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  2. Opava city
  3. Sight of interest in Opava
  4. Parks Surrounding the Town Centre

Parks Surrounding the Town Centre

At the beginning of the 19th century the town fortifications were seen as obsolete and hindering the urbanistic planning. The walls were torn down and the moats were covered up with soil, which opened a large area surrounding the centre of Opava. Thanks to the mayor of Opava, Johann Joseph Schössler, the area was not built over. Instead, green belts were established in the area between Jaktařská and Ratibořská Gates. The parks were called kiosks.

The first part of the green belt stretches from west to east between the area of the savings bank and the building of today’s Municipal  House. Until the end of World War II this part of the park was named after the founder of the first hospital in Opava, Leopold Heidrich. Today it is called Dvořák’s Gardens. In 1856 an alley of trees was planted that connected the upper parts of today’s streets Ostrožná and Matiční. At the end of the 1960s the promenade was extended to Čapkova Street. Opposite the Secondary Nursing School there is a meteorological station from 1913, which was moved there after World War II from Republiky Square where it was originally unveiled on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Emperor’s Franz Joseph I reign. On the Art Nouveau station there are a thermometer and barometer; the cupola is decorated with a leaf relief and a frog on top. Another monument in Dvořák’s Gardens is a statue of Petr Bezruč, which was installed in the park in 1967 on the 100th anniversary of the poet’s birth. The memorial was created by the architect Jan Benetka and spouses Vladimír Kýn, who is the author of seven granite blocks with inscriptions from Slezské písně (Silesian Songs), and Jaroslava Lukešová, who made the bronze statue. Until 1945 there was also a sculpture of Ludvík Jahn, the founder of German gymnastics clubs, the so called Turnvereine.

In the area between today’s Municipal House and Ptačí vrch (Birds’ Hill) there are Svobody Gardens. In 1834 a memorial dedicated to mayor Schössler was built in the opening into Masarykova Avenue. The memorial, which was built soon after Schössler’s death, resembled an antique temple. In 1890 the memorial was replaced by a statue of Joseph II unveiled on the occasion of the 100 years’ anniversary of the emperor’s death. In 1922 Joseph II’s statue was replaced by a statue of the poet Friedrich Schiller. In the 1950s the statue was replaced by a fountain with a sandstone statue of Reborn Opava by Vincenc Havel. The allegorical statue of a female with the town emblem at her feet faces Masarykova Avenue.

Ptačí vrch, which separates Svobody Gardens from Křížkovského Gardens, is the only remnant of the original bastion fortifications. The so called Lüttermann’s Chance, which was build in the second half of the 17th century, was supposed to be levelled to the ground, but eventually it was brought down by a half and integrated into the park. At the end of the 18th century a music pavilion was built on top of the hill. The hill got its name in reference to the practice of bird-catching in the area in the 19th century and aviaries installed on the hill until the 1980s. In 2007 three bronze statues of birds with movable heads and luminous eyes by the sculptor and native from Hradec nad Moravicí, Kurt Gebauer, were installed there.

Křižíkovského Gardens, which stretch from the eastern part of Ptačí vrch, are named after Pavel Křížkovský, a musical composer from nearby Holasovice. His bronze portrait by the sculptor Jaroslava Lukešová is set in the hillside by the staircase. Originally there was a statue of the composer E. S. Engelsberg, and the park used to be named after him. At the turn of the 20th century an alpinum with a recently renovated bronze medallion of the naturalist Emanuel Urban was created. The alpinum imitates the natural Alpine scenery; it is made of limestone boulders and is planted with herbs typical for the Alps. In 1964 the memorial plaque of Urban’s colleague Tomáš Svěrák was added.

The ring of parks surrounding the town ends with Smetanovy Gardens in the area between John the Baptist’s Church and the Silesian Museum. The park was finished in 1876 when Friedrich Schiller’s statue was installed in Smetanovy Gardens. The statue was replaced in the 1920s by a statue of the musical composer Bedřich Smetana made by Otokar Španiel. In the park there are remnants of the town fortifications by the Johannite Church.