BELOHRAD GRANARY

PROJECT PARTNERS

Vær Stolt-festivalen

Město Bělohrad

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The goal of the project is: protection, restoration and presentation of cultural heritage through the revitalization and making available the classicist building of the Belohrad granary.

THE PROJECT IS SUPPORTED BY A GRANT FROM ICELAND, LIECHTENSTEIN AND NORWAY WITHIN THE EEA FUNDS

Support in the amount of CZK 38,547,216.

NEWS

4. prosince 2024

In spite of the beautiful winter weather, which does not favour the construction work, we are continuing the reconstruction.

We are laying the roofing and the construction of a modern extension for the elevator is in full swing. Inside, we have started work on the interior plastering and the completion date is fast approaching.

Please see photos below for the current status. HERE

CURRENT STATUS

February 2024
November 2023
April 2023

HISTORY

At the end of the 18th century, there was a great famine, so an order was issued to build storehouses like this one. After the war, the baroque granary in Lázně Bělohrad was used by the local JZD for storing grain, i.e. harvested and threshed grain.

The classic granary building is an important part of the grounds of the castle in Lázně Bělohrad. Next to the castle and the orangery, it is the most important monument of the area and at the same time belongs to the valuable monuments of its kind not only in the territory of the Hradec Králové region, but in the wider context of the whole of Bohemia. As a building intended primarily for the storage of agricultural products, the granary was a traditional integral part of all noble farms. As part of the grounds of the castle, it is also registered in the Central List of Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic as a cultural monument in the sense of Act No. 20/1987 Coll.

The Koštofrank wooden fortress once stood in the place where the Belohrad Castle stands today. It was rebuilt by Jan Škopek from Bílý Otradovice into a stone fortress, for whose white walls the subjects called it the White Castle – Bělohrad, from which the name of the whole town arose.

 

At the beginning of the 18th century, Bertold Vilém of Valdštějn had the entire fortress rebuilt from the ground up into a Baroque castle.

 

The K.V. Raise Memorial is also part of the Castle Park. It was originally the building of the castle’s winter orangery. On the centenary of the birth of the famous native of Belgrade, it was rebuilt in 1959 as a memorial to him, without disturbing the empire character of the building. Source: Guide to the city and history, Zdeněk Prchal.

The castle park has always been one of the centers of cultural and social life, and it remains so to this day. Currently, the Castle Park hosts various theater performances, concerts and events for children and seniors.


BUILDING

The building development of the granary building is simple and clear – it is a classicist new building from the second decade of the 19th century. The building has a very rational classic layout solution. The granary was designed as a four-story (two-story) mono functional building.

 

The exteriors were designed very sparingly, but monumentally. Both longer facades were divided in a high order (through all the brick floors) by ledges, connected at the top by a band of cornices and a richly profiled main cornice. The corner was rounded and set back, which is a typical element of both Baroque and Classicist economic architecture. Both longer facades were seven-axis in total, the shorter two-axis. All floors opened with typical granary rectangular windows with a simple stone facing and an inserted woven lattice, complemented by younger shutters on the inside. Some windows were bricked up during later reconstructions.

The original state of the building

On the ground floor and first floor, the interiors were vaulted with a system of typical pancake vaults on massive prismatic pillars (2 x 7 vaulted fields) for classicism. But the enclosure itself is unique in the granary environment. The second floor has a beamed ceiling with a central beam. The building was covered with a hipped roof. In essence, the granary still has a highly baroque roof of the reclining stool type, which, however, survives especially on farm buildings until the first third of the 19th century, before it is replaced by more advanced structures with standing stools or purl in systems. The staircase, located in the transverse axis of the building in connection with the main entrance, which is now walled up, was treated unusually generously.

Original state of vaults and trusses

Architecturally, the granary building stands out with many interesting elements. From the layout point of view, the building is unique mainly due to the existence of vaults on two floors above each other. This solution has no known comparable analogues in our country. Some granaries feature a vaulted ground floor, but never an upper floor. The very existence of a vault even on the ground floor is quite unusual and usually refers to granaries, which had another function in addition to grain storage. Belohrad granary thus far remains the only known representative of this layout solution in our country. In any case, this is an extremely effective and impressive construction solution.

 

Further construction development of the granary was not significant and practically did not affect its layout or the external appearance of the building. An elevator was built in 1893. To this day, a breach in one vault has been preserved from it

 

on the ground floor. It can be assumed that only during the advanced 19th century the western entrance portal was pierced. Other construction modifications were unremarkable, so the building fell into disrepair for many years in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. At the end of the 1980s, a study was being prepared for the reconstruction of the building for the cultural center, which included the addition of a communication wall on the east side and extensive adaptations of the interiors of the lower floors. This reconstruction was not implemented. Thanks to this, it has been preserved in a practically intact classicist form, albeit in a considerably dilapidated form.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE REVITALIZATION OF THE BELOHRAD GRANARY WITHIN THE ECONOMY / ECONOMY OF THE REGION

The aim of the Revitalization of Belohrad granary project is to make the building accessible to the general public. 

The renovated granary will serve as a multifunctional social and artistic object that will naturally integrate into the life of the city and will serve as a place where residents, city visitors and spa guests can meet together with artists and experts from different fields and areas.

Belohrad granary will offer the following public services:

  • Cultural, social and educational events – the granary will create space and facilities for various public cultural, educational and social events (concerts, theater performances, art and craft workshops),


  • exhibition activity – the granary building will have a gallery with a permanent exhibition focused on the presentation of the cultural wealth of Eastern Bohemia and the history of spas in the region and in the Czech Republic, as well as information on the reconstruction of the granary and the share of EEA funds,


  • social life – Belohrad granary will provide a space for meeting people from various areas of public and social life in the municipality and region, organizing thematic lectures on current social or artistic topics,


  • provision of information – in the foyer of the granary, visitors will be provided with information about realized and upcoming events in the granary building and events in the region,


  • thematic exhibitions focused on fine and applied arts,


  • the intention is to offer a meaningful and interesting program within the use of the granary building, which will become a natural part of the cultural and social life of the city and region. According to this plan, the organized events should become a tradition held in the region even after the end of the project’s sustainability period.

PRIMARY OFFER OF SERVICES AND PRODUCTS OF THE REVITALIZATION OF BELOHRAD GRANARY

The main product of the Revitalization of Belohrad granary will be a multifunctional space, a social hall, and a gallery. Places where people will be able to meet all year round. Various educational, cultural and social events will be held in the premises, e.g. balls, exhibitions, author’s readings, talks by not only Czech but also foreign artists.

 

The intention is to build a cafe on the ground floor of the reconstructed granary. The cafe should complete the special atmosphere of the space, make visitors‘ viewing of the exhibits more pleasant with its offer and create a background for organized social and cultural events. The cafe will contribute to increasing the visitor potential of the granary and increase the sustainability of the project.

SERVICES TO THE PUBLIC

The following services are located on the territory of the city: several hospitality establishments, hotel services, hairdressers and barbershops, grocery stores, the dominant service in the village is the spa. The majority of business entities are wholesale and retail trade, followed by industry and construction. Agriculture, forestry and fishing are represented to a lesser extent.

  • By reconstructing the granary with a total usable area of 1458 m2, we will obtain:
  • Ÿ a cafe with a terrace to the castle park and a multi-purpose room on the ground floor,
  • Ÿ gallery space with permanent exhibitions on the first floor,
  • Ÿ multifunctional space on the second and third floors.


Regular events for the public, various workshops, exhibitions of Czech and Norwegian artists, social balls and concerts will be held in these spaces.

DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENTATION

Bělohradská sýpka o.p.s.

Sídlo:

Brtev 40

50781 Lázně Bělohrad

Královéhradecký kraj

Česká republika

IČO: 24758353

DIČ: CZ24758353

Kontakt

Libor Kindl

liborkindl@gmail.com

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