A unique historical object of a former brewery became our property in 2009.

In this charming place in Western Bohemia, we plan to set up a modern educational centre, to run a sheltered wood workshop and to revive the functions of the former brewery.

We would like to build an inspiring cultural place where people learn though good experiences and also a place where people not only find a job, but also a venue for their self-fulfilment and personal development.

Education centre

The educational ecocentre will offer both residential and one-day training programs for a wide range of candidates.

• Diverse programs and seminars will be thematically focused on local, regional and global environmental, consumer and other current problems;
• Modern active teaching methods such as drama, experiential education (arts and crafts workshops), critical thinking, use of ICT technology, fieldwork, etc. will be proposed;
• Special programs of high quality for children and adults with disabilities will be provided.

Chříč village is situated on the borders of a protected landscape area, near a river and near significant natural and historical sites. The neighbourhood of the brewery thus offers excellent conditions for learning about nature in nature, and about positive and negative human impact on the nature’s development.

The educational centre will be placed in the former malt house, barn and tower. A sensitive reconstruction of the historical building will create space for accommodation of 40 people with adequate facilities for classroom, craft room and catering of the participants. All technical network and utilities which will be built will comply with the most modern environmental standards (sewerage, heating, water heating, etc.).

Sheltered Wood Workshop

„A social firm is a new model for employing people who, due to their health or social disadvantage, face difficulties when accessing the open labour market and when trying to keep in it.“ (From the portal Ministery of Social Affairs)

A parallel aim of our centre is to establish a social enterprise which will focus on carpentry and wood joinery with a large proportion of manual work (toys, wooden board games, home and garden accessories, small furniture, etc.). and which will offer a skills training program to people with disabilities.

Our plan responds to the situation in the region, where disabled people are indirectly forced into social isolation due to absence of any residential social services with daily operation. If these people do not want to live in large institutes for disabled, they remain at home without any occupation. There is no such sheltered craft workshop in the region which would enable them not only to find job, but also to find a place for self-fulfilment and personal development.

As a part of the project, we will reconstruct the premises of a former brewery; equip the carpentry workshop with furniture, tools and adequate facilities that requires the residence of disabled people.

Restoring Brewery

Resuming the operation of the Chříč brewery was not a part of the original plan. It was only after we settled in the derelict buildings that we began to discover the charm of the place where they brewed beer already in 1560. The first plan was to establish a sheltered workshop and organize craft activities there. The old brewery premises, its kiln, malt house, threshing floor, fermenting cellars and beer-storing cellars impressed us so much that we asked old witnesses for help and started to consider reconstruction

of the original form of the brewery and think about pitching and rounding barrels and about the smell of brewed malt...

Our thoughts eventually matured – like a good lager - into the idea of linking the plans for making old
crafts, a sheltered workshop and plans for producing beer. In the future we would like to resume brewing
beer according to traditional recipes and methods and the entire operation will be built in barrier-free
standards so that people with various disabilities can work there in the unique „sheltered brewery“. A similar type of enterprise is as far as 1000 kilometres away – in Belgium.

We will brew beer of the Czech type - unfiltered wheat beer from the Czech hops and malt. The original equipment is unfortunately not preserved, but our plan is to rebuild the brewery with all respect to old traditions.

Arts

In our activities, we want to exploit the potential of the Chříč region which is picturesque and inspiring in terms of its cultural heritage, landscape and history. In cooperation ith the local government, we already organize concerts, exhibitions, festivals and heatre, art, dance and music workshops for the general public. In the future, we plan o offer courses such as landscape-painting and walks in the neighbourhood guided by rtists and preservationists.

Crafts

Craft has always been an integral part of rural life. In each house people needed a basket, a ladder, a handle, an earthenware pot or jar, a cloth, a rope, a belt, a orseshoe, etc. If we consider the reconstruction of rural traditions in the present days, here is no way how to do it without crafts.

The purpose of this initiative is to revive old arts and crafts such as wood carving, pottery, and blacksmithing through theoretical and practical workshops, summer amps and exhibitions.

Project Centre Chříč [1,8 MB]