8. The shorter czech walk
THE ROUTE IS MARKED IN BLUE (map no. 8):
ul. Nadražní – ul. Střelniční – ul. Dukelská – ul. Potoční – park Adama Sikory – Nábřeží Míru – ul. Dvořáková – ul. Smetanová – náměstí ČSA – ul. Moskevská – ul. Božkova – ul. Štefánikova – ul. Hlavní – Masarykovy sady – nábřeží Svobody – ul. Protifaąistických bojovníků – Masarykovy sady – ul. Vrchlická – ul. Hlavní – ul. Nádražní
Length of walk: 5 km
We are going on a shorter walk to look around this well known border town which came into being on 28 July 1920 after historic Cieszyn was divided into two towns. Český Těąín has a population of 26 573 (data from 1 March 2001). The border between the two towns was established on the River Olza.
We begin our visit by the ČD Railway Station (fig. 14). It was built in 1889, replacing the previous station building dating from 1871 which can be seen not far away in ul. Jablunkovská. The station was built as a result of the construction of the Bohumin-Cieszyn line in 1869 – which was later extended to Žilina and Frýdek. Today the Český Těąín junction links the Prague – Koąice main line with connecting lines to Ostrava, Frýdek-Místek and Bielsko-Biała, via Cieszyn.
Standing with our back to the station, across the street and slightly to the right is the Czech Post Office building and directly in front of us is the Hotel Piast. When the town was divided the post office ended up on the Polish side of the River Olza and the Czech Post Office was left with no alternative but to build a new one. The Prague architect Zdražil designed it and the building work was carried out by the firm of architects J. Dvořák of Slezská Ostrava. The new building was opened in 1931. Today pedestrian subways have been built where post office garages were located.
The Hotel Piast was officially opened on 19 December 1931. It was designed by Edward David. The fluted pilasters with conjoined balconies (vertical architectural elements partially sunken into the wall) are the characteristic feature of the façade. Apart from the hotel, then called the Polonia, a restaurant and a café, various Polish associations and institutions were based here. Český Těąín Theatre was located here from 1946 until it moved to the new building in ul. Ostravska.
We cross ul. Nádražní, and walking along the side of the Hotel Piast we reach ul. Střelniční. On the right we pass the Český Těąín Gasworks, the only industrial installation to end up in Český Těąín after the town was divided up. The gasworks was built according to a resolution of Cieszyn Town Council of 4 June or 29 August 1881. The resolution came about owing to the need to install better street lighting in public places in the town. The building was designed by B. Kühnel, and went into operation on 30 October 1882. A few years after the division of Cieszyn the gasworks was still supplying gas to Cieszyn in exchange for electricity from the power station on the Polish side.
Almost opposite the gasworks on the left hand side of ul. Střelniční is the Český Těąín Polish Language Primary School and Gymnasium, designed by Edward David in 1925 and in 1957. On the side elevation of the building is a mural of area 37 m2 carried out in 1957 by the renowned sculptor F. Świder.
A little way beyond the gasworks we turn into ul. Dukelská and after about 100 m find ourselves standing in front of the Na Nivách Silesian Lutheran Church (Fig.15). It was designed by the architect Edward David and built in 1932. Its architecture includes neo-Gothic features with certain contemporary elements. The Český Těąín firm of Pluskal and Riedel were responsible for the construction of the church, while the altarpiece was carved by sculptor Henryk Nytra of Dolní Bludovice.
We continue along ul. Dukelská to ul. Potoční where we turn left and soon find ourselves in ul. nábřeží Míru where we see Adam Sikora Park. It was founded by Adam Sikora (1846-1910), accountant of the savings bank (Towarzystwo Oszczędności), who decided to donate his life savings of 15,000 Austrian crowns to fund the project. The park was designed by S. Rutkowski of Warsaw in cooperation with W. Holczak of Dąbrowa and Bergman of Cieszyn. Owing to the enormous energy and enthusiasm of Polish volunteer schoolchildren the work was carried out so quickly that the park was already in use by July 1909. During the First World War Polish legions being formed in Cieszyn Silesia drilled here. A bandstand and dance floor were built here in 1933. Two years later the park was extended by 3,000 m2 and a house standing on the land was adapted and used as a restaurant. An entrance gate was added in 1938. We can see a miniature of the Piast Tower built from pebbles taken from the River Olza. It was designed by W. Holczak and built by schoolchildren in 1913. A commemorative plaque with a portrait of A. Sikora on the building was unveiled in 1998. An earlier monument dating from 1935 had been destroyed during the war.
After a stroll around the park we head for ul. nábřeží Míru passing the football ground and the TJ Slavoj Tennis Club on our left before reaching the Freedom Bridge (Most Wolności/most Svobody). This area was developed in the 1930s, when ash, lime, willow and spruce trees were planted here. The section between the Freedom Bridge and the Friendship Bridge (Most Przyjaźni/most Přatelství) was established earlier, before 1900, and here dominate ash, maple and horse chestnut trees. On the Olza, particularly during the winter, we can admire beautiful swans, ducks, coots and seagulls. From here Cieszyn rises up on the right bank of the river with the Baroque tower of the Lutheran Church of Jesus towering above it. The tower, designed by the Opava architect J. G. Hausrücker, dates from 1722.
By the Freedom Bridge stands the Střelnice Cultural and Community Centre (fig. 16). Various clubs, folk, singing, theatre and dance groups meet here. The centre collaborates with the Friends of Music Society and the Friends of Art Society. The Střelnice centre is one of the organisers of important international cultural events such as the Kino na Granicy/ na Hranici Film Festival, the Na Granicy/ Na Hranici International Theatre Festival, the Three Brothers’ Festival, Skarby z Cieszyńskiej Trówły Festival, the International Festival of Organ and Chamber Music and Choral Song, the Early Music in Cieszyn Festival and the Cieszyn Jazz Autumn Festival. The Cieszyn Rifle Club were responsible for the founding of this building, which was designed by Theodor Herzmanský, in 1882. It was partially rebuilt in 1950. It is a brick building on an oblong plan, with a two-storey projection, a pediment roof and a dome. After the renovation has been completed the bronze plaque by Gustav Nowak with a history of the building in Polish and Czech will be put back.
Originally the Jubilee Bridge (Most Jubileuszowy/Jubilejní most) dating from 1903 and built to celebrate the jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph I stood where the Freedom Bridge stands today. After 1918 it was renamed the U Střelnice Bridge (most U Střelnice) and is now called the Freedom Bridge.(fig.17)
During the Second World War the retreating Polish Army tried to destroy the bridge but after minor repairs the Germans continued to use it. At the end of the war it was the Germans’ turn to attempt to blow it up (one of its pillars was used in the construction of the new bridge). Inadequate regulation of the river and frequent spring and autumn floods weakened the bridge and in 1970 it was finally washed away in a flood which took with it five Polish firemen. There is plaque commemorating this tragedy on the customs building on the Polish side of the border. The present bridge was built in 1974.
We cross ul. Střelniční and walk along the avenue for some way, turning left into ulice Dvořáka soon after. After about 50 m we turn right into ul. Smetany. Here we have the town’s market with a small park in front of it, which was registered as a site of ecological importance in 1994. Three trees in this little park were named nature monuments in 1992. They are two copper beeches and a Turkish hazel. Their dimensions are as follows; the copper beeches are aged about 90 years, have heights of 20 and 21 metres, their crowns have heights of 14 and 13 metres and diameters of 20 and 19 metres, and girths of 1.7 and 1.6 metres. The Turkish hazel, which is aged around 130, is 23 metres tall, its crown has a height of 18 metres and diameter of 20 metres and it has a girth of 3.3 metres.
We continue along ul. Smetany to ul. Moskievská and then náměstí ČSA (Czechoslovakian Army Square) with its town hall (fig.10).The imposing edifice was built in 1928 on land given to the town by Johanna Tetla, whose country-style house stood in the centre of the market square until 1932. The interior was finished on 1 February 1929. The Fulda company carried out the construction work according to the neo-Renaissance architectural design of the Ostrava architect Vilém Richter. The main feature of the façade is the apex with curved elements and a clock. There is a plaque by O. Eckert commemorating Jiří Třanovský and decorated with relief of the emblems of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia. The inscription on the plaque reads, „Jiří Třanovský, the celebrated Czech national bard, whose Cithara Sanctorum of 1636 became the source of spiritual and national strength and the symbol of the unity of Czechoslovakia, was born in Cieszyn in 1592 and was active in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia.” Identical plaques can be found in Prague on the old school by St. Nicholas’ church and in Liptovský Mikuláą, where he died in 1637.
From the market square we continue along ul. Moskievská to the Polish nursery where we will find a hundred-year-old beech tree registered as a nature monument Its dimensions are; height 21 m, height of crown 19.5 m, diameter of crown 16 m and girth 2.88 m. Český Těąín Town Council is the owner of all nature monuments in the town, which were registered on 2 February 1998.
From the nursery we go along ul. Božková and pass the former synagogue, (fig. 114.) designed by the architect Edward David and built by the Český Těąín firm of Josef Nosek and Adolf Richter in 1928. It is a three storey building with a pitched roof in a terrace (which saved it from being burned down by the Nazis). During the war it was used as storerooms, after the war it was a house of prayer for some time and since 1967 has been the headquarters of PZKO (the Polish Union of Culture and Education in the Czech Republic). A bronze plaque commemorating the Český Těąín Jewish Community was put up on the building’s façade on 15 September 1994.
Opposite the building in the garden of the former nursery is another nature monument; a one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old ginkgo (fig. 115). It dimensions are; height 22 m, height of crown 18 m, diameter of crown 8 m and girth 2.19 m.
Ul. Božková crosses ul. Štefánikova. We go along it in the direction of nábřeží Míru by the Český Těąín Printing Works. The first printing works was founded here in 1806 by the printer Fabian Beinhauer. Tomaą Prohaska (born in Prague on 21 December 1771) is considered to be the father of printing in Cieszyn. He bought the printing works from Beinhauer soon after its establishment. His grandson, Karl Prohaska, built the present premises between 1886 and 1888. The building was modified in 1892 and again in 1910.
We cross ul. Hlavní. This suburb was called Sachsenberg in the first half of the nineteenth century, named in honour of Prince Albert of Saxony and Cieszyn, the husband of Maria Christina, said to be the favourite daughter of Maria Theresa. It is impossible not to notice the Friendship Bridge, the border crossing from Poland to the Czech Republic. The first bridge to stand here was probably built in the 14th century where a ford had been. Up until the end of the 18th century one of the town gates – the Water Gate – stood on the right bank of the river by the bridge. A concrete and stone bridge was built here in 1880, later replaced by a newer one which became the main border bridge from 1920 to 1938. For a period of ten years at that time the route of the town’s tramway went over this bridge. The present reinforced concrete Friendship Bridge was built in 1953 and links ul. Zamkowa in Cieszyn with ul. Hlavní in Český Těąín.
We descend some steps to reach sady Masaryka and then go by the sauna towards the Tax Office (fig. 5.). The building was built midway through the 19th century and contained the offices of the Komora Cieszyńska. The first Czech Technical School founded by the Slezské matice osvěty lidové (Silesian People’s Educational Association) in Český Těąín was based here from 1921 to 1935. The Gestapo had its headquarters here from 1939 to 1945, which fact is commemorated by a plaque with the symbolic figure of a man being crushed by two immense stones. The plaque, by sculptor Štěpán Mikula, was unveiled on 3 May 1970 on the twenty fifth anniversary of Český Těąín’s liberation.
The section of the avenue by the Olza in this part of town is called nábřeží Svobody and goes as far as the railway bridge leading to Poland. Over seventy trees grow by the bank of the Olza here including; horse chestnut, ash, lime, willow, silver birch and spruce. On the Polish side of the river the Castle Hill with its 14th century Piast Tower rises up before us. A quiet residential area sprang up here in the 1970s, but the history of the area has not always been so untroubled. At the beginning of the 20th century there was an army hospital, then an army camp and during the Second World War the centre of the largest prisoner of war camp in Silesia; Stalag VIII B. In 1943 there were around 75,000 POWs in the whole camp complex, while in the Český Těąín camp there were around 2,000. Russian prisoners of war made up 69%, British 17% and Polish 7%. In addition there were smaller numbers of French, Belgian, Italian and Yugoslavian POWs. In 1979 a monument of the International Anti-fascist Coalition commemorating the POWs by sculptor Štěpán Mikula and Macedonian Greek architect Koco Krstowski was unveiled.
Just before the railway bridge we leave the avenue and turn left into ul. Protifaąistických bojovníků, which we walk along until we reach sady Masaryka founded at the beginning of the 19th century by Archduke Albert of Saxony and Cieszyn, and originally called alej arcivévody Albrechta. Forest manager Dünbier planted horse chestnut, lime and false acacias along the avenue in 1813. The present name of the avenue commemorates the two-day visit to Český Těąín by the first president of Czechoslovakia, T. G. Masaryk, in 1930.
On the left of the road leading to the railway bridge is a monument to the dead of the First World War (fig. 8). The ceremonial unveiling took place on the initiative of the German Kriegerverein Association of War Veterans on 14 October 1930. The sculpture was designed by Helena Scholz-Železný. It is carved from granite with a central bronze relief depicting a mournful soldier. There used to be a plaque with the names of four hundred soldiers who died in World War I. After the liberation in 1945 the monument was removed, its place was taken by a stone cross and the names of the dead were erased. In 2000 the monument was reconstructed with a metal relief by sculptor Martin Kuchař.
As you walk along the avenue the Catholic parish church of the Heart of Jesus (fig. 6) is impossible to miss. The neo-Gothic church, built in 1894, was designed by Viennese architect, Ludwik Satzke. It has three naves with a transept and a presbytery. Characteristic for this church is its moulded portal and the enormous rose window above it (an ornamental feature in the form of a symmetrically styled rose). There are two towers; the smaller one on the eastern side and the taller western one with a bell tower and a clock. The sculpture firm Stufflesser from St. Ulrich in Austria was responsible for the interior decoration.
Beyond the vicarage in the direction of the Olza at no. 18 is a recently renovated house in the empire style dating from 1836. It is the oldest known building in present-day Český Těąín and is owned by the firm YAWAL.
We walk down a tree-lined path towards the school buildings opposite which stands a small brick shrine to St. Theresa, and close by a sculpture of St. John Nepomuk. The life-sized Baroque polychromatic sculpture of the saint dating from the mid-18th century, with a halo, a cross and a palm leaf in his hands was carved in sandstone and stands on a three-metre-high plinth.
We walk along ul. Vrchlického passing the sports hall to ul. Hlavní. We turn right and soon after reach Muzeum Těąínska (The Museum of the Cieszyn Region) on the left (fig. 9). The museum carries out research on the Czech part of Cieszyn Silesia and is an important social and cultural institution for Český Těąín and the whole region. The most important exhibits belong to the ethnographical collection, including; agriculture, crafts, folk costumes, textiles, jewellery, folk furniture, folk art etc. There are also exhibits representing decorative arts, history, botany and mineralogy. There is an impressive book collection in the Silesia museum library, including Tranosti written by Jiří Třanovský (1592-1637). The museum was built in neoclassicist style in the years 1884-85 by the builder A. Jedek, and is undergoing renovation at present. There is an exhibition entitled, „Pictures from the Past of Cieszyn Silesia in temporary premises on the first floor above the restaurant Hubertus on the left hand side of ul. Hlavní. These pictures inform visitors about the history of the region, folk costumes, crafts and agriculture. You can see the jewellery that goes with the Cieszyn folk costume, cieszynki hunting rifles, Cieszyn coins, furniture, folk textiles, religious sculptures and more. The plans for the construction of an archaeology park on the site of the stronghold in Chotěbuz-Podobora not far from Cieszyn can also be seen. The museum also contains the Regional Information Centre.
We leave the museum and walk to the end of the ul. Hlavní. The building on the right hand corner of the street houses the offices of the ČSOB Bank (fig.11), which began life as a branch of the Central Bank of German Savings Accounts in 1929. In 1931 the Silesian People’s Bank took over the building and later it was used as an office for Čedok, the travel agency. In 1994 it reverted to being the offices of a bank.
We walk along ul. Nádražní to the left by shops and the Hotel Central (formerly Silesia House behind which, in ul. Štefániková, is the Central cinema) until we reach the Hotel Piast and the ČD Railway Station, the beginning of our walk, whose purpose was to acquaint visitors with the nature monuments and places of interest of Český Těąín.