Jablonec wants EU money for the reconstruction of Kantor's villa

Jablonec nad Nisou - Jablonec nad Nisou wants to obtain funds from European funds for the restoration of the functionalist Kantor Villa, which the city bought six years ago. The city has a chance to obtain 42.5 million crowns for the restoration of the monument-protected building from the integrated territorial investment program (ITI) for the Liberec - Jablonec agglomeration. It is an exceptional opportunity with a relatively generous grant to reconstruct the property, said Deputy Mayor Jakub Chuchlík (Pirates) today to ČTK.

The villa near the Jablonec dam was built by doctor Alfréd Kantor in 1934 according to a design by Heinrich Kulka, a student and close collaborator of the modern architecture classic Adolf Loos. It resembles the famous Müller Villa in Prague. It is one of the most valuable properties of this style in the region. The town hall, which paid 8.121 million crowns for the building with the garden in 2017, would like to make the house accessible to the public in the future; for now, it is only opened occasionally.

The monument-protected house has four floors, with prominent cubic masses broken up by an irregular grid of windows. The most striking element of the light facade is the entrance with travertine cladding and glass doors with a grille. A private practice, a caretaker's room, a garage, and the house's facilities were placed in a semi-buried basement. The ground floor of the villa was connected to the garden via a terrace. In the 1980s, the villa was remodeled, but the most valuable aspects were preserved according to architects.

In Jablonec, 15 projects are prepared that together anticipate a grant of 853 million crowns, including, among other things, the restoration of the Sokol Hall, which is being prepared by TJ Sokol, or the extension of the tram line to a new transport terminal, which is being planned by the Liberec transport company. The restoration of Kantor Villa is one of the largest projects for which the Jablonec town hall wants to draw grants from ITI. The only larger project is the construction of a new kindergarten by the dam, which expects a grant of 140 million crowns, and the construction of a transport terminal with a pledge of 100 million crowns in grants.

The ITI program Liberec – Jablonec nad Nisou includes 47 municipalities and will distribute about 2.5 billion crowns. So far, it is reported that approximately 1.326 billion from the Integrated Regional Operational Program (IROP), about a billion from the Operational Program for Transport (OPD), and 180 million crowns from the Operational Program for the Environment (OPŽP) should be available for the entire area. "A total of 135 projects applied for the call with demands for grants exceeding 5.5 billion crowns," said Chuchlík. According to him, 70 projects have been approved.