Helping to integrate into life
Dear friends,
so far we have presented on our website mainly construction works and professional activities connected with the presentation of the Motešický mansion in Ladce. However, the MaHoLa project also has a strong social and educational dimension thanks to the cooperation with the Vocational Boarding School in Ladce (in Slovak "OUI"). The OUI, which is one of the three partners of the MaHoLa project, provides education and training in a number of trades that will find future employment on the manor house site, such as bricklayer, carpenter and construction locksmith. His role is precisely to provide his students, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, with practical experience in routine and sophisticated building and craft work.
We therefore welcomed OUI students to the Manor House at the end of January 2023 to showcase their progress in building work. Our craftsmen demonstrated to the students the application of selected technological techniques with emphasis on the masonry and surfaces of the national cultural monument. The opportunity to watch the craftsmen at work was an unconventional opportunity to enrich the educational process. In terms of the mansion's recent history, it is interesting to note that the mansion itself was formerly the headquarters of the OUI, so some of the staff returned, so to speak, to a place they knew very well.
The experience gained and the direct physical contact with historic structures will in time be able to be capitalised on by OUI students in the form of permanent jobs and - who knows - the most skilful ones may even set up specialist companies specifically focused on historic monuments. We are looking forward to cooperation!
Restoration of the portico of the Motešický manor house in Ladce.
WHEN THE MAIN ENTRANCE, A PROPER ONE!
Restoration of the portico of the Motešický manor house in Ladce.
On the pages of Ladecký zvesty we regularly inform you about all the important activities that we carry out at the Motešický manor house in Ladce. In addition to the reconstruction works on the west wing of the manor and expert lectures, however, we cannot (nor do we want to) forget about the partial restoration of significant architectural elements, which are usually the result of specialized activities aimed at the protection and presentation of the monumental values of the manor, which is a national cultural monument.
One of them is the restoration of the historic portico, situated on the northern side of the manor house, which is one of the most valuable and monumentally significant parts of the entire historic building. Let us stop at the term itself, which is not very well known in the public. The portico refers to the columned vestibule in front of the main entrance to a historic building, in our case the manor house. The portico is an element declaring the social and financial status of the owner of the manor. "Our" portico, according to the architectural-historical research of Alexander Németh, comes from the third construction phase of the manor and its construction is connected with the acquisition of the manor by Adolf Schenk after the departure of the last Motešickýs in the last quarter of the 19th century. Representativeness and visual flamboyance were part of the presentation of the members of the nobility of Adolf Schenk and his wife Jeanette, née. Popper to the outside. Apparently the newly built portico is already in the first known photograph of the manor from the 1880s. In short, a good first impression is no modern development, but it mattered even more than a century ago.
Due to prolonged dilapidation, the portico of the manor house in Ladce was in a poor condition for a long time, which was not only out of harmony with the monumental values of the whole manor house, but also endangered the life, health and safety of people moving in its vicinity. The portico was therefore professionally cleaned in 2022 under the detailed supervision of the Trenčín Regional Monuments Office, and a remediation system was applied to the cleaned facades, allowing for the crystallization of water-soluble salts along with the parallel evaporation of water/water vapour from the plaster. More technologically demanding work was required on the terrace above the portico, where the paving was replaced locally or the shallow brick vault was restored.
All works were carried out in constructive cooperation with the Regional Monuments Office Trenčín, which carried out state monument supervision during the works.
We were able to ensure the restoration of the portico thanks to the support from the subsidy programme of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic "Let's Restore Our House", which supported the project of restoration of the portico with the amount of EUR 20,000, for which we are grateful to the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic.
Tomas Michalik
Workshop of the Norwegian partner of the MaHoLa project
On 17 October 2022 Ladce experienced an unusual visit. The municipal office witnessed a visit of representatives of the Norwegian partner of the project of restoration of a part of the manor house from the College for Green Development (Høgskulen for grøn utvikling) from the town of Bryne in southern Norway. The purpose of the visit was a full-day seminar led by community development specialists Johan Barstad, an economist, and Rhys Evans, a human geographer. The aim of the seminar was to present the Norwegian approach to local cultural heritage, especially in terms of economic benefits.
The seminar was intended for representatives of different social sectors or individual actors from Ladiec and the surrounding area. Thanks to the wide range of institutions addressed, professional institutions, traditional craftsmen, nearby sites restored thanks to EEA and Norway Grants, pensioners or the remaining project partners - the municipality of Ladce and the local Vocational Training Boarding School - were represented. The presentations of our Norwegian partners were continuously professionally translated from English.
At the beginning of the seminar, our Norwegian friends presented their location - a dynamically developing university located in the building of an old industrial mill. Other presentations focused on introducing different communities and approaches to them. Johan and Rhys also peered into Norway's post-war history, which surprisingly shared many similarities with the history of post-war Czechoslovakia, especially in terms of the abandonment of the countryside and the influx of new people into the cities, which subsequently resulted in a sense of loss of identity with the new environment. The last session was mainly devoted to the search for economic resources in cultural heritage (in a broader sense than anything old), which, although it has lost its original meaning, can still be used in a meaningful way. The term "re-purpose", which can be loosely translated as "repurposing", was added to the vocabulary of the seminar participants, and ran like a golden thread throughout the seminar. After all, everyone of us is capable of using our wits and creatively approaching the old things we have in our environment. However, the seminar was particularly eye-opening when we discovered how many amazing things there are around us and how they were able to give new content to these in different countries. If it works not only in Norway, but also in the Czech Republic, Poland or Lithuania, why not in Ladce?
On behalf of the owner of the manor house, I would like to thank the municipality of Ladce not only for providing the municipal office space, but also for the space for a delicious lunch. Thanks to the understanding of all the participants, the seminar was held in a friendly, informal atmosphere, which not only enhanced the experience of the speakers, but also contributed to gaining information on innovative approaches to cultural heritage, which we will certainly use in the restored part of the Ladce manor house. Anyone with suggestions on what could be used in the manor house will be happy to visit the project website www.kastiel-ladce.eu or contact us via email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The seminar was organized within the project "Manor House in Ladce (acronym MaHoLa)", supported by the EEA and Norway Grants under the "Culture" programme, administered by the Ministry of Investment, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic.
You can view the presentations on the following links:
Introducing Jearen
Community development
Local communities
Asset development for communities and enterprises