Terezin – the Project of the Restoration of Historic Buildings

Terezin was historically a garrison town since the beginning. After Czech army left, there was no use for extremely large military buildings and fortifications. The condition of historical monument was becoming critical. All the visitors entered only Small Fortress out of the town itself, knowing nothing but WW2 story of the town. The restoration project has helped to save and maintain the unique historic urban landscape which is protected by the Czech law. The most important impact was an opportunity to guarantee a re-use of the historic buildings which were involved into the project. In the town there are still large historic buildings without use and their safe is needed. The project provokes other restoration activities in the town, as well as it demonstrates a need of a good care in a public interest. In this case, Terezin and Ústí Region established NGO named “Terezín – město změny”. Its goal is to restore the monuments by help of EU funds and to bring new life into them. Some of them are newly used as museum/exhibitions dedicated to the history of Terezin fortress (1780-1938), and some as sport place (ridding hall),some as administrative building (Artillery Barracks). In the year 2020, five years after the realisation, the project ended. It brought new use for empty buildings. It attracted more than 100.000 visitors to Terezin fortress showing them, that Terezin is not only the Jewish ghetto from WW2, but also one of the largest and best-preserved fortresses in Europe.