Karlštejn will complete its renovations this year, and the pyramid of bones in Sedlec will return

Prague - For this year's season, operators of monuments in Central Bohemia have prepared innovations not only in the form of improved facilities for tourists but also new exhibitions or the use of modern technologies. By the end of the year, the National Heritage Institute will complete the reconstruction of Karlštejn Castle. In the second half of this year, the pyramid made of bones in the Sedlec Ossuary near Kutná Hora will be reassembled. Jakub Kulhánek from the Central Bohemian Tourism Center informed ČTK today.

Data on the visitor numbers at tourist destinations for last year are not yet available. However, according to the spokesperson of the center, Linda Dlouhá, more tourists stayed in Central Bohemia year-on-year, even more than in the years before the coronavirus epidemic. "In Central Bohemia, we managed to attract Czech visitors to our region during last summer's season, and there were even the most in the last ten years," Dlouhá told ČTK.

At Karlštejn Castle, a CZK 150 million reconstruction, initiated by the National Heritage Institute in 2020, should be completed by the end of this year. A visitor center with ticket offices, new sanitary facilities, a multipurpose sports hall, and new exhibitions are being created at the castle. "We are about halfway through the entire project, the demolition work has already been completed. I consider it important that the reconstruction has not affected visitors in any way; we did not limit the tours," said the castle manager Lukáš Kunst for ČTK.

The Central Bohemian Museum in Roztoky near Prague will open a multimedia archaeological exhibition titled Archevita – Traces of Ages in the second half of April. The exhibition will cover the period from the Stone Age to the early Middle Ages, and its creators will utilize projections, holograms, and virtual reality.

In the second half of the year, the pyramid made of bones in the Sedlec Ossuary near Kutná Hora will be reassembled. This had to be taken apart by restorers in 2019 due to the structural stabilization of the monument. A wooden internal structure is currently being prepared, and the assembly of the external layer made of bones is expected to begin in April.

A new military museum is expected to open in Milovice in the middle of the year, and a new House of Nature of the Czech Karst will serve visitors at the end of the year near the Koněpruské Caves in the Czech Karst.

This year's tourist season in Central Bohemia, according to Dlouhá, will greatly depend on the current development of the pandemic. Possible easing of foreign travel this summer would, according to her, lead to an outflow of Czech visitors abroad. The tourist season begins at the turn of March and April when castles, chateaus, and other sites that do not operate year-round open. The start of the tourist season has been postponed in the last two years due to the coronavirus epidemic, visitor numbers have decreased, and operators' profits have dropped.