The monument fund
The monument fund, an artistic, historical and typologically extremely rich collection of valuable historic objects, buildings and areas on the territory of the Czech Republic, is the bearer of national and state identity. Regardless of ownership or property relations, it is a treasure that belongs to all of us, and its protectin is thus in our joint interest.
The monument fund of the Czech Republic contains immovable objects such as church and sacral buildings, folk and rural architecture, technical monuments including transport constructions, as well as archaeological sites and the cultural landscape formed by people. This includes a collection of former aristocratic seats, in other words castles and chateaus, with uniquely protected furnishings, in other worlds their original furnishings, and historic book collections.
Of no less value are the movable monuments, in other words works of art such as statues and paintings and valuable objects of craftsmanship, including jewellery, furniture and home furnishings, as well as weapons and musical instruments.
The most valuable of our movable and immovable heritage is protected by the state – approximately forty thousand buildings and forty thousand works of art and objects are listed as cultural monuments. Around three hundred of the most significant have the highest status – that of national cultural monument. There are also twelve objects or areas of cultural heritage in the Czech Repulc that, because of their supranational signifance and value, have received international recognition by being listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Some monuments, however, continue to decay. The Czech Republic contains over forty thousand cultural monuments, of which over 700 are on a list of monuments under threat.