This year again, hundreds of historic buildings will be open all over the Czech Republic, which will thus traditionally join the European monuments day. These monuments are not just castles and chateaux, or churches, museums, and open air sites. They include many historic buildings which still serve their purpose, or which have found new use, such as, for example, town halls, schools, courts of law, buildings serving the churches, or those used as dwellings or seats of companies. Quite a few of these buildings are normally closed to visitors. This is not just because their present-day use excludes the regular presence of visitors. Unfortunately, in many cases this is necessitated by the structural and technical condition of these buildings.
The programme of the 2009 European Heritage Days (EHD) offers also an inexhaustible number of fringe events and special municipal programmes, in traditional tourist destinations invites visitors to sites normally closed, enlivens tours with cultural shows, and also gives an insight into the problems of construction renewal, as well as the restoration of certain historic jewels.
Looking at this year’s overview of monuments and events that the Association is publishing as the EHD National Guarantor in the Czech Republic, and that records only a fraction of our national cultural and natural heritage, everyone will perhaps realize the impressive size of the heritage of a truly immense cultural value and truly European dimensions that we have inherited from our ancestors. Thanks to the craftsmanship and skills (and often also thanks to the favour of patrons) with which they constructed secular as well as religious buildings, they created real works of art. It is the duty of our entire society to give monuments such care as to be able to pass them on to the next generations with a clear conscience, so that we are not denounced by posterity for amateurish approach or inactivity.
This is where the funding of monuments comes in. Every year, the State spends hundreds of millions of crowns on the reconstruction of monuments so that all the beautiful buildings and sites that our forefathers built can be preserved. And if we are serious in saying that we want to preserve the values created in the past, we must be able to convince ourselves that investment in monuments is investment in our future. We must realize that the historic value of many buildings and sites is incalculable, and irreplaceable if destroyed. We must understand that this year’s EHD theme in the Czech Republic – “Monuments Measured by Time" is to challenge us to step up our activity especially at a time when the economy is not doing so well. Time is fair but inexorable indeed.
I wish EHD 2009 organisers and visitors delightful moments spent at our monuments and historic towns. I trust that this year’s EHD, too, will be a pleasant surprise to many people, and that you will be enchanted by monuments and will visit them also on other occasions. After all, this is the purpose of this monuments day. The numbers of contented visitors every year make it easier not only for the State, but also for other public as well as private institutions, to release the funds so much needed in the sector where the earnings cannot be counted on a calculator.
Petr Sedláček
President of the SHS CMS