Hospodářské noviny reports that the Czech national land registry plans to spend 250m koruna (€1m) on surveyors fees, launching “the first major effort to hand back church property,” which was confiscated without compensation by the communist regime.
In compliance with a ruling by the country’s constitutional court, announced on June 3, the Czech state must hand over property with an estimated value of €3bn to Catholic, Protestant and Jewish communities. The daily adds that —
The complicated quest for historical documents, which were often drafted in Gothic script, to prove that properties did in fact belong to the churches before they were confiscated by the 1948 coup d’état, is the stuff of detective novels.
Receive the best of European journalism straight to your inbox every Thursday
Was this article useful? If so we are delighted!
It is freely available because we believe that the right to free and independent information is essential for democracy. But this right is not guaranteed forever, and independence comes at a cost. We need your support in order to continue publishing independent, multilingual news for all Europeans.
Discover our subscription offers and their exclusive benefits and become a member of our community now!