The castle in Břeclav has a renovated tower; the rest lacks funding

Břeclav – The repair of the southern tower at the Břeclav castle has recently been completed, costing more than 5.5 million crowns. When the rest of the building will be repaired is still uncertain, said Břeclav mayor Svatopluk Pěček (ANO) to ČTK.

"We have prepared project documentation and obtained a building permit for the repair. However, the costs of the reconstruction are preliminarily estimated at 200 million crowns, which is not feasible from the city budget," Pěček stated.

Břeclav manages an annual budget of about 600 million crowns, and 200 million represents the amount the city has available for investments over three years, including all repairs of schools, sidewalks, and other city equipment.

"The repair of the southern tower was necessary because the tower was in a state of emergency. Given that various cultural events take place there, there was a risk that someone could get hurt. Of the total costs, which reached almost six million crowns, we managed to secure a grant of 450,000 crowns from the Ministry of Culture," the mayor said.

According to him, the city hall is trying to secure grants from several different sources. Although the Břeclav castle is a cultural monument, it is not a national cultural monument and thus has no chance of receiving a larger sum from the Ministry of Finance. "We have several unsuccessful applications behind us, and now we are waiting for a decision on support from Norwegian funds. We will, of course, keep trying, but the city budget is likely to face lean years," Pěček stated.

Due to the first wave of the coronavirus, the city budget lost 60 million crowns, although it received 30 million in government compensations. The decline in income also included the cancellation of parking fees during the state of emergency and the reduction of rents for entrepreneurs. After the cancellation of the super-gross wage, the city is expected to lose an additional 40 million, according to the mayor. The city is thus more focused on negotiating with private companies that could contribute to the funding of the castle repair.