The Czech Constitutional Court has rejected a German Catholic religious
order’s legal complaint over its failed bid to win control of Bouzov
Castle in Moravia.
The court rejected the German order’s claim to be a legal successor to
the Order of Teutonic Knights, which before World War II owned the 14th
century castle.
The Czech National Heritage Institute refused to hand the castle over
within the church restitution process back in 2014, arguing the law did not
apply to that particular property.
The Nazis seized Bouzov Castle during the war and the Czechoslovak state
confiscated it under the post-war Beneš Decrees, before the Communist
February 1948 coup, the start of the decisive period set under the church
property restitution law.
The order had earlier announced it would exhaust all legal possibilities to
win control of the castle, including filing a complaint to the European
Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.