roman Fabeš (SNK ED), entry among the most significant global monuments. In the six-thousand-strong Telč, tourist traffic has significantly increased. The city has become a "good address" for the representation of several universities and other important institutions. The monuments of Telč were inscribed along with Prague and Český Krumlov in the prestigious list as the first Czech cities 25 years ago, in 1992.

"For property owners, however, it is sometimes more complicated to deal with the requirements of heritage preservation," Fabeš admitted. According to him, the historic core of the city was a city heritage reserve before the inscription, with clearly defined principles of heritage protection. "In this respect, apart from an increase in administration, there has been no tightening of principles," Fabeš said. On the other hand, according to him, construction modifications are assessed more rigorously. Owners, however, have the opportunity to draw subsidies for the restoration of their heritage buildings from programs of the Ministry of Culture, the Vysočina Region, and the city.

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the inscription of the first Czech monuments on the UNESCO list and the 45th anniversary of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was marked today at a ceremonial conference at the Telč Castle. Representatives from the National Heritage Institute, the Ministry of Culture, the city itself, and other institutions attended.

According to the General Director of the National Heritage Institute, Naděždy Goryczkové, Telč meets several criteria defined by the World Heritage Center. "Telč has a unique and completely non-standard medieval layout, it has amazing architecture made up of urban houses with a range of Renaissance and Baroque gables, it has a castle that is the city's dominant feature, and a number of other monuments. The whole is complemented by a unique set of city ponds. From a global perspective, the city is exceptional and we must appreciate that," said Goryczková.

Telč has long been a place of education and culture, as well as an interesting location for filmmakers and tourists. After being inscribed on the UNESCO list, everything intensified even more. Masaryk University in Brno and the Czech Technical University in Prague have their facilities in the city; the training center was previously run by the Ministry of Education and is now the Financial Directorate of Prague. "It is quite logical that Telč is the seat of the regional NPÚ office. The top office is the Center of Excellence of the Academy of Sciences,” Fabeš stated. The revitalization of the Panský dvůr complex, the construction of a new ice rink, and the upcoming project of a Senior Home demonstrate, according to him, that the city is also interesting for private investors.

The most visited monument in Telč is the state castle. In the last three years, the number of its visitors approached one hundred thousand. However, last year other city monuments also recorded higher attendance. About 17,000 people visited the St. Spirit Tower, nearly 8,000 visited the underground, and 7,000 tourists went to the lookout tower.