In the autumn of last year, we successfully defended our participation in the project of the Ministry of Culture of Saving Our Architectural Heritage. For this year we have 900 000, - CZK. It was decided that both inspection work carried out last year and earlier fell to excellent - the synagogue has had all the windows and doors, internal water supply and finishing work as preparation of floors, walls and ceilings. Last year we also had to replace the entire gallery contested dry rot. The huge beams are new now and the floor ,which had been completely ruined, has been just decorated with exact copies of handmade nails.
The synagogue will be restored into a jewel of the Práche?ský County, how it was everywhere written in opening in the year 1828. Twenty years of immense effort and nerves are over. we have endured, and as fortune favors the prepared, we waited to see. The synagogue will be open in all its glory in 2014!
The EU project is collaboration with the Bavarian castle called Wolfstein, in Freyung . They were looking for a partner for the project under which there would be completely changed the existing unsatisfactory exposures. When they saw what had already been done in the synagogue; and also after meeting Mr. Loeffler, they decided for us. Mr. Loeffler has been our supporter from the very beginning. Since he started with the Loeffler Seaquest firm in Ckyne,, up to now being the President Food & Beverage in Europe. Mr. Loeffler t was talking about his childhood, when the border between Bavaria and Bohemia had not existed, opened to the shopping as well as visitors, and people on both sides had known about each other. This was true of the future, we would like to support through our project. Cultural, scientific and information center, where you can find all information about interesting happenings in the triangle of Vimperk, Prachatice Strakonice, Sumava and the Bavarian Forest, and Bavaria with the wider surrounding areas.
The amount of subsidies, which come from the EU is € 400 000. A further € 20 000 adds the Ministry for Regional Development, € 20 000 owner is involved - the community Ckyne, along with us.
Of 900 000, - CZK from the Ministry of Culture is just being spent.And, this is really a big deal for this year, the Ckyne municipality is about to co-finance both the projects and pre finance the EU one for several months every time.
In the reconstruction of the building there are actually no changes or only minimal. We are trying to carry out a perfect restcration, in terms of appearance, and the content also remains - the synagogue is a place to meet!
When did you decide to get involved in the repair and what was the initial impetus?
I was born in Prague and used to lots of cultural activities. Then, in 1982, I found myself in the gray, cracked little town of Ckyne, where nothing happened. So I was going to the Sumava mountains. And walking to the train station in Ckyne I was passing a building with a dominant eye of God at the front. I became interested in it, met very interesting Jewish people, and professor Jan Podlesak. My fate was decided.
At the very first I was still a member of the Protectors of Nature, we helped to fix the walls around the Jewish cemetery. That cemetery had been restoring by the professor Podlešák for many years literally from the ground. In 1995 we re-dedicated and opened it as the Society for Restoration of the Ckyne Synagogue (found 1991). The Ckyne municipality bought the synagogue from the Coop Vimperk, to which it was sold by the last owner Mr.Lederer several years before. We managed to get a contribution for the project of restoration. This was followed by a new roof, and then it was first of all necessary to remove the ceiling that divided the main prey room into two floors with flats upstairs and joinery workshop downstairs. The concrete floor of the workshop was necessary to remove too. Then the ceiling was repaired, too, and , in the year 2006, the community together with the help of local citizens and youths we adjusted the main rooms to open the great exhibition of the History of Ckyne in old photographs. There was almost everyone there, often even several times. We managed to get the building back to life. There were many concerts held, especially classical music sounds amazing there , as well as theatrical performances, lectures, poems. In 2008 we celebrated the 180th birthday of the synagogue, after 140 years the Torah was read there again!. All to prove that the synagogue belongs back into our lives. And it did. In 2009 we finally succeeded in the Ministry of Culture project , the reconstruction work started and has not stopped since.
What about the future function of the synagogue?
I teach English, including the Sumava National Park, for nearly twenty years, I also interpreted at important meetings regarding the status of the park, I know intimately every stone there. So I was extremely pleased that our project “LANDSCAPE CONNECTS” is just about the nature in the context of contemporary life , with culture as a necessary component of life; and at the same time the last reminder of the phenomenon of Judaism as an important element of local affairs.
How much money did you manage to obtain in the past (from the beginning of the effort) and what money has already been fixed?
Exact numbers are stored in the financial reports, it is about 2 and a half million The building has a new roof and is free from subsequent adjustments ; it is completely ready to complete for the internal surfaces, the floors and ceilings and facade. We are going to agree on a project of interiors. The restoration of the frescoes is running, and drainage is partially ready It remains to finish the drainage, to restore the exterior and interior paving, fencing, garden and the well. In the yard there is a former coach garage, it will be the background of the synagogue. In the main prey room we will open a regional Jewish museum of South Bohemia, including the library and study rooms, as well as exhibition spaces, concert and lecture hall and an art gallery with a focus on common landscape region. Shows will include a common database of natural and cultural presentations of both countries, concerts, performances, discussions and lectures will contribute to increase interest in the common cross-border cultural heritage - the landscape..
