In Brno, a new urban conservation area will be established in the wider city center.

Prague - A new urban heritage zone will be created in Brno, which will complement the already protected historic center. The protection in the heritage zone will apply to villa neighborhoods and apartment buildings from the 19th and 20th centuries in the broader center. Brno's historic center has been a municipal heritage reserve since 1989, which is a higher level of protection than a heritage zone. The establishment of the Brno heritage zone was approved by the Ministry of Culture, Iva Awwadová from its press department announced today.

The exact extent of the newly protected area is contained in a document that the ministry sent to the Brno city hall, which should be published on Friday on the official notice board. It will also be announced by the relevant city districts and the ministry.

According to the document, the new Urban Heritage Zone Brno creates a conceptual semi-ring surrounding the city core established in the Middle Ages to the west, north, and east. The zone represents an area of exceptional urban value with significant architectural and artistic quality, according to the ministry.

At the end of last year, there were 256 urban heritage zones in the Czech Republic. There are 39 urban heritage reserves, which are areas with higher protection, in the Czech Republic.

Important elements of urbanism in the new heritage zone in Brno include representative urban districts of apartment buildings, especially from the 19th century and the interwar period, such as Veveří, Lužánky in Černá Pole, and Husovice.

The presence of conceptually designed garden villa districts and former suburban resorts, particularly from the 19th century and the following interwar period, such as Masaryk Quarter, Pisárky, Černá Pole, or Žabovřesky, is significant, as well as the presence of former working-class and factory suburbs with large rental buildings and remnants of industrial buildings with unique residential and administrative buildings, of which Cejl in Zábrdovice is an example.

The area of the Brno Exhibition Centre in Pisárky, with valuable architecture from the interwar and post-war periods of the 20th century, is, according to the ministry, an urbanistically specific area. Alongside the predominant residential development, there is a high number of representative public and administrative buildings throughout the area. A significant urban and cultural-historical component of the wider historical center of the Moravian metropolis is also Lužánky Park in Černá Pole and the areas of other parks or forest parks.

By declaring the urban heritage zone in Brno, the Ministry of Culture is partially addressing the issue of so-called late entries of monuments, which lost protection due to legislative changes in 1988.

In 1988, a new law on monument care took effect, abolishing the state list of cultural monuments. Its fund transitioned to the new Central List of Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic. The previous legislation recognized the status of a monument not only for the properties on the list but also for buildings that were viewed as cultural monuments. Conservators were to keep records of all such objects and add them to the list. However, in 2015, the Ministry of Culture decided to remove all late entries from the list. Nearly half of the buildings are in Brno, which has also unsuccessfully sued over this issue.

"A total of 1830 so-called late entries concern most regions, with exceptions being Central Bohemia, Liberec, Hradec Králové, and Pardubice regions, where there were no late entries. The Ministry of Culture has to deal with the most late entries in the South Moravian Region, where there were originally around 1200, in the South Bohemian Region, around 400, and in the Moravian-Silesian Region, approximately 100," Awwadová stated. The current practice, which returns objects to the status of monuments, is not, according to the ministry, an administrative act of entry, but an administrative procedure with participants concluded by a decision.

"The Ministry of Culture does not maintain a list of decisions on declarations as cultural monuments for late entries. So far, it has been possible to re-declare several dozen late entries as cultural monuments," she added.