Profile and history of the department

History

A separate research unit dedicated to the technological challenges of the conservation, restoration, and rehabilitation of cultural heritage sites was established at the University of Chemistry and Technology in January 1974 as the Laboratory of Chemistry for the Restoration of Works of Art (LCHRUD). The establishment of this unit was linked to an agreement on “cooperation in investigating the causes of aging in works of art and, at the same time, optimal methods for their conservation,” concluded between the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague and the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. After 1989, during the reorganization of the university’s departments and their transformation into institutes, the specialized unit became a scientific and educational institute—the Institute of Chemical Technology for the Restoration of Monuments—and it continues to exist under this name at the Faculty of Chemical Technology to this day.

At the time the Laboratory was established, there was no specialized technological unit in our country focused on the protection and restoration of monuments, and it remains unique to this day, not only in the Czech Republic but also abroad. A key advantage of having both a research laboratory and an educational unit that trains specialists—technologists in the field of monument restoration and conservation (master’s degree) and, since 2004, restorers and conservators of arts and crafts made of textile, metal, glass, and ceramic materials (bachelor’s degree)—at the University of Chemical in Prague is the opportunity to utilize its high-quality instrumental equipment and the expertise of specialists from various fields of chemical technology—metals, ceramics, and other silicate materials, and, last but not least, polymers—both natural and synthetic.