The Košice complex plan. (source: TASR)
OCTOBER: AS PART of the 2013 European Capital of Culture project, a new cultural hub is to open in Košice: seven cultural institutions will be extended, modified, and interconnected, thus creating open zones without admission fees for the public. The goal is to lure visitors and offer them an open space to use, the Košice daily Korzár wrote.
Grants for all seven projects equal €9,644,531 in total, of which 85 percent will come from the European Fund for Regional Development, 10 percent from the Slovak state budget, and 5 percent from the owners of the institutions’ own resources. The institutions involved are the Eastern-Slovak Gallery, Puppet Theatre (the atrium), Barkóczy Palace (the courtyard), Public Library of Ján Bocatio, Thália Hungarian Theatre, and Crafts Lane.
The last project will conjoin the current site of Hrnčiarska (Craftsmens’) Street, with Katova bašta (Executioner’s Bastion) via a craftsman’s courtyard. As part of the project, casemates (underground corridors and cellars used as arms depots and barracks for soldiers) will be reconstructed, the archaeological presentation of the original city fortification and water moat will be established, a route for guided tours will be created, a gallery of crafts and a courtyard of crafts will emerge, and a watchtower will be built.
The Košický Korzár wrote that in the end the whole complex will expand by at least one third, and thus will become one of the biggest enclosed spaces for culture in downtown Košice. “In the Execu- tioner’s Bastion, an exposition of the defence system of medieval Košice will be built, which will show the way of the fortification, preserved shooting positions and also how the housing was here by that time,” Robert Pollák, head of the Eastern-Slovak Gallery, said. “We will present the casemates to the public for the first time, as they have never been available so far. Pollák concluded that the “renewed” complex will be a space for culture that has no parallel far and wide.
