Plasy will repair the tomb of the noble Metternich family for 12 million CZK

Plasy - Plasy will repair the tomb of the aristocratic Metternich family for 12 million crowns. They want to connect it tourism-wise with the popular area of the Plasy monastery. The town has already carried out drainage work around the tomb for three million crowns. Mayor Zdeněk Hanzlíček told ČTK. Plasy, with its 2,800 residents, is increasingly visited by tourists, mainly to the monastery, the center of construction, for golf, the zoo and brewery, as well as for natural swimming and cycling trips into nature. Last year, there were 110,000 visitors, 30,000 more than the previous year.

"It will be a complete reconstruction of the tomb, from the roof and facade to the interiors, including the outdoor paving," said the mayor. The town has applied for a grant from the European IROP program. It expects to cover 90 percent of the reconstruction costs.

For drainage, that is, complete dehumidification of the building all around, the town has invested one million crowns each year for three years. "These works, which prevented water seepage, have already been completed. We always received part of the funds as a grant from the Ministry of Culture," Hanzlíček said.

Plasy would like to include the tomb, which is located directly across the road from the granary area of the Plasy monastery, in the tourist route. "I believe we will reach an agreement (with the National Heritage Institute)," the mayor said. The town is already organizing tours of the tomb independently, and it is accessible to the public from spring to autumn by appointment. The Plasy monastery is a national cultural monument with all the surrounding buildings, including the Church of St. Wenceslaus, which was later renamed the Metternich tomb. The tomb was originally a Gothic cemetery chapel, which was baroque reconstructed and enlarged in 1690. After the monastery was dissolved in 1785, the new owner of the estate, Chancellor Metternich, had the church modified in the Neoclassical Empire style. He utilized the basement to establish the family tomb, which still contains the remains of the family, including Chancellor Václav Lothar Metternich.

The restored tomb and the nearby large monastery church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, whose two-year renovation costing 70 million crowns will begin this spring thanks to a grant, will attract more tourists and locals. The organs have already been restored there for ten million crowns.