Historie Svazu okrašlovacích spolků v Praze a jeho likvidace
History of the Union of Beautification Societies in Prague and its liquidation

Summary/Abstract: The year of 1904 when the Union of Beautification Societies in the Kingdom of Bohemia was established became an important milestone for the history of beautification societies. The Union gradually grew into a large organisation that developed important activities till its forced liquidation in 1951. One of significant actitivites was publishing of the review Krása našeho domova [Beauty of Our Home] that reached, during the 1920s, the level of a European renowned periodical. The Union, in the course of its existence, got actively engaged in protection of natural and cultural-historical monuments; its attention was also paid to landscape protection. In terms of environment protection, a pioneer activity were the efforts to catalogue natural monuments in 1905–1909, or an attempt to catalogue monumental trees in 1922. After 1951, the activities were taken over by the Masaryk Academy of Labour, specifically by its Institute for Protection of Nature and Landscape within the First Section of Science and Medicine; the Academy also took over all rights and obligations of the Union. Conversely, a part of beautification societies were dismissed, others were incorporated into the Czechoslovak Union of Fruit Growers and Croppers. Later, the legacy of the Union was claimed by the Union for the Protection of Nature and Landscape TIS, established in 1969. The TIS was founded in the late time of democratisation process in autumn 1969, and, subsequently, in the following period of normalisation, abolished. As a substitute, the communist regime permitted the establishment of the Czech Union for Nature Conservation in 1979 that took up publishing of the Krása našeho domova review.

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