The conservationists have completed the rescue work at the burned-down Karnola building

Krnov - Heritage conservationists have recently completed rescue work at the site of the burned former textile factory Karnola. The property owner, the town of Krnov, must secure the building of the sample room and adjacent workshops and determine whether it is still possible to build a museum there. The costs of saving the damaged samples are estimated at 12 million crowns. The town's spokesperson, Dita Círová, said this today.

"We must bring the former textile factory building into a usable and safe condition and find out whether it will be possible to draw on European financial resources for the revitalization of Karnola, which Krnov has received from the Integrated Regional Operational Programme, even after the fire," she said. Earlier, the city had been promised 123 million crowns for the museum project.

According to her, the rescue work of the heritage conservationists has ended for the time being. "From a heritage conservation perspective, we are almost done in the depository where the fabric samples, spools of yarn, and machine equipment were stored in the state they were on the last working day. The most valuable damaged samples, paper cards, and yarn on spools, which were supposed to be frozen to prevent complete degradation, are stored in freezers; the rest is stored in the buildings of the adjacent state archive," said Andrea Šírová from the city's heritage department.

According to her, some written materials were taken to the Bruntál Museum for drying, and the machine parts will be transported to the municipal museum for temporary storage. "The machines remained on-site; they are cleaned, stabilized, and we will have a conservation plan prepared with a description of the work required for each machine and a price estimate. Based on that, we will then decide which machines should be restored and which presented in their current condition," she added.

The town now also has an initial estimate for the restoration of the samples. "It is high, averaging 150,000 crowns per bundle. This means that restoring just the samples from the freezers would cost at least 12 million crowns. Therefore, we will have to carefully select the samples for restoration," said Šírová.

The town now has to secure the sample room and workshops, board up broken windows, and close the hole in the roof that was created during the firefighting. A list of these tasks has already been sent by officials to the Department of Culture and Heritage Conservation of the Moravian-Silesian Region, which is responsible for national cultural monuments. Work on the project documentation provisionally titled Karnola - Consequences of the Fire will also begin in the near future.

"It will involve a review of the original project documentation, which should answer the question of how much the consequences of the fire will affect the scope of the construction work, which is planned to begin in the spring. The changes to the project will then be assessed by the Ministry of Regional Development, which will decide whether it will be willing to finance our project from IROP in this altered form," said Deputy Mayor Michal Brunclík (ČSSD).

The town plans to turn the former factory into a center for culture and education. The Municipal Museum of Krnov should find its home here, and there should also be multifunctional spaces designated for community gatherings.