In Prague, a new Center for Roma and Sinti will open next autumn

Prague – Next autumn, a new Center for Roma and Sinti will open in Prague. It is expected to start operating in November 2024. The Museum of Roma Culture (MRK) is building it in a first-republic villa in Dejvice. It plans to have a permanent exhibition on the Holocaust of the Roma, exhibitions by Roma artists, and educational programs for schools. Jana Horváthová, the director of MRK, said this today to ČTK. The construction company received the keys to the building today. The work is expected to be completed in 11 months.

The project has been funded by Norwegian funds from the beginning. It was originally supposed to cost 44.6 million crowns. Of this, 28 million was to be used for the renovation of the villa and equipment. The winning company estimated the renovation costs at 37.7 million crowns. Horváthová added that after negotiations due to the missing amount, the Ministry of Culture also contributed.

"It looks like we would like to open the center to the public in November (2024) or by the end of the year. The villa will be expanded with a basement lecture hall. The space should accommodate an entire school class. Educational programs are expected to be held regularly here. There should also be a smaller exhibition on the Holocaust of the Roma, which will complement our permanent exhibition at the memorial in Lety near Písek. A gallery will be created in the attic, where we would like to present art from the collections we have in storage. A community center is also planned to operate in the villa," Horváthová described.

According to her, the center should become a showcase of the history and culture of the original Czech Roma. After World War II, 583 of them returned from concentration camps, the head of MRK reminded. "That was a very small group that has actually been largely forgotten. Afterwards (after the war), Roma from Slovakia came, whose culture was somewhat different from that of the original Czech and Moravian Roma and Sinti. They were much more integrated into society, and their education was higher. The public practically knows nothing about them," Horváthová said.

The idea to establish the center came years ago from former chairman of the Committee for the Compensation of the Roma Holocaust and descendant of survivors Čeněk Růžička, who recently passed away. According to Horváthová, Růžička's intention was for people to learn as much as possible about the original Roma from Bohemia and Moravia.

The house in Dejvice was built in 1936 and 1937 by textile industrialist Leo František Perutz, who perished in Auschwitz in 1944. The villa was designed by architects Arnošt Mühlstein and Victor Fürth. It had been empty in recent years, occasionally used by filmmakers. In 2019, the museum acquired it from the state. The center wanted to open as early as this spring. The timeline was delayed by the COVID-19 epidemic and rising costs, and the budget no longer sufficed. Therefore, the competition had to be repeated. Nine applicants entered the second round. The company První KEY-STAV won. "The winning company is actually the lowest bid," noted Horváthová.

The Museum of Roma Culture was established in 1991 as a non-profit organization. Since 2005, it has been a contributory organization of the Ministry of Culture. In addition to the center, it also manages and builds memorials at the sites of the Protectorate camps in Lety near Písek and in Hodonín near Kunštát.