Case study: The Battle for Jezeří Chateau: Difference between revisions

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 In the meantime, Jáchymov-based Výstavba dolů uranového průmyslu (VDUP – a uranium mining company) began digging a hydraulic tunnel in the mountainside above Jezeří to divert the Šramnický brook, and then another tunnel at Albrechtice to divert the Černický brook to the reservoir at Loupnice. Dr Marek and his team monitored the digging of both tunnels for over a year. They closely documented of the geological phenomena detected in depth within the crystalline complex to have enough background information for comparison for the planned survey under Jezeří. However, they were only able to do that at night, when the digging underground was halted for the day. To make even more work for themselves, they also took up documenting the new three-kilometre-long drainage tunnel in Jáchymov.
+Thanks to co-operation with VDUP Jáchymov, they succeeded in convincing the company’s diggers to perform at least part of the planned mining work under Jezeří after the digging was completed. Most importantly, they managed to do the principal work: the horizontal gallery dug from the mountain base into the crystalline complex right under the chateau, 430 m long. They were documenting the gallery throughout the digging process; again, mostly at night. Deep core holes were bored in front of the gallery portal; an underground hole was bored inside the gallery, and an inclined core hole was bored under the chateau foundations. They documented all the rock formations around the chateau. They measured all the fissures, analysed the geodynamic phenomena and other facts. They found and documented the remains of medieval chambers for iron ore extraction and processing in old “salamander furnaces” discovered around the chateau. Dr Marek published the findings in the professional journal “Rudy” (“Ores”), which later resulted in their inclusion among protected national technical heritage sites.
+The research around Jezeří took more than 4 years and was completed in 1981. It fully confirmed the findings and conclusions of the previous engineering geological mapping, which the North Bohemian Mines management would not accept in 1976. It confirmed the existence of massive tectonic fault zones at the mountain base and inside the massif, various anomalies in the positioning of the basin sediments along the seam edge and the groundwater conditions, and most importantly, it confirmed the unstable position of the promontory on which the chateau rests.
+Dr Marek was writing the final report on the Jezeří survey in bed at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) in Prague, where he had been taken after he collapsed as a result of extreme physical strain, long-term mental exertion, dangerous work in the underground and staying in the unheated tower at Jezeří.
+When he was put more or less back together at IKEM, he defended his set of findings and generalised experience as his Candidate of Sciences dissertation thesis at the Charles University Faculty of Science. The thesis was reviewed by three top experts at three universities whose expertise it involved: the geotechnician Prof. Mencl of Brno Technical University, engineering geologist and hydrogeologist Prof. Homola of Ostrava Mining University, and geomorphologist Prof. Král of the Charles University Faculty of Science. They assessed it as the best in years and the most momentous in the Czechoslovak Federation, with a direct impact on the entire country’s economic situation. It seemed that the battle was over and there could be some resting on laurels at last. The reality soon proved otherwise, though.
+The results of Dr Marek’s research were to be confirmed by a mathematical calculation of the stability of the slope. This was an extremely tall slope, however, its integrity had been disrupted by tectonic zones, and its base was meant to be lightened through coal mining. There was no one at hand who wanted to take on that task without sufficient previous experience and examples from foreign literature. Eventually, the calculation was taken up by the country’s most experienced experts, geotechnician Vojtěch Mencl and mathematician Ladislav Mejzlík, both emeritus professors at Brno Technical University. They used the finite element method, novel in the Czech Republic at that time, using computer equipment. In addition, a physical model was constructed at the BTU Construction Faculty Geotechnics Department made of equivalent materials (Jezeří Chateau being represented by two sugar cubes).
+While the professors were doing their calculations, the lecturers and instructors in white coats were working with the physical model located inside transparent plexiglass walls. They used a toy spade to rake away fine sand, which stood for the basin sediments, imitating the mining activity in the opencast mine. The condition of the adjacent crystalline complex was monitored by means of a network of surveyed points; movement was expected, and Dr Marek was cautiously watching along with renowned experts from the Academy of Sciences. After all the sediments were removed, nothing shifted until late at night; the sugar cubes remained in place. The next morning, they found the massif collapsed complete with the sugar cubes.
+The mathematical calculation confirmed that removing the top two-thirds of the sediments at the base of the mountainside might not cause a stability collapse of the entire slope, but the bedrock directly under the chateau would suffer deformities of up to 10 cm. A total collapse in stability would occur if the basin fill extraction continued. (The coal seam is located in the bottom segment of the sedimentary strata series.)
+Moreover, the course of both the mathematical and physical modelling showed a deficit in some input data, the importance of which only became clear during the modelling, such as the role of discontinuous groundwater horizons, the size and orientation of the natural tension inside the crystalline complex at the mountainside base, the role of slow secular movements of the massif due to internal geological forces, etc. That was why the Jezeří area immediately became a test site in which various professional institutions and teams of specialists tried to test various empirical approaches to modelling, conduct parametric studies and regression analyses. Eventually, Stavební geologie Praha became the manager of an extensive national research task “Studying stability problems of opening opencast coal mines at the base of the Ore Mountains”. As part of this, Dr Marek dealt with the issue of “Studying the tectonic loosening of the crystalline complex”. Using inclined and horizontal core holes in the mountainsides around Jezeří, he examined the presence of tectonic faults and zones, verified their tectonic effects in the ground surface, and tested possible applications of various geotechnical equipment for monitoring changes in the tension and movement inside the massif. The research was completed in 1986.
+After Dr Marek submitted the results of the detailed survey at Jezeří, the mine management commissioned detailed engineering-geological surveys of similarly critical sites below Jezerka, at Černice and Horní Jiřetín, again using demanding mining work. The mining work was taken up by the tried and tested VDUP Jáchymov, which was then able to dig vertical shafts in addition to horizontal galleries. At the same time, comprehensive surveying started on the adjacent site in the forefield of the disused Obránců míru opencast mine, between Jezeří and Janov, covering another approx. 20 km2. Its chief focus was on the stability of the mountainsides and the end slopes of the planned opencast mine. Dr Marek continued the detailed engineering-geological mapping of that section and kept track of all the other survey and research works.
+Immediately after the conclusion of his detailed survey at Jezeří in 1981, Dr Marek held a seminar for the staff of the Regional Office of State Cultural Heritage and Nature Conservation in Ústí nad Labem about its results and predictions for the future progress of the coal mines. The seminar was also attended by the heads of the then newly formed youth conservationist movement “Brontosaurus” from Most and Litvínov, Miroslav Brožík and Petr Pakosta. Dr Marek invited them to make use of the assistance of young environmental activists to help in saving and rehabilitating the devastated chateau, its gardens and the former parks around it. The Brontosaurs pulled their weight effectively with the consent of the Regional Conservation Office, but to the displeasure of the District Committee of the Communist Party in Most. The latter regarded their action as a violation of Party guidelines, which were unequivocally in favour of the coal mining. They saw no gratitude either when they cleared out the devastated historical Franciscan hospital in Most, scheduled for demolition, and prepared it for renovation.
+The youth group ran the “Quite Small Theatre” in Litvínov, where they invited well-known people in environment-related professions for discussions with locals. In 1982, they invited Dr Marek to lecture on “Shall we prop up the Ore Mountains?” The feedback was considerable. The public of Litvínov, Most and the surrounding villages revived their interest in conserving not only Jezeří but also the surrounding landscape and the remaining settlements. Discussion evenings followed, involving presentations by Dr. Skřivánek of the State Conservation Office headquarters, Dr. Vaněk and Ing. Stoklasa, both renowned experts of the Academy of Sciences Institute of Landscape Ecology, and others. They all endorsed the continued existence of the chateau.
+With minor variations, the detailed surveys below Jezerka, at Černice and Horní Jiřetín produced findings similar to those from the Jezeří survey. The mountainsides and their bases were modified by tectonic fault zones up to several dozen metres thick. Within them, the crystalline rocks were crushed or even disintegrated into a sandy-clay earth. The basin strata series at the edge of the basin were also disrupted by various fault and non-fault deformities.
+Now the problem was how the mine planners and operators would cope with that because they still insisted on their original plan to fully deplete the seam up to the edge using the large-scale opencast method, albeit at the cost of disproportionate expenses and special precautions, the technical and energy intensity of which would clearly outdo any profit from the coal mined.
+Design ideas verging on fantasies were developed, including stabilization of the Ore Mountain massif using a series of pretensioned anchors up to 80 m long, bored from slope sections cut into terraces. Another was to remove the entire exposed section of the crystalline complex so that the end slope of the opencast coal mine would face mountain slopes dressed at a stable incline of approx. 35°. Obviously, that would have required the complete removal of the forest, the groundcover, the protruding rock formations, and naturally, Jezeří Chateau. The latter version was even elaborated into an implementation design, undersigned by Ing. Kubricht, former chief architect of Most and a designer at Báňské projekty at that time. To that end, the mine management, the Brown Coal Research Institute in Most and Báňské projekty in Teplice filed a joint application with the Ministry of Culture in 1982 calling for cancellation of the heritage conservation status of Jezeří Chateau and the adjacent Ore Mountains hillsides.
+Dr Marek learnt about the meeting called by the Ministry of Culture to discuss the matter the night before during a discussion with Ing. Stoklasa at the “Quite Small Theatre” in Litvínov. Following a discussion weighing up the relative importance of the coal on the one hand and the local landscape, cultural heritage and health of the population on the other, which carried on until midnight, he set off for Prague in his 4WD. He was going to wash and change at home and attend the crucial meeting the next morning. On the way, driving through a February night snowstorm, he missed the elevated on-ramp leading to the new bypass at Panenský Týnec and crashed into a ditch. He left the overturned car through the rear window before the running engine exploded and the car caught fire. He managed to explain the accident to the Louny police, catch the first bus to Prague from Louny, attend the meeting at the Ministry, and take part in the discussion. The miners’ proposal to lift the conservation status of Jezeří and expand the mining district up to the summit portions of the Ore Mountains was not approved.
+However, the meeting had a tragic aftermath: Ing. Kašpárek, director of the Regional Office of State Cultural Heritage and Nature Conservation in Ústí nad Labem, had a heart attack and died the next day.
+The miners’ plan to destroy Jezeří Chateau and the adjacent mountainsides provoked a long-lasting and frequently passionate polemic in the daily press and other media as well as at various professional conferences over the period 1981-1987.
+Disapproving positions were expressed by leaders in culture, history, nature and heritage conservation, representatives of the local population, youth environmental movements, and journalists alike. Dr Marek initiated the production of a monographic issue of the popular journal “Památky a příroda” [Monuments and Nature] dedicated to the Jezeří issues. It was published in 1983, and the editors still refused to include a paper by Dr. Líbal, the country’s leading expert on heritage buildings, who resolutely defended the conservation of Jezeří.
+The village of Albrechtice fell prey to the mining preparations below Jezeří in 1985. As was the custom in the area, the houses to be demolished were plundered. At that time, Dr Marek’s colleagues and he were arrested at Jezeří and charged at Most police station with plundering the chateau. The event was probably stage-managed by mining lobbyists. A lengthy report was made after a long interrogation; no prosecution followed but he was still stalked by the police even at home in Prague.
+In the eyes of the mining authorities, Jezeří Chateau was becoming an increasingly hated structure, allegedly an obstacle to further advances in coal mining, although it is situated outside the coal seam. The official caretaker of the building – the Regional Conservation Office in Ústí nad Labem, which had no means even to do basic maintenance – was reluctant to invest its limited resources in a building endangered by demolition, the proposal for which had already been made. It made several efforts to get rid of the dilapidated building: by assigning it to the mine corporation! It even dismissed the only employee – the chateau custodian. Therefore, the presence of Dr Marek and his six colleagues in the field office, which they refused to abandon, was the only obstacle to carrying out the demolition plan.
+In the meantime, the Jezeří issue made it into an international forum. It was talked about at geological, hydrogeological, engineering geological and geotechnical conferences all over the world (Melbourne, Washington, Nuremberg, Granada, Moscow, etc.), but mostly by others. After Dr Marek submitted his final research report, there were suddenly scores of ambitious experts willing to declare the results, conclusions and interpretations as their own, and boast about them abroad. Dr Marek was not even allowed to read out my paper at the World Geology Congress in Moscow in 1984. However, he produced a short film about the stability issues of the Ore Mountain slopes due to the coal mining for Washington D.C. and a paper on a similar issue for Melbourne. Ing. arch. Zdeněk Stáhlík of Terplan and he became expert advisors for another, more artistic short film on the issues around Jezeří and the Ore Mountains.
+During the harsh political “Normalization” period, however, positions published in “Rudé právo” – the leading press medium of the all-governing Communist Party – were the most significant ones. Editor Jindra Čekalová played an exceptional role there. She was not afraid of publishing opinions that clearly went against the existing ideological positions and guidelines of the ruling Party, whether under her own name or signed by apparently non-conforming individuals, irrespective of the disapproval of the then editor-in-chief, comrade Kojzar, and at the risk of her own existence.
+Editors of dailies and popular periodicals visited the critical area around Jezeří as a group in 1985. The editorial office of “Věda a technika mládeži” celebrated Dr Marek as the winner of a nation-wide competition of discoverers and inventors.
+Regional, district and municipal secretaries of the Communist Party made a field trip to the Jezeří area in 1986 with the aim of giving political support and assurance to the uninterrupted operation of the coal mining. Rudé právo editor Čekalová elbowed her way into the field trip (and could not be refused due to her position), and brought Dr Marek along as her expert advisor (otherwise he could not have attended such a meeting, being a branded opponent to the regime). He provided the board of secretaries with a comprehensive explanation of the issue, took them to the dam of the then emptied Lake Dřínov, guided them around the derelict chateau, and attended the final discussion at the House of Culture in Most. Of the 12 Party exponents originally biased in favour of continuing the coal mining, eleven eventually voted for limiting the mining and preserving Jezeří Chateau. Comrade Šenkýř, a regional Party secretary, formulated the final statement.
+Deputy Prime Minister Rudolf Hegenbart, a pro-reform secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and head of the Interdepartmental Committee, visited Jezeří in 1987. He arrived with several ministers and in the company of the General Manager of North Bohemian Mines, dressed in an incomplete miner’s uniform. On the terrace of the chateau, overlooking the coal basin, he listened to the General Manager’s lecture on the mining progress, continuing success and bright prospects for the coal mining. Then he listened to Dr Marek’s lecture. After that, he asked him for his published works to study and kept holding on to his elbow throughout the rest of the guided tour. Before the end of the excursion, he made Dr Marek sit in one of the two chairs available in the chateau courtyard, sitting himself on the other one, while the team of ministers and the General Manager of the mine corporation had to look on standing in a semicircle around them. Everyone present must have been clear about the fact that the decision had been made.
+There was no doubt that Rudolf Hegenbart then had to overcome the opposition of the conservative members of the Central Party Committee and negotiate with representatives of the international Comecon, directed from Moscow. No definitive and formal decision was arrived at for a long time. That was why Dr Marek appeared in the popular TV show “Vysílá studio Jezerka” in October 1987 and demanded a political decision. The response of the Prague Municipal Committee of the Communist Party was rancorous, and he was again deleted from the list of nominees for State Awards. Jana Fořtová, the TV show host, preferred emigration. Nevertheless, the government’s decision was published in the spring of 1988: Jezeří Chateau would be preserved and renovated. The coal mine had to ensure the stability of its underlying slope. The Government earmarked special lottery funds for the renovation.
+The mine managers and planners were thus forced into a solution they did not welcome: they had to leave intact the portions of the basin strata series below the most critical parts of the main Ore Mountains side, including the coal seam, which could not be extracted through an opencast mine. Those areas were to act as pillars whose purpose was to secure the stability of the tectonically disrupted mountainsides and thus the safety of operations in the open mine pit. The pillar below Jezerka contains approx. 10 million tonnes of coal; the one below Jezeří has 20-30 million tonnes of coal. Naturally, the pillars and their surroundings had to be kept under geomechanical and geodetic monitoring. The village of Albrechtice could not be saved: it had been destroyed shortly before that (quite pointlessly, as it turned out).
+The victorious celebrations quickly gave way to having to sort out who would undertake the overall renovation of the intricate building. A bid was made by Průmstav Pardubice, a Chomutov operation, a large and well-established company, but its general manager forbade the commission. The first money that arrived in the Jezeří account was used for erecting a metal scaffold around the main building, and a small construction team from the Žalany u Teplic co-operative farm started fixing the roof. When they found out it was beyond their capacity, they passed the task on to the Most state farm.
+A small group of persistent campaigners to save Jezeří with a larger circle of supporters established itself as the “Association to Save Jezeří” in 1988. It registered itself with the Ministry of the Interior when a mild political thaw came. Later on, the citizens’ association name was changed to the “Association to Restore Jezeří” in order to better express its current goals and efforts. The purpose was not only to save the historic building but also to restore its surroundings and the remains of the original landscape. A notable paradox then occurred: the Association exponents who were experts on various scientific disciplines and land use, who were previously in opposition to the governing political team, now became an informal advisory board to the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party! The one who took up the task of resolving the long neglected and truly pressing environmental problems: Rudolf Hegenbart. Associations members were summoned as needed and met in Prague, usually in the Terplan basement. An exceptional meeting was held in the little-known Ore Mountains hamlet with a long mining tradition, Hora Sv. Kateřiny, in October 1988, when they celebrated the birthdays of the environmental activist Petr Pakosta as well as Dr Marek.
+Soon afterwards, however, the party and government began to break apart and collapse in November 1989. That had serious implications for Jezeří. The former all-governing position of North Bohemian Mines lost its political support and, soon after that, its economic power. They were forced to reduce the mining activities to a fraction of the previous volume, making the advance of the Čs. armády opencast mine slower. They had to start acting at least a little “environmentally”, since that was the universal imperative of the new era.
+Jezeří was receiving increasing visits by new statesmen, ministers, deputies, Prime Minister Petr Pithart, and President Václav Havel. William Lobkowicz, the grandson of the last pre-war owner, arrived from the USA in 1990, took up permanent residence in Prague and requested the chateau be returned to him. One of my colleagues at Jezeří, Dr. František Jeniš, left for an expedition called “Driving a Tatra Round the World” and died in the mountains of Pakistan.
+In 1991, Prince Charles and Princess Diana made their first official visit to Czechoslovakia. The schedule for the end of the visit by the pro-environmental Prince, arranged with the Presidential Office, included a visit to the Most district, marked by large-scale destruction due to coal mining, and Jezeří Chateau, which had barely escaped its demolition order. Princess Diana left for England, and Prince Charles and his entourage arrived by plane – piloted by the Prince himself – at the disused military airfield at Žatec. In place of President Havel, he was accompanied by Chancellor Schwarzenberg, the British Ambassador, Federal Minister of the Environment Josef Vavroušek, Czech Minister of the Environment Ivan Dejmal, and journalist Pavel Tigrid. During the tour of the coal basin, Dr Marek gave a general lecture on the dam of Lake Dřínov and the body of the cut-off road below Jezeří. Then the convoy arrived at Jezeří, where the Prince was welcomed by Parliamentary Chairman Milan Uhde and the Lobkowicz family in the upper garden. Dr Marek presented an overview of the chateau history in the courtyard, and the terrace overlooking the mine pit provided the guests with a vista of the gaping mine pit and the country that was being devoured by the demanding power industry. The Prince was sincerely shocked. After Dr Marek introduced the activists of the Association to Restore Jezeří, he said, “I do not envy your job,” and registered himself as a member of the Association. So did Milan Uhde and Pavel Tigrid.
+Of course, the regional, national and international media informed the public about the visit. Only after that could the Jezeří area and its adjacent mountainside be considered to be saved in the new political era: the topic had been made popular enough by the media.
+The Prince promised to contribute towards the restoration of Jezeří with money from global funds. In order to be able to accept any such donations, the Association to Restore Jezeří set up the Foundation to Restore Jezeří with the economist Ing. Jaroslav Stoklasa as the chairman, and opened an account with a bank in Most. The first deposit was made by the Prague-based architect Karel Císař, who designed the chateau renovation project. No other money arrived, though. The Prince kept his promise, but the money never made it past Prague. It was used for renovating the Baroque gardens under Prague Chateau and perhaps the replacement of several of the Charles Bridge statues. Money from the special funds, allocated by the State through the Regional Authority, only kept arriving until its dissolution in 1993. Then it dried up.
+Through Ing. Stoklasa, who had become an advisor to Minister Vavroušek in the meantime, the Association tried to promote the idea of making Jezeří a national centre for studies of possible rehabilitation of extremely damaged landscapes. Something similar exists in Austria, where the state has given Chateau Laxenburg, confiscated from the Habsburgs, to international environmental projects. Ing. Stoklasa brought up the proposal in various ministerial and environmental circles, including abroad, but did not succeed.
+Jezeří Chateau lost its exceptionality as a heritage building saved just before destruction under the new political conditions. Other regions too began making claims on funds for renovating their dilapidated heritage buildings, such as Brno did for Špilberk. Faced with such a situation, the government gladly complied with former owners’ claims, and restored Jezeří Chateau to the Lobkowicz family.
+The former economic hinterland for the Chateau – the Jezeří and Nové Sedlo nad Bílinou dominion – fell prey to large-scale coal mines. The restituted owners were given no compensation for it. Only the forest properties in the Ore Mountains remain; they had been degraded due to the pollution and climate change resulting from coal combustion in power plants. They were given back about 10 more buildings, mostly in a devastated condition and without their economic hinterland. They soon concluded they could not sustain Jezeří. William Lobkowicz offered to transfer the chateau to the Association free of charge. Dr Marek had to decline that generous offer politely, both for himself and on behalf the Association that he chaired. It was unclear how they would provide the dilapidated building with security, fire safety, drinking water and other essentials. None of them had enough money for renovating it.
+Some risk emerged at the other end: The Lobkowicz family were in dire need of funds for renovating their other restituted properties. In order to raise some funds, they offered Jezeří Chateau for sale. Given the situation resulting from the coal mining, it was obvious that the coal miners would be the only potential buyer. The intention would not be to locate their managerial offices in it or convert it to a holiday resort for their workers, but to finally erase the despised building. No one could prevent them from doing so as the legitimate owners, meaning all the previous efforts to save it would be in vain.
+So the Association had to fight on. Dr Marek approached the Lobkowicz family with a long letter in which he invoked their moral obligation towards the building that they had owned for more than 300 years, and its liability for the history of the Czech lands, in which it often interfered significantly from its seat at Jezeří. Dr Marek argued that the chateau must not be sold but returned to state ownership. The old Czech nobility obeyed! The government authorities had to be convinced again that they ought to take over the building, which they had left to rot, and complete its renovation. It was not easy, but it worked. The case was partly supported by Dr Marek’s reputation in heritage and environmental conservation circles, partly by the fact Milan Uhde and Pavel Tigrid were members of the Association to Restore Jezeří, and definitely by Prince Charles’s visit.
+Nevertheless, Prince Charles was not the only royalty to visit Jezeří. In another official state visit, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and her husband, Prince Klaus, arrived in the company of the Dutch Ambassador, Chancellor Dobrovský and Minsters Dlouhý and Benda in 1994. As part of the Presidential Office plan, the welcome in the chateau garden was be followed by a view from “Charles’ Vista” and a presentation by the North Bohemian Mines manager. Local environmental activists protested against that. They convinced Chancellor Dobrovský that the presentation should only be made by Dr Marek. The mine manager would then be allowed to boast the mining successes in the basin below. Dr Marek handed the likeable Queen the commemorative essay “Krušné hory, Jezeří and related matters” and a handful of raw Bohemian garnets. The Queen said she “would like to be as helpful as possible in saving Jezeří and the landscape”. Unfortunately, her willingness was not exploited as a result of an avalanche of other events. Ministers Benda (environment) and Dlouhý (industry and trade) said nothing and would make no perceptible effort for Jezeří later on.
+Following the exceptional case of the State taking back over a property that had been restored to its legitimate owner, the State invested some money in its renovation, but far less than the demanding project required. So work proceeded only slowly. Nevertheless, 10 years later, one can appreciate that the chateau gleams in the distance with its new roofing, repaired chimney heads, copper-plated cupolas, and gilded balloons on the spires. Parts of the chateau have been made accessible to the public. The warden is Hana Krejčová, a local and a former singer at Teplice Theatre, who has a welcome attachment to the place and the chateau. We may yet see the renovation completed.
+The Foundation to Restore Jezeří has been dissolved. The Association to Restore Jezeří has not, and although the effort to restore Jezeří has been accomplished, there are still problems in which it has to be involved or which it has to take up under pressure of current events. Although there are no regular meetings, the Association is still capable of mobilizing its active core members and apply its font of knowledge and experience wherever it is needed.
+The saving of Jezeří was a battle won among the several large battles that individuals and environmental groups waged against megalomaniacal projects promoted by the Party and those in power at the time. They prevented the construction of a large dam on the Berounka near Chateau Křivoklát and a high-rise hotel on the top of Sněžka (the highest peak in the Czech Republic). The only thing they failed to prevent was the development of a car racing circuit in a suburban forest near Brno, which totally ruined the notion of the idyllic setting of the writer Alois Mrštík’s “May Fairytale”. That can be regarded as a fair success during the totalitarian era.