The Supreme Court has postponed the dispute over the replacement of lamps in the center of Olomouc

photo: Ester Havlová

Olomouc - The High Court has once again postponed the protracted dispute between the city council and architect Jan Šépka over the replacement of lamps in the Upper Square in the historic center of Olomouc. The architect's legal representative received the city's amended appeal shortly before today's hearing and was unable to study it. Both parties to the dispute have been given time until mid-July to potentially agree on adjustments to the city center's lighting.

Šépka is bothered that the regional court did not order the city to return the lighting in the Upper Square to its original state beyond just an apology and compensation. He therefore appealed to the High Court, and the city council made the same legal move. "The square is being devastated by this action (the lamp replacement) and the work is being damaged," said Šépka, who claims that no information about the poor technical condition or low brightness of the original Thorn lamps, which the city replaced with Philips UrbanStar, was mentioned at the regional court last year. "No one from the city or the technical services could accurately say what the reason for the lamp replacement was," said Šépka.

The regional court in Olomouc ruled last year that the city council violated the rights of the authors of its reconstruction during the lamp replacement in the historic city center. The city disagreed and also appealed. "We perceive this legal dispute as a question of whether property rights, in this case the rights of the statutory city and its citizens, will be subordinated to copyright. I believe that even the Constitution of the Czech Republic states that property rights should take precedence over copyright," commented the regional court's ruling by Mayor Antonín Staněk (ČSSD).

The lighting of the center of Olomouc has been discussed for many years. After the completion of the reconstruction of the Upper Square in 2001, it was found that the then-installed Thorn lamps had low brightness, but the city council left them in place. By 2014, the fixtures were significantly worn out, prompting the city to propose the installation of brighter UrbanStar lamps in the center, similar to those on the adjacent Lower Square.

However, the planned lamp replacement was not favored by conservationists or the authors of the Upper Square reconstruction, who advocated for the original lamps proposed in the project for the city's repair. Instead, in 2001, the city purchased Thorn poles, which the project authors subsequently approved.

Due to the dispute over the appearance of the lighting, the court issued a preliminary injunction in 2014, prohibiting the lamp replacement until the dispute was resolved. However, architect Šépka did not file a lawsuit in time, allowing the city to quickly replace the Thorn lamps with UrbanStar models in September 2014.