September 3, 2008:Beneš Villa Will Receive a New Garb and Will Be Opened To the Public

Sixty years after the death of the second Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš, Premier Mirek Topolánek today presented to the public the reconstruction project of Beneš´s villa in Sezimovo Ústí. As of next May, people could start visiting the villa once a month, its garden will be opened to the public all the time. 

“We want to rehabilitate the entire object not only in architectural terms but also spiritually,“ the Prime Minister was quoted as saying in Sezimovo Ústí today. In his words, the villa should be given its original garb that was completely destroyed during its state ownership in the 1970s. The appearance of the villa should be brought as close as possible to that it had at the time President Eduard Beneš and his wife lived and worked there.

“After the reconstruction of the villa, we will have fulfilled the heritage of both Hana Benešová and the wishes of Edvard Beneš who wanted the villa to be a living organism harking back to the time the President lived there and was happy. Exhibitions, conferences and concerts are expected to be held in the villa after its reconstruction,“ added Premier Mirek Topolánek.

The Edvard Beneš Villa was built according to a project by architect Petr Kropáček. Work on the project and the construction of the house were supervised by the Beneš couple. According to their ideas, the object was to resemble a farmstead in the south of France. But Mr. and Mrs. Beneš regarded the villa - with its low pantiled roof, undecorated facades and divided into several sections - as too austere. That was why they had its smooth front additionally livened up with treillages for creeping plants and its windows mounted with shutters.