The state does not have to hand over the Palm Garden to the church, decided the appellate court

Zlín - The state does not have to hand over the Květná zahrada in Kroměříž, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, to the church. This was decided by the appellate court, which confirmed the March ruling of the Kroměříž District Court, said Klára Belkovová, spokesperson for the Regional Court in Brno, today to ČTK. Czech Television pointed out the development in the case. The church is not pleased with the court's decision. According to heritage experts, the courts have only confirmed what the law stipulates.

The Wednesday ruling of the Zlín branch of the regional court is final. Although the parties involved can still file a complaint with the Supreme Court, this is an extraordinary remedy and does not have a suspensive effect.

The courts dealt with a lawsuit from the Olomouc archbishopric, which argued that the garden forms a functional whole with the Kroměříž Castle and the Podzámecká zahrada. The church acquired them as part of a property settlement in 2015. However, according to the ruling, the Květná zahrada can function independently.

According to Jiří Gračka, spokesperson for the Olomouc archbishopric, the courts' decision is not satisfactory. "It does not sufficiently take our arguments into account. Whether we will file a complaint will be determined after we study the written text of the ruling," Gračka told ČTK today.

According to Petr Šubík, director of the regional heritage administration of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ) in Kroměříž, the church restitution law does not allow for the return of new buildings in the Květná zahrada. "The courts only confirmed what the legislation allows and does not allow. They agreed with the opinion of our lawyers. Basically, the law is just being followed," Šubík told ČTK today.

Kroměříž Castle and the two mentioned gardens were registered on the UNESCO World Heritage list together. The archbishopric claimed that this is one of the proofs of their functional connection. Through their legal representatives, they also stated that the gardens and the castle always had the same owner, first the church, then the state.

Petr Wünsch, legal representative of the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ), previously stated that he considers the Květná zahrada to be a monument that is rightly on the UNESCO list. According to him, the NPÚ refused to return the Květná zahrada in the restitution process due to doubts about meeting legal conditions, which the courts confirmed.

The historical area of the garden is intertwined with new constructions that arose during the time when the church did not own it. According to the NPÚ, they cannot be separated, and thus under the restitution law, they cannot be returned. In the garden, among other things, work worth 230 million crowns co-financed by European funds was completed in 2014. Thanks to this, part of it returned to its 17th-century form, when it was founded by Olomouc Bishop Karl of Liechtenstein-Kastelkorn.