Prague, March 7 (CTK) – A total of 5.49 million people visited the Czech state-owned castles and chateaux and other sights managed by the National Heritage Institute (NPU) last year, NPU deputy director Rudolf Pohl has told reporters.
The yields of the entrance fees amounted to 474 million crowns, he added.
In 2016, the state heritage sights were visited by a record number of 5.6 million people.
The UNESCO-listed Cesky Krumlov, south Bohemia, and Lednice, south Moravia, traditionally lead the rankings, being visited by 466,000 and 417,000 people respectively in 2017.
They were followed by Hluboka Chateau, south Bohemia, with 295,000 visitors and the Karlstejn and Konopiste Castles, central Bohemia, seen by 228,000 and 174,000 people last year.
“The visitors’ rate of all of these sights has been rising year-on-year,” Pohl said.
The NPU has registered precise data on the number of visitors for few years only. It exceeded five million for the first time in 2015.
Along with entrance and guided tour fees, the NPU gains money from film-makers leasing heritage sights as locations, Pohl said, adding that this income dropped in 2017, however.
The NPU spends the yields on the reconstruction of the administered sights and the improvement of facilities for visitors.
Hundreds of state heritage sights will open to the public again after the winter season on Good Friday, March 30.
The NPU has also informed the media about its long-term project mapping the Czech noble families.
In 2018, it continues with “the year of “Czech Aristocracy in European Diplomacy” to be launched in the Cernin Palace, the Foreign Ministry’s seat, on March 22. Some 40 buildings administered by the NPU will participate in this project held within the European Year of Cultural Heritage.
Besides, the NPU prepares a number of events, marking the 100-year anniversary of the establishment of Czechoslovakia this year.
