With the tapping of the stone, the construction of the Moravian Regional Archive building began

    BRNO - With the laying of the foundation stone, the construction of the new headquarters of the Moravian Regional Archive in Brno officially began today. The building will rise within two years next to the university campus in the Bohunice district at an estimated cost of about 680 million crowns. The archive currently operates in several cramped locations in Brno and elsewhere in Moravia.
    The Moravian Regional Archive was established in 1838 and has since struggled with a lack of space. "We do not have enough space for both archival material and for archivists and researchers, who currently have to book appointments up to six months in advance," its director Kateřina Smutná told reporters today.
    According to her, the new building should be a certain satisfaction for the archivists. The complex will include a storage facility for 80 kilometers of archival material, a hall for exhibitions of interesting documents, a classroom, and a reading room for 100 people.
    "I am not sure if people working in the archive service are well paid, so I wish them at least a new and quality environment to work in," said Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka during the ceremony.
    The new archive will be built on a site where prehistoric items from the younger Stone Age were found some time ago. Symbolically, an 8000-year-old stone axe was used for the laying of the foundation stone. "When I learned about the archaeological find, I was alarmed. I thought the construction would be delayed, but in the end, the investigation went quickly. It will be a dignified place for the archive and the archivists," stated Interior Minister František Bublan, under whose department the archives belong.