When it comes to building work, ours is pretty small fry: we're not even converting the entire apartment but merely the kitchen and bathroom. Having said that, once those two rooms have been completed, and there's only the guest loft bed to think of, we'll have even more time to devote to all the other exciting things that make life here so vibrant – like beer! Manyof the renovations and restorations in this town, however, have a truly dramatic and spectacular results.
Olomouc's city heritage status, and UNESCO status for the Holy
Trinity Column alone, means that much of the late medieval town centre is
preserved – something about which we are quite grateful. The older,
bigger buildings are grand and gorgeous, time pieces from the heady days
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the winsome and lithe Art Nouveau
creations date from the formative days leading up to the end of the 19th
century and into the inter-war Czechoslovak period where Czech
national identity was at its strongest. The smaller, residential houses
from this latter period are generally cute and quaint, those after the
Communist coup of February 1948 are best forgotten.
The conservation
status is paying dividends largely in terms of tourism and as an
attraction for cultural events. People come to the Czech Republic
to see the beautiful old buildings, to sit and drink coffee in
attractive town squares and to enjoy the excellent local beers within the
ambiance of old medieval vaulted beer cellars. Our building is just within the city zone that receives European grants to restore and develop older buildings and we hope will soon get a significant sum to put right a few decades of abusive weathering. Local governments may have tarted up their town centres, but the government has also used money to restore religious buildings, be they catholic, protestant or Jewish. The
state has pledged to restore religious property
seized during the communist era and, after decades of neglect, has used its money to restore
some of the most pleasant and interesting medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical and modern religious buildings in
Europe. The Catholics are delighted, the Baptists refused this windfall on principal, but even the Seventh-Day Adventists have accepted their share of money. Not everyone approves.
Many well-proportioned buildings in Olomouc often have highly detailed or stylised house
frontages. The best have had sympathetic restorations, although the
ravages of time and the damages of thoughtless building work in others continues to sadden the
eye. As with other populations, it is unlikely all Czechs fully appreciate the old and the fragile environment in which they live: many appear to be particularly in love with double glazing, more's the
pity, and one can only hope that the time will come when they will tire
of all that obscene and ill-fitting pvc nastiness.
Below, then, are a few pictures of doorways in the town. There are many
more that, were there time and energy enough, could and perhaps should be documented
appropriately. Perhaps if eyes are the windows of the soul, then windows are the eyes of the... and the door is the... Hmmm... well, that metaphor's not reversible, is it? That these interesting architectural features have survived this long is little short of miraculous. That
they continue to be used daily are a testament to good building work of
previous centuries, and, thanks to a bit of luck and present-day thoughtfulness regarding
that which is worth preserving, may survive for centuries still. If you are thinking of coming to stay in
Olomouc, architectural features will undoubtedly become a prominent part of
your appreciation.
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