No one has shown interest in the rental of Veleslavín Castle

Prague - No one applied for the public tender for the lease of the baroque Veleslavín castle area in Prague 6. The price was set at 750,000 crowns per month. The Office for the Representation of the State in Property Matters (ÚZSVM) will announce a second public tender on Friday, December 7. This time, the monthly rental price will be a third lower. The information, reported by the portal SeznamZprávy.cz, was confirmed by the spokesperson of ÚZSVM, Radek Ležatka. The office originally wanted to auction the castle for 382 million crowns, but the Minister of Culture withdrew the necessary consent for the auction. Prague is striving to obtain the castle into its property.

The office wants to find a tenant only for the time until it finds a new owner for the castle. Interested parties include the Ministry of Culture and the capital city. Minister of Culture Antonín Staněk (ČSSD) stated when withdrawing the consent for the auction that the building should remain in public ownership. According to him, the castle could be used for one of the cultural institutions or it could serve the residents of Prague. The capital city and Prague 6 want to cooperate to acquire the castle for the city's property. The city would like to use it for social or cultural needs.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) proposed at the end of November that the state could exchange the castle with Prague for 16 plots of land in Letňany, where, according to the Prime Minister's vision, a so-called government quarter for state officials should be created. The given plots have a value of 350 million crowns. Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) has repeatedly rejected the idea of a government quarter.

However, the new leadership of the capital does not reject the exchange of Veleslavín castle for other real estate. Councilor for property Jan Chabr (United Forces/TOP 09) previously stated that the castle could be exchanged for fire stations owned by the city, which the Ministry of the Interior has expressed interest in.

The ÚZSVM wanted to address the situation by auctioning since the lease contract of the castle's tenant, who operated a private healthcare facility there, ended on November 30. Since the company only rented the main building, according to the server, it paid 210,000 crowns per month. With the termination of the contract, the state incurred costs for security. The office must operate in a way that does not decrease the value of entrusted property and must also prevent unnecessary expenditures from the state budget for the maintenance of the premises.

The auction date and the auction itself were criticized in September by representatives of Prague 6, as it was likely that the city hall would not have time to apply for the auction due to a change in the capital's leadership, and as a public institution, the city would have a small chance of succeeding.

The castle with a historic park that extends over three hectares dates back to around 1725. It was built according to the plans of Kilián Ignác Dientzenhofer for Empress Amália of Brunswick. The area was last reconstructed in 1986. ÚZSVM took over the baroque castle in 2015 from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.