The UNESCO mission will probably not deal with the repair of Charles Bridge

Prague - The UNESCO mission, which will arrive in Prague on Tuesday, will likely not address the controversial repair of Charles Bridge, the most famous Czech cultural monument at all. Martin Kadrman from the Association of Organizations for the Protection and Development of Cultural Heritage (ASORKD), which harshly criticizes the current repair of the bridge, stated this to ČTK. Experts from UNESCO are coming mainly due to the Blanka Tunnel, as they want to verify the impacts of the construction on the Prague heritage reserve. This reserve has been on the UNESCO list since the early 1990s.
Earlier, they examined, for example, whether the values for which Prague was inscribed on the prestigious list would be endangered by the construction of high-rise buildings in Pankrác. The city later committed to developing a document to regulate the height of any future high buildings that could affect Prague's skyline. Now, following alerts from civic associations, experts are arriving mainly due to Blanka, and according to the city hall, they also want to explore the construction of tunnels under the National Museum or the planned revitalization of the train station.
There was also consideration that they might assess the reconstruction of Charles Bridge. However, according to information from ASORKD, this will not happen. "The one who ensured that this does not happen is the director of the Czech branch of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) Josef Štulc," Kadrman believes. Štulc prepared a document on the reconstruction of the bridge, which the members of the mission should have available. While ASORKD and in its earlier statements the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) demanded a halt to the work on the bridge, Štulc, like the Prague city hall, opposes this. Thus, the position of ICOMOS for the UNESCO mission is also aligned with this.
Experts are likely to receive information about the repair of the bridge from the city hall, but it is unclear whether the Ministry of Culture (MK), which is the superior body of state heritage care, has prepared any; however, the ministerial inspection, which pointed out the controversial reconstruction, was not requested. Following the initiative of the MK, any potential sanctions for alleged violations of the law during the bridge’s repair will not be addressed by the Prague city hall, but by the Plzeň regional office. Last week, administrative proceedings were initiated.
Štulc was the chief conservator of the NPÚ at the time the reconstruction of the bridge began and at the time criticism from the MK inspection was published; the new general director dismissed him, but he still works at the institute. From the beginning, he was against the criticism as published by the inspection. Shortly afterward, he published an article in the Bulletin of the Art History Society, in which he labeled the repair as appropriate and had no objections to its individual steps, which the ministry criticized so harshly.
In January 2009, the bulletin published a text in response to his article by then-Minister of Culture Václav Jehlička, which had not been published elsewhere. It states that the writer "is evidently manipulating facts, ignoring proven violations of the law on state heritage care, and indiscriminately slandering the work"... of the MK heritage inspection.
While a year ago Štulc approached the state of reconstruction without reservations, in the text for UNESCO he admits deficiencies in the city’s preparation of documentation and preliminary surveys, but also, for example, in the criticized excessive replacement of old stone blocks with new ones. However, he believes that the main mistakes in the repairs have been corrected. Štulc also criticizes the campaign of civic initiatives to halt the work on the bridge.