<title>The historical city of the year title was awarded to Beroun in Central Bohemia</title>

Prague - The historic city of 2009 has today become the Central Bohemian town of Beroun. The award is a reward for the care of monuments. The winner receives, in addition to the prestigious title, one million crowns. The town's mayor, Jiří Besser, received the award at Prague Castle. The mayor of the seventeen-thousand-strong town thanked his team during the award ceremony for their contribution to "the rebirth of Beroun after socialist devastation and after the critical flood in 2002." The organizers selected the winner from three finalists, alongside Beroun, Jilemnice and Uherské Hradiště also scored points.
    The royal town of Beroun lies at the confluence of the Berounka and Litavka rivers and serves as a starting point to two protected landscape areas - the Český kras and Křivoklátsko. The first written mention of the town comes from a document by Přemysl Otakar II. from the year 1265, and the town was originally called Verona in Latin. The historical face of Beroun has been marked by industrialization and, above all, the demolition of certain parts of the town in the 20th century.
    "We may not have as much historical potential as Telč, Kroměříž, or Třebíč," said Besser. However, he noted that the people of Beroun have a greater desire to improve their town and build it in a way that life there is good.
    Beroun and Jilemnice competed for the title last year as well, but that time the third nominee, Šternberk, took home the prize. Beroun has won the regional round six times in the past. Since last year, winners of regional rounds also receive a reward of 100,000 crowns.
    In addition to Beroun, Jilemnice, and Uherské Hradiště, representatives from Boskovice, Cheb, Jablonné nad Orlicí, Jičín, Klatovy, Nový Jičín, Prague 2, Přerov, Tábor, Telč, and Úštěk also collected awards for regional round winners today in the Spanish Hall of Prague Castle.
    The title is awarded for the best preparation and implementation of the program for the regeneration of urban heritage reserves and zones, which has been announced by the Ministry of Culture since 1993. The title of Historic City of the Year has been awarded since 1994. This year, 52 towns entered the competition.
    In the program announced by the ministry, funds from the state, municipal budgets, and contributions from the owner of the monument are pooled for the restoration of monuments. There are about 40,000 immovable monuments in the Czech Republic and over four dozen heritage reserves and zones.
    Including this year, nearly four billion crowns have already been distributed from the state budget in the program. The program has been used to restore 10,767 monuments. The total costs for their restoration are 10.5 billion crowns.