Svitavy would like to start the construction of a mechanical nativity museum in the autumn

Svitavy - Svitavy would like to begin the long-prepared construction of the museum of mechanical nativity scenes this autumn. The town hall is awaiting the outcome of the tender for a construction company, which should be concluded in a few weeks, said Mayor David Šimek (Association for the City of Svitavy) to ČTK. The competition had to be repeated, which extended the preparation, and the city had to negotiate whether it would lose the promised grant.

"We discussed an extension of the deadline for completing the construction with the grant authority. We waited for a while until they confirmed that we could extend the potential grant drawdown," said Šimek.

The town hall announced the first tender last year. The subject of the public contract was construction work involving the reconstruction of the building no. 80, where the nativity scene museum is to be established, and the new construction of an entrance foyer and barrier-free communication core in the space between building no. 80 and the Ottendorfer library. However, only one applicant submitted a bid of nearly 127 million crowns excluding VAT, and due to the high price and lack of competitive offers, the city canceled the competition.

The new museum building is to be located next to the Ottendorfer house at Míru Square. The main exhibit of the museum will be the 15-meter-long Svitavský mechanical nativity scene. There is no suitable place for it in the city museum. The entire nativity scene, with its rich architecture, is a collection of works from several nativity scene societies from 1826 to 1942. It made its way to the Svitavy museum after 1945, where it was presumably created from four nativity scenes into one large one. Originally, the rural part was movable and the urban part was static. It measures about 15 meters in length and 2.5 meters in height, features 692 polychromed figures and buildings, six painted backdrops, and 62 mechanics. The nativity scene was transferred to the East Bohemia Museum in Pardubice in the 1960s, where it was partially restored. In 2015, the city regained it, and it was also registered on the list of cultural monuments of the Czech Republic at that time.

The costs for the nativity scene museum will amount to about 100 million crowns excluding VAT. The city has already received a promise of a grant of 68 million crowns. The museum is expected to open to the public by the end of 2028.