UNESCO will not insist on the removal of the Český Krumlov carousel

České Budějovice - UNESCO will most likely not insist on the removal of the rotating auditorium from the baroque garden in Český Krumlov. There is hope for the construction of a new removable rotating auditorium without the city being removed from the prestigious list of world heritage. Jiří Šesták, director of the South Bohemian Theatre and senator, told ČTK after the weekend visit of UNESCO commissioners.
    The garden was placed on the list in 1992 along with the city center, and conservationists have long sought the removal of the rotating auditorium from the garden. The former leadership of the Ministry of Culture promised UNESCO that the turntable would be removed by 2015.
    According to Šesták, the representatives of UNESCO visited the turntable for the very first time during the season and watched a theatrical performance. During a five-hour meeting, they heard the arguments of all parties involved. They will send their position within two months, and they required the conditions for announcing an architectural competition for the new turntable to be elaborated.
    According to Šesták, the theatrical season in Krumlov would not need to be interrupted at all. Next year, the theater plans to hold four outdoor premieres there. Then, a request for the extension of the lease for the existing turntable would likely be made. The new turntable could then be manufactured off-season and installed.
    "From my layman's perspective, a new turntable can be built outside the theater season. Previous turntables were constructed within two months, except for the last one, which was built like a rocket silo with facilities five meters underground; that took four years," Šesták told ČTK. When it comes to the removable model, according to him, the speed will be crucial. "It's not that it will take five months to demolish and five months to build," he said.
    The Czech side - the Ministry of Culture under the leadership of Daniel Herman, the city of České Budějovice, which owns the monument, the South Bohemian Theatre, which runs the outdoor theater, the National Heritage Institute, which administers the castle complex, and also the region and the city of Český Krumlov, have reached an agreement on what the future of the turntable should look like. The new turntable will be in the same place as the existing one, will have the same capacity of 650 seats, and will be about five meters lower. The facilities will be moved from the adjacent Bellarie chateau to the south of the turntable behind the garden walls, where the theater has rented space from the church foundation. It will not disrupt the appearance off-season. Bellarie will serve the public.
    Over the 55 years of performances in front of the turntable, more than two million spectators have attended. This year, there will be about 53,000 of them. All performances are 99 percent sold out. Revenues amount to around 28 million crowns, with a profit of eight million. If there were to be a break in the seasons, there would be a threat of cancellation of the ballet and opera of the South Bohemian Theatre, which is subsidized by the city.
    Once the statement from the UNESCO commissioners arrives, the city will announce an architectural competition, after which funding for the construction of the new auditorium will be sought. The leadership of the city of Český Krumlov has also taken an active stance towards building a new turntable. According to Mayor Dalibor Carda, the council has already approved a proposal for a new zoning plan that will allow the construction of facilities for actors and spectators outside the garden boundaries. The council will discuss the proposal next week. Work on it could take up to two years, he told ČTK. Until then, the theater, in the case of extending the lease for the old turntable, could use the Castle Riding Hall as facilities, because conservationists insist on the immediate evacuation of Bellarie.