UNESCO demands the removal of the carousel in Krumlov by the end of the year

Český Krumlov - The UNESCO Committee demands that the rotating auditorium in the garden of the Český Krumlov castle be removed by the end of this year, and the site be restored to its original state by April 2010. Originally, the construction was to be removed by agreement with UNESCO by 1999, but the deadline was gradually pushed to 2016. The new information comes from a letter that the Český Krumlov town hall received from the Ministry of Culture in recent days. Mayor Luboš Jedlička informed journalists about this today.
    The future of the rotating auditorium in the garden of the Český Krumlov castle will be discussed by representatives of the Ministry of Culture, city and regional officials, theater representatives, and heritage conservationists on September 16. "We expect an explanation at the meeting convened by the Ministry of Culture regarding the officially unconfirmed and conflicting information, and what mandate the representatives of the Ministry of Culture brought to the UNESCO committee meeting in Spain,” said the mayor to ČTK.
    Former Minister of Culture Vítězslav Jandák informed journalists that "UNESCO has not officially declared anywhere that it agrees to an extension of the rotating auditorium's duration for another five, six, or seven years."
    The mayor stated that the threat of the city being removed from the UNESCO list if the rotating stage is not removed is a scare tactic, as is the information that the theater will close in the fall. The Český Krumlov theater is a phenomenon that has served audiences from all around the world for 51 years. "We live in a legal state, and we know that administrative proceedings must be conducted according to Czech law for a demolition order or a decision to remove a building, and that a letter from Sevilla from the UNESCO committee is not sufficient," the mayor noted.
    Alternatives regarding the rotating stage have been discussed for the last ten years; since 1998, the building authority has been issuing decisions on the temporary use of the building based on the request of the building owner, which is the city of České Budějovice. The mayor believes that after the meeting in September, the authority will not have to issue this permit monthly, but will extend the use of the building until 2020. "By then, all conceptual and prospective issues could be resolved, rather than operational and logistical,” the mayor stated.
    The structure is placed in a concrete bed underground; the load-bearing structure that supports hundreds of spectators weighs more than 700 tons, and its removal will not be simple. For example, relocating it behind the wall of the castle garden could cost 500 to 700 million crowns. In times of economic crisis, the mayor of Krumlov considers such a discussion to be nonsensical.
    The state agreed with UNESCO on the removal of the rotating stage after the inclusion of Český Krumlov on the World Heritage List in 1992. It was to be removed by 1999; however, the Ministry of Culture decided to extend its lifespan first by five years, and later the deadline was pushed again. Heritage conservationists demanded that the stage be removed from the garden by 2016; this deadline reportedly includes an agreement from the time when Helena Třeštíková was briefly Minister of Culture at the beginning of 2007.
    A petition against the removal of the rotating auditorium in the garden of the Český Krumlov castle has already been signed by over 140,000 people. The theater is visited by 55,000 spectators each year.