Tachov applied for grants to repair the monumental riding hall in Světce

photo: http://www.baroko2015.cz/

Tachov - Tachov has requested a European subsidy of 60 million crowns for the restoration and use of the riding hall Světce, which has been a national cultural monument since 2010. The complete completion of the reconstruction will cost more than 70 million crowns, said Tachov mayor Jiří Struček (ČSSD) to ČTK.

"We submitted the application in March. The subsidy from the European program IROP (from the call intended for national cultural monuments and UNESCO monuments) should amount to 60 million CZK," the mayor said. A decision is expected to be made no later than autumn. The funds will also go towards exhibitions, namely a museum of herbalism, an old blacksmith shop, and a blacksmith's apartment, as well as facilities for performers, a restaurant, a caretaker's apartment, and storage. All spaces of the monument will be utilized.

The seventeen-year repair has cost more than 70 million. Structural issues have been resolved, and there is a new roof, windows, and restrooms. The city, the county, and the Ministry of Culture each contribute around two million crowns annually for the building's reconstruction.

Concerts, exhibitions, night and regular tours, screenings in the cinema café, as well as championships for hunting dogs and model airplane enthusiasts take place in the riding hall from spring to autumn. Last year, the riding hall was visited by over 6000 people, and filmmakers are also interested in it.

"The monumental riding hall, approximately 155 years old, was condemned to ruin as recently as 1999; now it is an admired gem," Struček said. In the same year, the councilors approved the decision to save the riding hall. At that time, only ruins remained. The unique truss and ceiling held the structure together.

"The pseudo-Romanesque riding hall uses a mixture of styles aiming to be grand and representative, as desired by General Windischgrätz, a Czech nobleman and Austrian field marshal," said the guide and curator of the Tachov Castle, Pavel Voltr. In the riding hall, built in a more modern style but modeled on a 135-year-older Viennese one, there was originally a blacksmith or farrier's apartment in the basement, and the nobility could drive directly into the riding hall with carriages, and at the beginning of the 20th century, even the first automobiles. The ground floor was an area for horses.

The city has prepared special tours of the riding hall for Saturday, April 22, to commemorate the International Day of Monuments and Sites. People can peek into all the reconstructed spaces at 14:00, 15:00, and 16:00. On Sunday, May 28, Eva Urbanová will perform there, thus inaugurating the XV. edition of the summer music festival "Dveře jízdárny dokořán."