Opocno chateau must be returned to Czech state

The Opocno chateau in east Bohemia, which was previously awarded in a restitution process to Countess Kristina Colleredo-Mansfeld must be returned to the Czech state by Tuesday following a ruling by the Regional Court in Hradec Kralove, according to reports on the commercial Nova and Prima television stations. Countess Colleredo-Mansfeld's lawyer has already indicated that he will take the case to the European courts. The chateau, which is one of the most visited attractions in the Hradec Kralove region, was first confiscated in 1942 by the Nazis and was then subsequently transferred to the Czechoslovak state in 1945 under decrees issued by then president Edvard Benes. The Colleredo-Mansfeld family took the case to court, but then fled to Austria after the communist putsch in 1948. The chateau and its estate are valued at one billion Czech crowns or forty eight million US dollars