WWII Hospital to be Restored by 2010, Says Minister
Franja, a WWII hospital in a gorge near Cerkno which was almost completely destroyed in flash flooding in September, is undergoing extensive repair and restoration works. Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti was confident Friday that the hospital would open to visitors by 2010.
"I got a comprehensive report that seems promising. Everything is prepared according to rigorous plans and the funding has been secured. I am really optimistic," Simoniti told the press at the site of the hospital after he was briefed on the situation by a special task force overseeing the reconstruction.
The Culture Ministry has earmarked EUR 4m for reconstruction. Another EUR 137,000 in donations has trickled into a special account opened by the Idrija City Museum, which manages what is one of the most popular WWII sites in Slovenia.
The director of the Idrija Museum, Ivana Leskovec, said that only about a quarter of the 800 artifacts housed in 13 wooden shacks that made up the hospital were ever found. The shacks will be reconstructed while Leskovec also addressed an appeal to private collectors to contribute items for the museum collection.
Even though reconstruction work has barely started, the secluded gorge where the hospital was hidden from Nazi view will reopen for small groups of visitors at the end of June. The visitors will see the progress of reconstruction and it will give them a better idea of why the partisans built the hospital there, according to Leskovec.
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