Press Advisories

15. 8. 2013 19:39

Open Days in the Villa of Hana and Edvard Beneš

Government Office plans to extend dates on which Hana and Edvard Beneš’s villa in Sezimovo Ústí is open to the public.

This year, the original plan was to open this architectural gem to the public only over the weekend from 26 to 28 October as part of cost-cutting measures. However, the new management of the Government Office has decided to extend the public open days to include two weekends in September and another weekend in October.

While opening the Beneš villa to the public will obviously place extra pressure on organization and funds, I am convinced that this is money well spent and that we are duty-bound by Hana Benešová’s wishes that the villa be accessible to the public. All the more so when we consider that this year is the 65th anniversary of the death and that next year will be the 130th anniversary of the birth of the second president in the history of the independent Czechoslovak Republic,” says the director of the Government Office, Radek Augustin. An official commemoration ceremony is due to take place at the president’s grave, to be attended by Prime Minister Jiří Rusnok, on the anniversary of Dr Beneš’s death on 3 September.

The villa was built in 1930 and 1931 according to a design by the architect Petr Kropáček and the Benešes were directly involved in the project. They wanted the house to have the air of a rural building in the south of France. In 1937, the Benešes decided to extend the villa according to a design by the architect Otokar Fierlinger. The final resting place of the second Czechoslovak president and his wife – a tomb in the garden – was designed by Pavel Janák, the architect of Prague Castle. The president’s bust was created in 1947 by the sculptor Karel Dvořák. Beneš’s villa has undergone extensive renovation in recent years and was reopened to the public in May 2009.

Visitors tour the exterior of the building and can look forward to president’s favourite corner in the ground-floor lounge, as well as the dining room, the study and a bedroom. The interior is furnished with the antiques and period furniture brought here by the Benešes.

The guided tour includes a walk in the nearby park, which is one of the country’s few surviving gardens from the 1930s. The tour comes to an end at the grave of the Benešes.

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Open days in 2013

14. – 15. September
28. – 29. September
12. – 13. October
26. – 28. October

Guided tours are organized in groups from 10 AM to 4 PM. The tour takes 40 minutes.

Because the villa is of great interest, we recommend you to make a reservation.

Contact

Petr Musil
phone +420 224 002 189

Adress

Dr. E. Beneše 201,
Sezimovo Ústí I
mapa

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