The Czech Supreme Court will again deal with the long-lasting dispute between the Czech state and the Catholic Church over the ownership of St Vitus Cathedral and adjacent buildings on the church's initiative, district court spokesman Krystof Janek said.The Supreme Court will assess the Prague City Court's verdict that recognised the state ownership of St Vitus Cathedral.
Catholic Church lawyer Petr Zdercik has filed an appellate review against the verdict, Janek from the Prague 1 district court said.
The City Court's April verdict was the second valid verdict delivered in the dispute that lasted almost 16 years.
The district court and the Prague City Court changed their original verdicts from 2006 according to which the church is the owner of the cathedral.
The state appealed the first verdict and the Supreme Court cancelled it.
Later, the courts based their rulings on the Supreme Court's decision.
The latest verdict was therefore based on the government's resolution from 1954 on the protection of the Prague Castle area.
According to it, St Vitus Cathedral belongs to all Czechoslovak people.
The Supreme Court decided at the beginning of last year that the people's ownership is the state ownership. Previously, lower-level courts said that such a sentence cannot entail the change in the ownership.
The church continues to use this argument.
"Even under the communist law something like this could only be nationalised on the basis of law," Cardinal and Czech Catholic Church Primate Miloslav Vlk told journalists after the end of the court proceedings.
He said that it was the head of the Prague City Hall construction department who decided the dispute.
Zdercik said all Czechoslovak people could not be a legal entity. The church has also questioned the fairness of the appeals proceedings at the Supreme Court and pointed to the communist past of one of the members of the court panel that dealt with the appeal.
The church, represented in the dispute by the Metropolitan Chapter at St Vitus and the Collegiate Chapter of All Saints at Prague Castle, brought a lawsuit against the state concerning the ownership of the cathedral, the construction of which started in the 14th century and was only completed in the 20th century, and adjacent buildings in 1992.
The state took over the cathedral on the basis of the Supreme Court's ruling and in agreement with the church in April.
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(Source: CH)