Status of cultural monument has already been lost for about 35 buildings in Brno

Brno - So far, about 35 buildings have lost their status as cultural monuments in Brno, including the building with the Savoy café at the corner of Běhounská Street and Jakubské náměstí, or the Jalta Palace at Dominikánské náměstí. Radka Loukotová from the press department of the Brno magistrate told ČTK this. Overall, up to 1400 objects in the city may lose their heritage status, due to the late registration on the list of cultural monuments.

Brno wants to change this; on Tuesday it announced that it would file a lawsuit against the Ministry of Culture regarding the withdrawal of the status of one of the buildings of the polyclinic on Zahradníková Street. The court's decision could set a precedent in the entire situation.

The case is about the fact that by the end of 1987, all cultural monuments had to be registered on the state list, but not all of them were included in time. Until then, it was possible for the heritage institute to declare an object as a cultural monument, but from 1988 only the Ministry of Culture can do that. In Brno, the late registration affects 1400 buildings, and if the owners request the ministry to review their status, the office does not have to recognize their heritage status.

This is the case with the Jalta Palace, which its owner intends to renovate. For buildings without heritage protection, the repair regulations are not as strict, and thus the renovation is not as expensive as for monuments. About 200 of the 1400 affected monuments are owned by the city, the rest by private individuals. However, the city fears that owners may treat buildings that have lost their heritage status entirely at their discretion, potentially causing irreversible damage.

"At this point, it can be said that about 35 buildings in Brno have been derecognized, and in the entire republic, it is 45," Loukotová stated. As examples, she mentioned, apart from Jalta and the building with the Savoy café, St. Augustine's Church, the former Convalarium on Česká Street, the building with the pharmacy U Červeného raka on Masarykova Street, or the corner building at náměstí 28. října and Milady Horákové. "At only one school on Šujanovo náměstí has it been possible to restore its heritage protection," Loukotová added.

Brno is suing the ministry because in March it revoked the status of the polyclinic facility on Zahradníková Street. According to Deputy Mayor Matěj Hollan (Žít Brno), there is a risk that the same fate could befall the Janáček Theatre or the House of Art.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture, Simona Cigánková, wrote to ČTK that the late registrations in Brno are a major problem for heritage care, which has already been addressed by various heritage authorities.

"However, during the entire existence of this problem, no case law has been established. The lawsuit is thus a logical outcome of the current legal practice, whereby some procedures need to be verified or refuted through an independent court," Cigánková added.

The court's decision could also be of precedential importance for other cases. The spokesperson emphasized that the ministry is trying to find personnel capacity to resolve the situation. "Even though it was not caused by them, but resulted from a flagrant long-term inaction of the entities that were supposed to participate in the registrations of cultural monuments on the lists," Cigánková concluded.