The Ústí nad Labem City Hall violated the heritage conservation law

Ústí nad Labem - The Ústí nad Labem City Hall has allegedly violated the law on state monument care, according to conservationists, by starting the reconstruction of the mayor's wing of the city hall without the expert opinion of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ). The building has been a cultural monument since 1963. Petr Hrubý from the Ústí branch of NPÚ stated this to ČTK. The city hall defends itself by saying that everything should have been taken care of by the company IDP, which was responsible for the technical and engineering activities for the reconstruction. However, the owner of IDP, Vladislav Kašper, told ČTK that it was not the company's obligation.
    The Ústí nad Labem City Hall has bypassed the conservationists before. In 2004, it allowed a giant advertisement for a private radio station to be placed on the facade of the protected building without their approval. The then-mayor Petr Gandalovič (ODS), who is now the Minister of Agriculture, responded to the conservationists' remarks at the time: "The conservationists will endure it for two days." The advertisement remained on the building for several weeks.
    Květoslava Čelišová, the chairwoman of the opposition KSČM council, expressed her astonishment that the city hall has circumvented the monument care law twice. "If the office wants citizens to fulfill their legal obligations, it should itself ensure compliance with all laws,” Čelišová told ČTK. According to her, officials cannot choose which laws they will adhere to and which they will not.
    The city hall building was completed in 1962. A year later, it was declared a cultural monument because of its architecture. In 1994, there was an attempt to revoke the monument protection of the building. However, the city hall remained a protected monument.
    The reconstruction of the mayor's wing for seven million crowns began on January 26. The city hall contacted the conservationists on January 31. Currently, the city leadership is still unsure how it will finance the reconstruction. The city councilors will soon vote on the release of seven million crowns. The ODS and ČSSD coalition has a comfortable majority in the city council.
    City spokesman Milan Knotek explained that officials approached the conservationists after realizing that IDP had not fulfilled its obligations. Hrubý noted that the reconstruction is unlikely to significantly impair the monument's value. However, he mentioned that the installation of three new windows remains an unresolved issue. "We will supervise to ensure that the promised window replicas are installed; if this does not happen, we will file a suggestion for remediation,” Hrubý told ČTK.
    The facade of the city hall was originally adorned with a large metal sculpture by Olbram Zoubek, thematically relevant to the era of its creation in the 1960s. In the early 90s, the sculpture was removed. Since then, the area has been empty. Only at Christmas does it feature a light Christmas decoration.