In the old train station building in Ústí n. O., there could be apartments and a hostel

Ústí nad Orlicí - In the historic building of the railway station in Ústí nad Orlicí, there could be apartments, a hostel, a restaurant, a café, a bakery, or a microbrewery. This is planned by the company Oustecké nádraží, which recently acquired the monument-protected building. They paid 1.45 million crowns to Czech Railways for it. Martin Kadrman, the managing director of Oustecké nádraží and initiator of its rescue, told ČTK this. Today, the new owners opened the building for public viewing. The building was originally supposed to be demolished.

Today, more than 200 people came to view the building. "We evaluate the event as successful. For many visitors, it was a surprise how well-preserved the building is," Kadrman said. According to him, the civil protection shelter in the building's basement attracted a lot of attention from visitors. It contains a functional air filtration system, which successfully passed inspection as recently as 2006.

"Czech Railways handed over the building to us on May 27, and Oustecké nádraží was registered as the owner in the land registry in recent days," Kadrman said. Together with Kadrman, there are three other co-owners of Oustecké nádraží, including director and documentarian Olga Sommerová, who was also involved in the rescue of the station.

The neoclassical building of the station building from 1874 was to be removed due to the modernization of the railway corridor and the construction of a new station. Activists have been working to save it since 2008, and in 2010 they succeeded in having the building declared a cultural monument. A petition against the demolition of the building, which is often referred to as the Old Lady, was signed by over 16,000 people. In 2014, a new station building was opened, and the historic structure was closed.

Kadrman expects that the first public services could appear in the historic building during the summer. "It would be a café or ice cream sales," he said. Other plans will require longer preparation since, for example, energy connections will need to be repaired. However, Oustecké nádraží is already looking for future tenants for apartments and entrepreneurs for business in the building. "Compared to the past, living in railway stations is declining. And that harms them," Kadrman said regarding the plan to create housing in the building.

Today, people could view the entire building, including its operational part. According to Kadrman, today's event symbolically marked the end of the stage of rescuing the building from demolition and the beginning of its revitalization period.

The station, designed by architect Rudolf Frey, is one of the oldest station buildings in the country. The building has an H-shaped layout with stone cornices and is made of exposed brick, while the upper floors are made of less common half-timbered construction. It is interesting, among other things, because it stands in the middle of the railway yard and is passable, allowing dispatchers and passengers to move to both sides. After the modernization of the track is completed, a underpass from the new departure hall will lead to it, where café or restaurant services are not available. Unlike the past, it is no longer possible to access the old building by car, complicating its commercial use.