Owner of Napajedla Stud Farm Challenges Culture Minister's Decision to Expand Heritage Protection in Court

Sygnum, the company that owns the Hřebčín Napajedla stud farm in the Zlín Region, has filed a lawsuit with the Prague Municipal Court against a decision by Culture Minister Ota Klempíř (Motoristé party), the portal Jezdci.cz reports. In June, the minister overturned his ministry's earlier rulings on the scope of the site's heritage protection and ordered a fresh assessment of the status of part of the property, including its pastures.

In the lawsuit, filed on 19 June, the company challenges the very decision to reopen the case and asks the court to annul Klempíř's order of 12 June, sending the matter back to the Ministry of Culture for renewed proceedings. The information was confirmed to ČTK by Aleš Martínek, spokesman for the "Save the Napajedla Stud Farm and Horse Breeding" association.

The Napajedla stud farm was once renowned for breeding English thoroughbreds, but in 2023 the owner ceased this activity for economic reasons. Klempíř's predecessor as minister, Martin Baxa (ODS), confirmed in March last year a ruling under which heritage status was granted mainly to the buildings and land at the centre of the stud farm, but not to the surrounding pastures.

Klempíř overturned that decision and instructed his ministry to reassess the protection status of the entire complex, including the pastures. In his view, the stud farm forms a unique, unified whole in which the pastures and outbuildings are inseparably linked to the horse-breeding infrastructure, and excluding them from protection effectively denied the very essence of the stud farm as a functional unit.

Sygnum spokeswoman Pavla Mudrochová said the company has already filed a "blanket" lawsuit, with the detailed grounds to be submitted to the court later, within the statutory deadline. "For that reason, we will not comment on individual legal or factual arguments for now," she said.

The company's legal representative, František Korbel of the law firm Havel & Partners, called the minister's decision to reopen the case unlawful. The renewed proceedings were initiated in March at the request of the "Save the Stud Farm" association, and three months later Klempíř announced the annulment of his predecessor's earlier ruling. The ministry has not yet issued a new decision on the scope of the site's protection — the company is specifically challenging the minister's order to reassess protection for the previously excluded areas, including the pastures, and to balance the public interest in heritage protection against the owners' rights.

According to Klempíř, the main reason for overturning the previous rulings was that they were inadequate and failed to correctly assess the integrity of the whole complex: supervisory authorities had not fully taken into account the March 2023 opinion of the National Heritage Institute in Kroměříž, which emphasised the historical, functional and visual integrity of the site.

Sygnum wound down its thoroughbred breeding programme in the spring of the year before last, having deemed it unprofitable. The owners sought changes to the zoning plan that would allow housing to be built on part of the pastures, with rental income used to fund the upkeep of the stud farm, but the city council rejected the proposal. The company opposes granting heritage status to the entire complex, arguing that this would make economically viable use of the land impossible.

The "Save the Napajedla Stud Farm" association, by contrast, is fighting to preserve the complex and revive horse breeding there — its petition has gathered around 95,000 signatures. Association spokesman Martínek also represents the interests of Libor Hlačík, who owns part of the property within the stud farm grounds and is pushing for protection of the entire complex so that English thoroughbred breeding could one day return.

"This lawsuit is one matter, and the proceedings at the Ministry of Culture are quite another. If the court doesn't grant the suit suspensory effect, the ministry can carry on with the process. Time will tell how it turns out. Either way, this lawsuit doesn't settle anything — it's simply procedural obstruction. I think any sensible person today understands that to protect the stud farm, you can't just protect individual buildings, because its heritage value lies precisely in it being a single, unified whole," Martínek told ČTK.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz