Of the country's 44,000 properties that are officially classed as heritage sites, 819 are now listed by the National Heritage Institute as damaged or abandoned, a figure that has risen by 119 over the past two years.

Private companies or individuals own the majority of the dilapidated buildings, says Ales Krejcu?, acting head of the institute, a state body that provides local authorities with expert advice on preservation.

The deterioration of many heritage sites, often to the point where they are dangerous, is traced back to the hefty loans that banks were happy to dole out in the 1990s to firms that bought the properties from the state, according to Krejcu?.

The money, ostensibly for the restoration and upkeep of the historic property, frequently disappeared without so much as a new roof tile appearing on the building, he said.

Many of the firms or individuals who purchased heritage sites after the 1989 revolution, and who took out loans with such sites as collateral, "probably did so with the intention of fraud," Krejcu? adds.

"They bought a small chateau and approached a bank with a business proposal to convert the chateau into a hotel, offering the chateau as collateral for a mortgage. The money went up in smoke. For all I know, the money's been transferred to the Cayman Islands."

Krejcu? says banks often accepted chateaux as collateral for loans that far exceeded the market value of the property, and found a nasty surprise in store when a company declared bankruptcy and failed to repay its credit.

Blame game

The banks themselves were at fault for approving questionable loans that then made them easy pickings for fraudsters, Krejčů said. And the legacy continues: Even though Czech law requires a proprietor to prevent his building from becoming a safety hazard, many of the neglected heritage sites have become just that. And when a municipality wants to fine someone for failing in this duty, it often finds that the company legally responsible no longer exists, Krejčů said.

When the authorities carry out repairs themselves and try to charge the owner, they frequently find the latter has no money.

One site that typifies the problem is Dobříčany Chateau in northwest Bohemia, a Baroque building dating from the 17th century.

The building was bought in 1992 from the Army by Benitrans, a limited liability company that took out a loan for 30 million Kč, according to Petr Valenta, mayor of the town of Liběšice, near Dobříčany.

"It was an absolute scam," Valenta says. "They got a loan to repair the chateau and blew the money on something else." Meanwhile, the chateau gradually fell into a dangerous state of disrepair, he adds.

According to the Commercial Register, a court in Brno, south Moravia, declared Benitrans bankrupt in January 1998. The register lists Benitrans' headquarters in Prostějov, central Moravia. Pavel Hájek, whose address is also listed as Prostějov, and whom the register names as the company's legal representative, could not be reached for comment.

Banks have since learned their lesson and become more cautious, to which today's borrowers can attest. But their misjudgments didn't only hurt lenders; the nation's heritage has also been dealt a serious blow.

"The fact is that various property speculations with cultural heritage or ill-considered property transfers, especially in the first half of the 1990s, have caused a high number of monuments to be in a bad state today," says Culture Ministry spokeswoman Kateřina Besserová.

She points out that many cultural heritage sites have been saved rather than damaged by private owners who take good care of their property.

However, the number of once-great buildings that may never be recovered continues to grow.

Now, says Krejčů, even honest investors who'd like to return the sites to their former glory aren't likely to come to the rescue. "No one will buy the chateaux because they're burdened by these mortgages."