Pardubice selected a construction company for the Memorial Zámeček

Pardubice - The Zámeček Memorial dedicated to the victims of the Heydrich Terror could be opened by Pardubice next year. The council today selected a construction company, and on Thursday, the councilors are to approve the funding. Mayor Martin Charvát (ANO) told reporters today. He admitted that the project has been delayed and its price has increased.

"We have been negotiating with the project documentation supplier over the final price for a year. We have repeatedly returned the project, making various adjustments to maintain the final price. In the end, there was a slight increase; the construction market is overheated. However, we managed to increase European grants,” said the mayor.

The councilors today approved the price of 32.4 million crowns excluding VAT, which is six million crowns more than originally anticipated, according to the mayor. The mayor did not want to specify the completion dates of the memorial and the subsequent installation of exhibits. The memorial is, in fact, architecturally unusual.

"The design is specific, a reinforced concrete structure underground. We cannot say in advance when the construction will mature, and whether it will be possible to install exhibits in the interiors immediately. I believe we will open the memorial next year,” the mayor said.

The memorial is located at the former training shooting range of the Backup Police Battalion Böhmen. Germans executed 194 people there from June 3 to July 9, 1942, after the assassination of the acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich, including residents of the village of Ležáky and other patriots. The monument will remain on site. The city will demolish the building that serves as a service area and the fencing. "The memorial will be a center for reminding the horrors of World War II,” added the mayor.

The architectural competition was announced by the city in May 2017. The current design of the memorial dates back to 1949. The original estimated cost was 15 million crowns excluding VAT, and the opening date was set for spring 2020, exactly 75 years after the end of World War II. The site is a national cultural monument.