Opava

Eva Máchová media type="custom" key="13541162"

OPAVA (population of 64,000) is the regional town and lies on the river of the same name at around 260 m above sea level. It is the industrial and cultural centre of Czech Silesia and its importance extends beyond the regional borders. The first written record of the settlement dates back to 1195 recounting the crossroads of commercial routes named after the river Opava. The establishment of the town is recorded in a document from 1224.

At the beginning of the 14th century, the Opava Princedom was established under the Czech Crown and later Opava became its administrative centre. Opava was the capital of Austrian Silesia after 1742 following a lost war when the larger part of Silesia was ceded to Prussia.

After the defeat of Napoleon in 1820 a second Congress of the victorious powers was held in Opava. The representatives of the so-called Holy Alliance – the Russian Tsar, the Prussian King, the Austrian Kaiser and representatives of England and France met to discuss the joint course against the revolutionary movement in Italy. Opava remained the seat of the Municipal Authority Offices until the formation of the Moravia-Silesian country in 1928.

Opava, with its strongly Germanic population, was not an economically developed town. Czech national life in Silesia had not begun to develop until the second half of the 19th century when Opava become its centre. It was not until the formation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 when the real progress of Czech awareness and culture began. After the connection of Opava to rail in 1855, the stagnating economy of the clothing production and later the food industry revived, however not sufficiently.

Opava was the centre of one of the Sudeten factions during the Nazi occupation from 1938 till 1945. A large part of the town was damaged or completely destroyed during heavy battles at the end of the World War II, where over 3000 Soviet soldiers lost their lives.

New residential quarters were built after the War together with industrial factories, mainly for the engineering, food and paper industries and the pharmaceutical industry.

Today Opava is a corporate town. It is the seat of the Silesian University, high schools and cultural and scientific institutions. The Silesian Municipal Museum founded on 1st May of 1814 is the oldest museum in the Czech lands and belongs to one of the most important institutions in the Republic (exhibitions concerning nature as well as Silesian history, lifestyle and the development of art from the Gothic period till the present). The Silesian Institution and branch of the Archaeological Institution of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic are also situated in Opava.

The town is the birthplace and the final resting place of the poet Petr Bezruč (1867 – 1958). The founder of modern genetics J. G. Mendel (1822 – 1884) studied at the local grammar school. Among the natives of Opava also belong the Viennese architect and co-founder of the Vienna Art Nouveau J. M. Olbrich (1867 – 1908), the writer A. C. Nor (1903 – 1986) and Joy Adamson (1910 – 1980) the vigorous fighter for the rescue of African nature and the author of the books about the lioness Elsa.

Many cultural monuments have been preserved in Opava. A number of them are protected by State Heritage. The poet Petr Bezruč described Opava as “the White Opava” and its characteristic features are many parks and gardens situated mainly on the circuit around the historical heart of the town.