The historical town of the year 2020 is Havlíčkův Brod

Prague – The Historical City of the Year 2020 has been awarded to Havlíčkův Brod today. The prize for the best care for monuments and a reward of one million crowns for further care of cultural heritage in Prague was accepted by its deputy mayor Libor Honzárek.

The competition is organized by the Association of Historical Settlements of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia and the ministries of culture and local development, which recognize the best implementation of subsidies from the Program for the Regeneration of Urban Heritage Reserves and Zones. In the program, funds for repairs are combined from state, municipal, and private sources.

Of the 14 finalists and regional winners this year, the Minister for Local Development Award went to the towns of Kutná Hora and Žatec. They receive a reward of 100,000 crowns, just like all regional winners.

The representative of the awarded town, Libor Honzárek, is the chairman of the association that organizes the Historical City of the Year competition. After receiving the award, he told ČTK and Czech Television that he does not feel disadvantaged by his involvement in the association. "We began preparing for the extensive revitalization of the city center 16 years ago, and about ten years ago the first phase of the reconstruction of the main square in Havlíčkův Brod was completed," Honzárek said.

"It is important to have a clear goal, to find a kind of grid of gradual tasks, to negotiate with all stakeholders, namely the designer, the city funding it, the heritage institute, network managers, property owners... quality preparation is necessary and then to adhere to the plan," he said. "In the last ten years, we have invested about 300 million crowns into the revitalization of the Urban Heritage Zone, of which approximately 50 million were subsidies. From the city's own resources, we have allocated a quarter billion crowns," said the deputy mayor of the Historical City of the Year 2020.

In the finals this year were also the Prague 1 district, Prachatice, Ivančice, Cheb, Opočno, Dubá, Frenštát pod Radhoštěm, Olomouc, Vysoké Mýto, Horažďovice, and Holešov.