Small Monuments: A Threatened Phenomenon of the Czech Landscape

Carol Hochman, Board Chairman, Friends of Via

Michal Valencik, Via Heritage Fund Committee

Content of the presentation:

Czech Republic and the UNESCO´s World Heritage Committee

Small monuments: a threatened phenomenon of the Czech landscape

Achievements of the Via Foundation Czech Heritage Society (photodocumentation)

Concluding remarks

UNESCO´s World Heritage Committee

October 1, 2003 the USA officially rejoined the UNESCO;

UNESCO´s World Heritage Committee has established a program to strengthen and preserve world cultural heritage (http://whc.unesco.org);

Czech Republic is represented on the World Heritage Committee list with 12 sites:

Historic Center of Prague (1992) Historic Center of Cesky Krumlov (1992) Historic Center of Telc (1992) Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelena Hora

(1994)

The Czech Republic is represented on the World Heritage Committee list with 12 sites:

Gardens and Castle at Kromeriz (1998) Holasovice Historical Village Reservation

(1998) Litomysl Castle (1999) Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc (2000) Tugendhat Villa in Brno (2001) Jewish Quarter and the Basilica of St.

Procopius in Trebic (2003) Kutna Hora: Historical Town Center with

the Church of St. Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec (1995)

Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape (1996)

Czech landscape before the WW II:the densest network of small monuments;

Origins of monuments span from 15th through mid 20th Century, with peak in the Baroque period;

Chapels, crosses, statues and columns reflected lifestyle of mostly rural population;

After WW I the last wave of small monuments construction – memorials

to war victims;

Czech landscape during the Communist regime (1948 – 1989): devastation

Small monuments were considered the embodiment of religion which had to be eradicated;

Many small monuments were destroyed during the process of field consolidation into agricultural cooperatives;

People trying to maintain monuments were persecuted;

Unofficial strategy was to prevent repair and then demolish the object for sake of citizens´safety;

Over the 40 years thousands of monuments were lost and hundreds left as mere torsos;

Present situation: Difficult renewal

Cultural monuments have been low on the list of priorities of new governments after 1989 due to more acute infrastructure needs;

Repair of transportation network, hospitals, schools and cleaning of environmental damage were given priority;

Czech public and large corporations are more inclined to donate to social/health/children causes than to restoration of cultural monuments;

Small monuments are too small for the attention of the Ministry of Culture and less important than crumbling castles, chateaus and cathedrals;

Up to 2002 only one of the country´s 350 foundations – The Civic Forum Foundation – focused on restauration of small monuments (capacity 15-20 small monuments/year);

The Via Foundation Czech Heritage Society

A year after the 2002 floods the Via Foundation in Prague created the Via Foundation Czech Heritage Society and raised over 80 000 USD mostly from fellow-citizens in the USA;

In 2004 the Via Foundation distributed the money to 38 restoration projects;

The average sum needed for restoration of a small monument ranges between 800 – 3 000 USD; The unskilled work is usually done by local volunteers with oversight of a restoration specialist;

Charitable contributions to the Via Foundation Czech Heritage Society are restoring the beauty of the Czech landscape and revitalize citizen engagement in building civil society.

Municipality of Listany, district Louny: Chapel of St. Peter and Paul

before reconstruction after reconstruction

The Chapel was built in 1882 at a crossing of field roads to near-by villages of Jimlin and Zbrasin.

A grant of $ 2 072

Committee for preservation of 1866 war memorials: Saving 8 graves at the military cemetery in Maslojedy near Hradec Kralove

In mass graves are burried Czech, Polish, Austrian and Romanian soldiers slain in the 1866 battle of Hradec Kralove during the Prussian-Austrian War. It is a unique example of military funeral architecture.

A grant of $ 3 200

Municipality of Dolni Kralovice, district Benesov: Chapel in Libcice

before reconstruction after reconstruction

The chapel is the only reminder of a village Libcice that was demolishedin the 70´s to create a sanitary zone around a new portable waterreservoir.

A grant of $ 3100

Saurian Association: Adelheid, Flora and Adolf therapeutic springs

before and after reconstruction

The three reconstructed springs belong among 80 historical sources from the 19th century that form the Vincenz Priessnitz Spa in the Jesenik region. Vincenz Priessnitz gave origins to modern hydrotherapy.

A grant of $ 1 820

Czech Bretheren Church in Kovanec, Central Bohemia:

Reconstruction of a mortuary from 18th Century

before reconstruction after reconstruction

A grant of $ 3 630

Maryska Civic Association, Stary Bohumin, North Moravia: Reconstruction of a chapel in former plague graveyard

before reconstruction

A grant of $ 2 500 after reconstruction

Municipality of Holany near Ceska Lipa: Renovation of small cultural monuments in the village district – a prime example of the local folk-art craftsmanship

before and after reconstruction

A grant of $ 3 180

Self-Help Association, Lestkov near Tachov, Western Bohemia: Reconstruction of a Baroque statue of St. Dominik

before reconstruction (details)

after reconstruction

A grant of $ 2 730

The reentry of the USA to UNESCO was formally acknowledged at a ceremonyon February 13, 2003.

At the ceremony William Luers remembered the first lines of UNESCO preamble by Archibald MacLeish:

“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed. Ignorance of each other’s ways and lives has been a common cause, throughout the history of mankind, of that suspicion and mistrust between peoples of the world through which their differences have all too often broken into war.”

Efforts of the Via Foundation Czech Heritage Society are important for providing future generations with the opportunity to achieve this kind of understanding.

For more information about

the Via Foundation Czech Heritage Society

please look at www.nadacevia.cz

Thank you very much for your attention