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We held three working parties in 2026. The first was in May at Brněnec in Moravia where we once again worked at 'Schindler’s Ark', the former textile factory where he saved his Jewish workers and which has now become a centre for understanding the Holocaust and for reconciliation. A new project for us was at the small town of Rataje nad Sázavou nea...
We held two one-week working holidays at Červený Dvůr in South Bohemia. The team has mainly been engaged in painting the exterior and interior of the Mauricovna, which has been one of our projects for several years. The appearance of the Maurocovna has been transformed with a coat of yellow paint. While we were working an elderly lady visiting from...
The full extent of this project became apparent only as the work proceeded. We knew we were to clean out a disused mill and our combined team of Czech and UK volunteers spent a week clearing dirt and rubbish, which had lain undisturbed since the mill was last used in 1957. There was a tragic tale as the last miller was arrested and imprisoned by th...
November 2017 - The Friends were pleased to see the Mauricovna at Červený Dvůr as the image on the opening web page of the UK National Trust's Overseas Working Holidays for 2018. Photograph by Amber Cloughton, participant in 2016. In the coming year The Friends are organising three working holidays: -Žďár nad Sázavou, the site of the UNESCO pilgrim...
The Friends' second working holiday of 2017 took place last week and was based in the Villa Stiassni, an example of Functionalism, designed for the wealthy textile industrialist Alfred Stiassny by the architect Ernst Wiesner in 1927. This large villa sits in a garden on an extensive sloped plot of land. It has beautiful views across the garden to t...
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC FOR THE FIRST TIME Following The Friends' working party in June last year, we were pleased to receive summertime photographs of the Lower Cemetery at Žďár nad Sázavou from Zbyněk Vintr, who managed the project there. The enclosure, designed built by the famous Baroque architect J. B. Santini-Aichel, was in fact never used for bur...
The holiday: situated in Southern Bohemia, Červený Dvůr is an estate that was once the summer residence of the Schwarzenberg family and is now a sanatorium. Participants worked on the restoration of an 18th-century gardener's cottage on the estate and helped to recreate the formal gardens of the château. Tasks involved simple building work and no p...
Saturday 11th June to Saturday 18th June 2016 Participants worked on maintenance works of the Lower Cemetery (which was in fact never used for burials), built by a famous Baroque architect J. B. Santini-Aichel, so that it can be opened to the public. Tasks involved simple building work, some clearance and preservation work and simple terrain. No pr...
Friday 9th to Friday 16th September 2016 Participants made their own travel arrangements to Prague. There was a day-excursion to Karlovy Vary Meeting point: Participants were picked up at Prague Airport and travelled by minibus to Krásný Dvůr. Accommodation: in the local self-catering municipal hostel in the village - shared bedrooms, cost includin...
We were a mixed party with ages ranging from early 20s to mid 70s and included students, a retired architect, social workers and a food store manager. We helped to lay the drains, built walls and excavated a cellar to provide storage, with a particular focus on the Mauricovna, a building in the grounds that we are helping to rescue. Our activities ...
