Zprávy památkové péče 2018, 78(6):547-564 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2018.6.02

Mladá Boleslav Templ - a history of heritage renovation

Jakub Bachtík¹, Vít Jesenský², Alena Nachtmannová²

¹ NPÚ, GnŘ

² NPÚ, ÚOP středních Čech

The study deals with the preparation and the course of the heritage renovation of the "Templ" in Mladá Boleslav, an important medieval palace building in the historical center of the city. This municipal palace was founded in the 14th century, but the end of the 15th century is the historically determinant period, when the foundations for its present form were laid and it obtained its most valuable architectural and artistic parts (a hall with ribbed vaulting on the ground floor, portals, etc.). Since then, the building has undergone many modifications, including damage by fire. The most prominent modification was Classicist, giving the building its character well into the 20th century. The building was considered an important Mladá Boleslav heritage property from the end of the 19th century. In the decades after 1900, several repairs have been documented, many of which were financed by the state. In 1924, the Templ was purchased by the religious community of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, which established a prayer house and priest's apartment here.
The Hussite Church used the Templ until the 1950's, when the complex story of the heritage renovation of a valuable building begins. Despite frequent repairs, the Templ was not in good condition, and the church therefore asked for money in 1955 for the reconstruction of the roof and windows. The money was eventually allotted, but no repairs were made. The religious community received the funds at the end of October, but within the centralized state economy it was impossible to find a contractor who would take on the project so quickly. The money was therefore not spent by the end of the year and had to be returned. The religious community got stuck on this "Article XXII" several times: the authorities repeatedly demonstrated the good will to find the money to repair the Templ, but the intention always failed due to the impossibility of finding a company within the inflexibility of the system. The situation remained unchanged into 1962, when the Templ began to enter a critical state due to, among other things, saturation by municipal sewerage. An agreement was reached between the owner, conservationists, and the city and regional authorities in 1962, but the preparation of repairs began only much later due to delays on the part of the authorities.
It was only in 1967 that a building survey was ordered (Josef Štulc) and then finally a year later the reconstruction project was ordered, which was to be evaluated by the State Institute for the Reconstruction of Historic Towns and Buildings (SÚRPMO). In 1970, the building was taken over from the church into the administration of the State Center for Heritage Care and Nature Conservation (SSPPOP), which was also supposed to oversee the renovation. Even then, however, the building was not repaired. A unique feature of the system was at fault here - the investor in the case of state building events was not an individual owner nor the administrators of the construction, but a particular enterprise, in the Central Bohemian region known as the Regional Investment Institute. This institute approached the Templ project rather arbitrarily, including disputing SÚRPMO's project and spearheading a dispute with the conservationists over the supply company, thus paralyzing the renovation process for several years.
The commencement of the work was finally triggered by two tragedies. In 1974, the southern annex of the Templ collapsed. This did move the concerned institutions somewhat, but it was the collapse of another part of the building in March 1977 that finally put events in motion. As early as the summer of the same year, basic rescue work was carried out, and the reconstruction project prepared by the enterprise Heritage Renovation (Obnova památek) was quickly ready for approval. After preliminary safeguarding and foundation work, the actual reconstruction began in 1981 with the construction of a new roof. The contractor was Heritage Renovation.
For the most part, the concept for the resulting renovation developed during the course of the work itself. It was not until 1981 that a complete renovation study was submitted. Following discussion with conservationists, the study was based around reconstructing the building into its presumed Gothic state, including the hypothetical shape of the roof.
Once the work commenced, there were no other major complications. The rough renovation phase was completed in 1986, but finalizing and restoration work still continued. The building was finally approved at the threshold of the Velvet Revolution, in May of 1989. The revolution, however, presented a problem with the use of the building: the Templ was supposed to be used by the District Museum, which ultimately did not happen. The situation was solved only in 1996, when the decision was made to use the palace for an exhibition on the history of Mladá Boleslav. The Templ had to undergo building modifications after a short time again, and the exhibition opened in 2000.

Keywords: Mladá Boleslav, Templ, history of heritage care, architecture of the 2nd half of the 20th century, monument renovation, Vojtěch Láska

Published: December 1, 2018  Show citation