The St Vitus's Cathedral at Prague Castle together with adjacent properties definitively belongs to the state, the Prague City Court ruled today upholding a district court's verdict of September.This has been a second valid verdict in the 15-year-old dispute between the state and Catholic Church over the most famous Czech church.
The appeals court verdict was, however, abrogated by the Supreme Court (NS).
Both the lower court and the appeals court previously said the cathedral is owned by the church.
The latest verdict is based on a government decree on the Prague Castle protected area of 1954. According to it the church belongs to all Czechoslovak people.
The NS decided early last year that ownership of all people amounts to the ownership of the state, and therefore the government did intend to transfer the ownership rights to the state in 1954.
Previously general courts claimed that such a decree fromulation cannot imply a change of the owner.
The church filed an action to determine the title to the cathedral and further adjacent properties in 1992.
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