A Commemorative Act at the Tomb of Hana and Edvard Beneš

On Thursday, May 28, 2009, a commemorative act will be held at the tomb of the Beneš family at Sezimovo Ústí to mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of Edvard Beneš.

The memory of Edvard Beneš will be honoured by Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer together with former Premier Mirek Topolánek who deserves credit for the reconstruction and restoration of the villa of Hana and Edvard Beneš to its original garb. The house will now serve not only as a memorial but also as state rooms to be used by the Czech Government and its Premier for negotiations.

Over the past three years the Beneš family villa has passed through a wide-ranging reconstruction project, which restored the house close to the face of the original project by architect Petr Kropáèek, who had built it in the years 1930 and 1931. Back in the 1970s, the villa was turned into a government residence. However, the adaptations made at that time disrupted the original character of the house.

“The premises have now been restored to their original garb, and my wish is to honour the heritage of the Beneš family, namely to return the object to the people – this may sound as a phrase but we really want to do all we can and we have done our best to open the villa to the public,“ former Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek was quoted as saying during the inauguration of the Beneš villa.

The Beneš villa will be opened to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each last weekend in the month from May to October this year.

To respond to what has proved to be an enormous public interest, the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic has decided to open the villa to the public already on the day of the commemorative act on May 28, 2009 from 2:00 p.m. and exceptionally also on Friday, May 29.