The book of BBB Library

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Bedřich Beneš Buchlovan

 



Bedřich Beneš Buchlovan


born 21 April 1885 in Tučapy

died 9 September 1953 in Uherské Hradiště

a writer, poet, translator, bibliophile, librarian and local historian


He was born Bedřich Beneš in Tučapy in the family of a teacher and also he decided to devote himself to that occupation. He moved to Uherské Hradiště in 1918 and took a path of a teacher at council school. Since the year of 1926 he worked as a town librarian as well.

He started his writer‘s career as a poet in 1907, then he directed his attention at books for children. His stories draw on the life of villages and towns of Moravian Slovakia, his marionette plays on the motifs of both folk poetry and the world‘s greatest dramas. For adults he published collection of stories titled Ožehnutí (Singeing), Sedm očí naproti (Facing seven eyes) and Podívat se do Bylan (To drop in Bylany). He wrote about 70 fiction works, 20 professional books, several translations from German and Polish and edited 10 magazines. In a number of his books he dealt with the local history and geography of Uherské Hradiště region; some of them are widely read up to the present day, e. g. Buchlovská knížka (Book of Buchlov) - tales connected with Buchlov castle and its vicinity, picturesque guide-book Putovník po hradišťském Slovácku (Wayfarer about Moravian Slovakia), Literární slovníček uherskohradišťského okresu (Literary dictionary of the district of Uherské Hradiště) and Vlastivědné čtení z pověstí hradišťského okresu (Local history course on tales of Uherské Hradiště district).

He devoted his life entirely to books; he was an enthusiastic bibliophile, he went in for editing and graphic art, collected ex-libris, edited Bibliofil (Bibliophile magazine) and prepared for publication a number of bibliophile prints. He worked as a town librarian from 1926 to 1940 and 1945-1953. He enhanced the role of library as a cultural centre and was trying to bring to literature especially young people. Uherské Hradiště library paid tribute to him on his efforts and from 1992 it functions under the name of Bedřich Beneš Buchlovan library.

History of people and the building

History in dates for a library

1848
The Slavonic Lime society was found, its members then established Slavonic library and a reading-room. The society as well as the library housed at The Black Bear and both institutions ceased to work in 1849.

1862
Foundation of the Book-club. At the beginning the club counted 60 members and resided at The Green Tree.

1867
The Book-club formed a foundation ground for Civic Beseda. Until 1918 the library of Civic Beseda ranked among the largest society libraries in the town. At the same time it fulfilled a function of the public library.

1900
Foundation of the Book Union‘s library as another public library.

1912-1914
Opening of the Public Reading-room followed by the library which was to become the town library opened to the public. First it resided in a private house in Nádražní street, later in Reduta. Books and magazines were paid with the contributions provided by the town council, societies as well as individuals.

1919
After having been temporarily closed between 1918 and 1919, a new public reading-room comes into use.

1921
The Public library of the Royal town of Uherské Hradiště starts its regular work. The library was provided with a 10.000 crown support a year by the town council. It was joined with the stock of the Book Union and housed in the old town hall.

1922
The town council purchased the library of Civic Beseda and merged it with the public library, which closed the process of unifying the largest society libraries within the framework of the Public town library.

1927
Bedřich Beneš Buchlovan, a teacher, literal and cultural worker, becomes a librarian.

1931
The library moved to the first floor of Reduta.

1939-45
During WW2 about 2500 volumes were deliberately condemned, which resulted in a 35% loss of the book stock. Bedřich Beneš Buchlovan left the library and worked as a librarian at the library of the Moravian Slovak museum. Lots of books deliberately withdrawn from public libraries were saved by transferring them into the library of the Moravian Slovak museum.

1945
After the liberation from Nazism Bedřich Beneš Buchlovan works again in a position of librarian at the public library.

1946
Separate children‘s department was set up.

1951
After long-lasting pointing out at inconvenient state of the premises the public library has been moved to the ground floor of the reconstructed Jewish synagogue.

1966
The former Jewish synagogue was stricken by fire that badly damaged the first floor and the roof. After the reconstruction a decision was made that the public library would be the user of the whole building.

1997
The ground floor, interior and library stock were damaged due to the floods in 1997. The statics of the building was badly affected and therefore another reconstruction was necessary.

1998
The synagogue was closed due to the reconstruction, the library operated in reserve premises in town.

1999
After the reconstruction of interior, which has substantially reshaped the interior character of the building, BBB library is again available to the public.

2002
New facade bearing original colour and partly restored ornamental details has been finished.

Short history of the synagogue

Jewish synagogue was built in 1875 and served as the place of liturgy of the large Jewish community until WW2. On 22 June 1941 the building was attacked by Gestapo and local members of Vlajka (Flag) and was totally looted. The interior, organ, lustre, the divine service equipment, registers and Jewish emblems were destroyed. The ransacked building was poured on with petrol and put on fire. Since the attempt to burn down the building failed, it was repeated on 12 August. As firemen were banned from putting out the fire, the ransacked synagogue became a ruin. In November the ruins were bought out by town council for 30.000 crowns and destined for demolition. After WW2 a decision was made not to pull the building down but to reconstruct it as a cultural centre - the seat of Moravian Slovak philharmonic orchestra, chorus Svatopluk and public library. The reconstruction was realized mainly due to the efforts of the members of the above mentioned institutions. The public library was opened in September 1951 and resided on the ground floor. The original interior of the synagogue is represented only by supporting ornamented cast-iron pillars. On 7 March 1966 the building burnt down. In the following two years the synagogue underwent another reconstruction and since that time the public library has been the user of the whole building. The ground floor was flooded and the building suffered substantial damage during massive floods in July 1997. Therefore another reconstruction of interior has been carried out between the years of 1998 and 1999. From 8 November 1999 the library again supplies its library services. In 1999 the building of the former synagogue was proclaimed a Cultural Heritage Site. In September 2002 reconstruction of the facade has been finished. The facade is now bearing original colour and partly restored ornamental details.




JEWISH SYNAGOGUE IN 30-IES





Synagogue in Uh. Hradiště	Inside the synagogue	Jewish synagogue in Uh. Hradiště in 30-ies

The most interesting events from the new BBB Library

Night with Andersen history

The night with Andersen is one of the undertakings organized by Czech libraries as a weapon in the competition for the interest of children in reading with other media. We all know that the contemporary way of life is not favorable to reading - books compete with the action allures of dumb TV watching and computer gaming. This situation is criticized by general public; we all tend to think that contemporary children do not read. There were numerous researches bringing alarming results, but few propose any solutions. Many specialists lament over the poor development of reading habits.

And still, there is a simple solution (as the famous Prague psychologist dr .V.Mertin claims) - give the children a personal example and show them that reading can be quite an adventure.
In families where parents read, children have no trouble reading. The idea of personal example in reading led us to the first night in the library in the year 2000. We also planned to celebrate the International children's book day, commemorated on the April 2, the birthday of the famous Danish writer H.Ch. Andersen.

The first Night with Andersen took place in 2000 in Uherské Hradiště library, where twenty young readers had a night full of adventure consisting of fairy tale reading, competition, games and surprise. The undertaking (which we prepared with our colleagues from Jičín, Sobotka, Letohrad and Zlín) took place in the loft of our children's department.

During the magic fairy tale night, we sent internet greetings to Andersen himself, and to all fans of good reading. The fame of the night spread across the country through the network of the Club of children libraries SKIP (http://www.nkp.cz/o_knihovnach/konsorcia/skip/KDKNocInfo.htm). It was thanks to the club that the idea of night reading spread to numerous libraries who celebrated the children's book holiday through the first Night with Andersen in 2001. Internet became one of our main tools. Thanks to Mrs. Zlata Houšková (Czech national library employee) and ČVUT, Andersen electronic conference was launched. Other people helped as well - Ondřej Müller prepared an interesting electronic competition on www pages of Albatros publishing house, with book prizes for those who came up with the fastest solutions. Through internet, all "sleeping" libraries knew what was happening, being read and eaten in all participating libraries. Forty libraries participated in - and the idea spread further.

In 2002, children stayed overnight in 72 places in Czech Republic (and in Krajská knižnica in Slovakia), not only in libraries, but also in schools and child care institutions. Over 1500 children and 300 adults experienced a magic night full of fairy tales, organized to commemorate the day of children's book, to help children reading in general and (for the first time) to end the promotion campaign entitled "March - the month of internet". We would also like to thank Andersen conference, Mr. Jaroslav Winter and BMI, and the editorial staff of numerous magazines (Čtenář, Ikaros, Bulletin SKIP) for their help.
During the night, a questionnaire competition took place. Children could compete for valuable books with Mateřídouška magazine, there was painting competition organized by Amulet publishing house, young programmers created web pages (for such prices as books, CD-ROMs and a small web camera, awarded by !March-the month of internet" association, the winner was Městská knihovna Nový Bydžov).
Czech and Slovak children had a chance to chat overnight, and they also created Ode to the Night and Hans Christian Andersen.

A truly large-scale, international night with Andersen took place in 2003 in 153 libraries, schools, and other child care institutions. The magic of common overnight staying was also shared by children in six Slovak and four Polish libraries. Thanks to SKIP system, information was spread through SKIP by e-mail to USA, Alaska, Sweden and Switzerland, Hungary and the distant island of Trinidad. Andersenian statistic of the NIGHT of magic, fairy tales, international collaboration, record-breaking…

Greetings were sent by numerous celebrities, e.g. the renowned actor and MC Marek Eben: "Dear girls and boys, I was told that tonight is your magic night in the library. That is good news. When I was a little kid, there was no TV and we used to read a lot. I remember having spent many magic nights, reading secretly under the blanket, because I could to stop reading and I had to know how the story ends. I want to tell you that when you read, all those fairytale and adventurous characters and countries you imagine will be much nicer than in the movies, because they will be yours. I wish you that this fairytale, magic night was just the first of many other magic nights you will spend with books. Enjoy your evening! ".
We received valuable help from "March - the month of internet" association, Atlas internet company provided a chat room, and the usual favorite book voting took place as well. The new undertaking logo was adopted and thanks to the financial contribution of the Czech Ministry of Culture we were able to print commemorative stickers. Special competitions for the night were prepared by Bobří stopou, Mateřídouška, and Rodina a škola magazines. Children were visited by contemporary writers, ghosts, fairy tale characters, living animals and pets. Everybody had fun! And, most importantly, fairy tales were omnipresent. As the Czech Oscar-winning director Zdeněk Svěrák once put it: "All children need fairy tales. Fairy tales are the moisture of infant soul."