Former Shooting-Range
On crossing th e Bridge of Freedom we are welcomed by Czech Cieszyn (Český Těąín) Beyond the bridge, on the left hand side of Střelniční street there is Former Shooting-Range Střelniční street
The shooting range was put up in 1882 by the Teschen Shooting Association. It replaced the old structure at Jana Michejdy street in the Polish part of Cieszyn that had been used since 1795 (i.e. the time when the Association was founded) and which turned out to be too confined for their needs.
The Shooting Association (Schützengessellschaft) was founded by Cieszyn townspeople who drew on the tradition of the so-called marksmen’s fraternities where, as early as from the Middle Ages, shooting skills had been practised during the defence of the town walls. The members of the Association received permission from the authorities to organize shooting competitions and the first one took place on April 24th 1796, on Saint George’s day. The honorary patronage over the Association was assumed by Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen and his successor Archduke Charles Ludwig. After two years the Emperor Francis II granted the Association the special privilege to organize, once a year, a so- called ‘royal shooting’ that lasted for 8 days . Its winner received the title of the Shooting King. Since that time annual competitions became one of the most important town festivities celebrated in Cieszyn.
In 1802 the Association bought the premises they had rented before, i.e. the garden together with the buildings in Frysztackie Przedmieście from Rev. Leopold Jan Szersznik. In 1836 they remodelled one of the buildings and it played the function of the Association’s seat until 1882. Then another seat was put up on the other side of the Olza river, in a new district of the town. The new building of the Shooting range came into being in two phases. According to the Archduke’s builder Gustaw Raimann’s design, the building for shooters (at present a show room) was erected in 1882, whereas what was built behind it, i.e. the shooting stands, tracks of 230 and 400 steps in length and butts with targets, were designed by Teodor Herzmanski. The building work was carried out by Fritz Fulda, a Cieszyn master-builder. Archduke Albert Habsburg, who came to Cieszyn especially for that occasion, carried out the formal opening of the ‘New Shooting range’ (this is the name that clung to it) on October 22nd 1882. On that occasion a shooting competition was organized. Albert Blumenthal and the Archduke’s forester Reidl won it.
Eight years later, in 1890, the shooting range was extended by additional structures that accommodated a restaurant, a room with a dome and flats. At the same time the façade of the building that faced the street was unified stylistically. The designs of the remodelling, as well as the building work itself, were both carried out by Ludwig Kametz’s firm. The shooting range was designed as a classicistic building with a two-storey central body, covered with a domed roof and two one-storey wings that adjoined it. The façade was embellished with horizontal rustication and rich moulding. On the ground floor there was, and remains, a fine room with semicircular windows and eclectic stucco work. Behind the building was a large garden where shooting competitions and games took place. The Cieszyn Shooting Association started their activity in the renovated building on September 3rd 1890, taking advantage of the Emperor Franz Joseph I’s visit. The Monarch visited the rooms of the new building with interest. He watched the shooting competition and at the end he wrote in the visitors’ book.
After the First World War the Association still carried on their activity but in a more and more limited form because of the division of the town. It ceased to exist after 1945. In 1947 ‘The House for the Children and Young People’ was placed in the former Shooting range. Now it has been transformed into The ‘Strzelnica’ Culture and Social Centre (Kulturní a společenské středisko ‘Střelnice’).
Photographs: Dominik Dubiel, Paweł Halama, Daniel Hryciuk, Magdalena Jańczuk, Renata Karpińska, Mariusz Makowski, Joanna Rzepka-Dziedzic, Anna Szostok-Fedrizzi, Henryk Tesarczyk
Translation from Polish: Lucyna Krzanowska and John Whitewood
Reproductions of exhibits, documents and photographs from the collections of:
- Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Cieszyn,
- Cieszyn Historical Library,
- Cieszyn Branch of the State Archive in Katowice,
- Cieszyn Town Council,
- Museum of Beskidy in Frýdek-Mistek,
- private collection of Mariusz Makowski
- H. Wawreczka, J. Spyra, M. Makowski, ‘Cieszyn i Czeski Cieszyn na starych widokówkach i fotografiach’, WART, Nebory 1999