The Ústecký Region will renovate a historic villa in Ústí, where a cultural center will be located

Ústí nad Labem – The Ústí Region will repair the historical villa on Na Schodech Street in the center of Ústí nad Labem. The building is managed by the Ústí Region Library, which wants to establish a multicultural center in it, classrooms with virtual reality, and it will also be used for language education and retraining courses. The reconstruction follows the completed extension of the archive. The costs of the villa repairs are approximately 81 million crowns. The region will apply for a European grant from the Operational Program for Just Transformation, said councilor Jan Růžička.

The historically significant building is connected by a basement with the new extension of the Ústí Region Library's archive, which opened to the public in February 2022. The European grant for this investment was obtained by the region only at the time of implementation. A parking lot was also created on the roof of the archive, with costs exceeding 150 million crowns.

The grant from the Just Transformation program could cover 85 percent of the villa's repair costs. However, according to Růžička, the region would carry out the investment even without the grant.

The work will include a complete replacement of internal installations, facade, windows, and roofing, including structural adjustments to the truss, the installation of an elevator in the stairwell, drainage, and insulation of the building. It will also involve all restoration adjustments to surfaces, replacement of floor coverings, and refurbishment of internal doors, adjustments to fencing and retaining walls, purchase of IT equipment, furniture, and interior fittings, and the creation of a cultural and creative center. The basement will house an archive, a space for digitization, and a safe for rare prints, the entire ground floor will be connected to the archive, the American library will be relocated here, and the first floor will serve as an educational center.

The three-story villa was commissioned in the late 19th century by the successful Ústí entrepreneur and chemist Richard Kind, designed by the prominent Vienna architect Hartwig Fischel. After 1945, the villa housed a telecommunications training institute, and later it was acquired by the library for its archives.