KRNAP wants to continue promoting the purchase and demolition of Labská bouda

Vrchlabí (Trutnovsko) - The Administration of Krkonošsko National Park (KRNAP) will strive for the new leadership of the Ministry of the Environment to include the purchase and subsequent demolition of Labská bouda on the ridges of the Krkonoš among its priorities. Jan Hřebačka, the director of the park administration, said this to ČTK today. The costs of removing the concrete monster from the communist regime are estimated at around 90 million crowns.
    The idea of purchasing and removing the lodge was proposed by KRNAP nearly three years ago when the owner of the lodge began offering the property for sale. According to the current website of the real estate agency MT Progress, the property is still for sale.
    Currently, negotiations about the future of the lodge, according to Hřebačka, are halted. "We are waiting for the decision of the new leadership of the Ministry of the Environment on whether this project will be included in their priorities. We hope so," said Hřebačka. He described the previous negotiations with the owners of the lodge as correct. Previous administrations of the ministry supported the intention to demolish the lodge.
    Park administrators claim that the Labská lodge, located in the heart of the first zone of the national park, completely disrupts the landscape character of the mountains. The concrete mass of the lodge has elicited negative emotions from the public since its inception.
    The nine-story lodge is located near the source of the Elbe River at an altitude of 1,340 meters above sea level. It was built after six years of construction in 1975 near the site of the original burnt-down Labská lodge. Upon the privatization of the assets of the state enterprise Interhotels Krkonoš in 1996, it gained a private owner. The lodge has a capacity of 159 beds and extensive dining facilities.