Pardubice wants to have polytechnic workshops in the Automatic Mills

photo: Zdeněk Pražák

Pardubice - In the building of the Automatic Mills, Pardubice would like to have a Central Polytechnic Workshop that would serve schools and technical clubs. This was decided by the city council. The heritage-protected object belongs to private owners, the Smetana couple; the city would like to rent part of it. A contract regarding a future agreement between both parties should be drafted by June 22.

"The owner needs to have clarity by June so that they can start designing the entire complex and clarify the whole concept of its use," said Deputy Mayor Jakub Rychtecký (ČSSD).

The workshops are to have above-standard technical equipment that would be too costly for individual schools. They should offer suitable study and experimental projects, interestingly supplement curricula and translate them into practical exercises. They aim to foster a natural interest in technology and nature among children, eliminate negative attitudes toward technical subjects, manual work, physics, mathematics, and chemistry, and better demonstrate the practical use of multimedia and computer technologies in everyday practice. The spaces should also serve various clubs and preparations for scientific and technical competitions for youth in the afternoon.

The city anticipates that it would rent part of the mill complex for 15 years. The rent would be zero for the first three years, for the next five years the city would pay 500 crowns per square meter, and in the remaining seven years 1000 crowns per square meter. According to Rychtecký, this is comparable to the price paid by an art school located in a private facility.

Pardubice is also preparing to build polytechnic workshops and laboratories in all 15 elementary schools that it operates. In the first phase, eight will be created for 98 million crowns, most of the funding is to be obtained from European subsidies.

The Automatic Mills complex has been abandoned for more than three years. The Austrian company GoodMills initially offered it to the city, but the city council repeatedly rejected the purchase. For 25 million crowns, the mills were acquired at the end of 2015 by architect Lukáš Smetana and his wife.

The Automatic Mills were designed by Josef Gočár for brothers Egon and Karel Winternitz. They were built between 1909 and 1911. In the 1920s, a new silo was added, linked to the older part by a bridge. Some parts of the buildings are adorned with cornices reminiscent of castle battlements. In the 1960s, the left river wing was extended by a four-story annex. In 2014, the original part was declared a national cultural monument.