The Turbovna house on the town square of Úterý will become a community center with a café for locals and visitors, but it needs reinforcing with steel tie-rods. Following two successful fund-raising campaigns, we turn to you once again for your support!
Author: Úterský spolek Bart
Úterý, Plzeň Region, Czechia
All or nothing. Project finished on Dec 23, 2020 at 11:25.
If you find this moment the worst possible timing for a crowdfunding campaign, you are probably right. Covid has taken a toll on our household budgets and our willingness to spend money, Christmas is approaching… But all the same, we have to take the risk. The Turbovna restoration project is so much underway now that there is simply no stopping and waiting. At the end of November, construction and reconstruction work began simultaneously in three areas of the house that will enable us next year to launch the largest building project so far, which will result in the complete restoration of the interiors of both of the building’s ground-floor wings. We are at a turning point – up to now we have put nearly all our energy into such things as structurally stabilizing parts of the building and repairing the roof, which of course are necessary, but let’s face it – this alone will not make for a cozy interior space that will please and warm a visitor’s heart and soul. Starting next year, a new stage will begin in which the hitherto invested efforts will pay off and the Turbovna house will be transformed from a building site to a welcoming place open to everyone.
However, to do so we must reinforce the building’s stability with solid steel tie-rods that will be inserted under the floor of the ground level and anchored in the perimeter walls. We are hoping to raise some of the money still needed for this cost-demanding operation through this crowdfunding project. Please help us do so!
Turbovna is a house situated on the corner of Úterý’s main square, it has earned its name after its last German owners – the Turba family that left the house in 1946. Since then, the house has not been permanently inhabited, several consecutive owners used it for recreation but it was never properly restored. What’s more, the cellars were badly affected by leakage from an adjoining plot where a small house had collapsed, which gradually undermined the building’s structural stability. Turbovna’s postwar fate is similar to that of several other historically precious houses in Úterý. They are beautiful, they are witness to the town’s medieval prosperity but their repairs and upkeep are very costly. And so a part of the valuable Conservation Area of this small town in the Czech Republic’s former Sudetenland continues to fall into disrepair.
Our local association Bart bought the Turbovna house in 2015 in a distressed auction sale and has been gradually renovating it and bringing it back to life. In the past years we managed to complete the reconstruction of the roof frame and roof covering, to rebuild the west elevation’s gable wall, to reinforce and partially re-erect the vaulted ceilings of the cellars and to restore the first, so-called meeting room. Overall, we managed to raise and invest into the house’s repairs 4.3 million CZK (some 200,000 USD), with a matching sum already lined up for next year’s restoration projects. We raised the generous sum of 390,142 CZK thanks to two previous successful crowdfunding projects on the Hithit website portal. We give our heartfelt thanks to all those generous donors.
It is our objective to carry the reconstruction of the dominant landmark on Úterý’s main square to a successful conclusion. We wish to create in the building a hospitable meeting place for both locals and tourists. Turbovna will house a small café and a museum and offer a variety of social events and activities.
What does this year’s building activity involve and why is it necessary? The building’s foundations stands on an unstable bedrock – a very soft mica schist. Over the past decades, the house was affected by leakage from the uncovered adjacent plot. This caused the disruption of the building’s structural stability. We have already been able to cover those crucial places and this year, together with the ongoing repair work in the cellars, the house has to be structurally reinforced using steel tie-rods. It is precisely this structural reinforcement and our need to raise funds to ensure our association’s co-financing of this building project that this Hithit campaign is focused on.
In the present stage of work, the first five 22mm-diameter S670H steel tie-rods will be installed beneath the floor of the ground level (in the south-facing wing of the building) that will tie up all four perimeter walls. Together with their installation, the supporting frame of this part of the rooms’ floors will be strengthened. All of this will be done according to the instructions of an authorized structural engineer. The work has begun in November and should be finished by the end of the year.
This year we have also launched preparatory work for the renovation of the future museum hall located in the north-facing wing of the building. An examination of its historical plastering has brought some interesting findings. The oldest samples of the plaster date probably to the Baroque era, the later layers come from the Art Nouveau period and the early 20th century. We are giving careful consideration to what to do with this “treasure” recently discovered during the renovation work. You will find images of the historical plaster samples in the accompanying photographs.
The association Úterský spolek Bart was founded in 2000 and during its existence it has organized scores of concerts, art exhibitions and other community and social events and activities. Bart has played a decisive role in the successful renovation of the Baroque organ in the local St. John the Baptist’s Church. From 2012 it holds the annual Úterý Organ Masterclass and from 2016 the B-Art Family Arts and Crafts Festival. The association’s members (both local and out-of-town) feel a close attachment to Úterý and are eager to make the potential of this magically beautiful locality flourish.
This year has by no means been easy for anyone. Yet despite all the obstacles, in keeping with the valid hygienic regulations, we managed to organize the ninth annual organ masterclass and the fifth annual B-Art festival, and to host three screenings of travel photos and films in Turbovna’s courtyard. And the traditional jazz evening performance of the Prague Rhythm Kings band held in the church courtyard was yet another great success.
Why do we do it?
We continue to believe that it is the right thing to care about our surroundings, and to work towards the improvement of our environment and thus also of interpersonal relations. To finance the house restoration we are completely dependent on the donations of individual donors and funding from the town’s local administration, the regional authorities and government grants. The grants always require partial co-funding from the grantee. We have managed to raise these much-needed funds twice already on Hithit, which is why we hope that you will support us the third time. We shall never give up!!
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