Military History Week is the name of a brand new activity that will be really full of Olomouc’s military history. “The last week of August will show that Olomouc is not only a provincial and ecclesiastical metropolis and the oldest Moravian university centre, but also a former main imperial fortress and an important garrison town. During the week, people will get to see places that few people have seen before,” said Markéta Záleská, deputy mayor. The biggest attraction will be the open forts and especially the almost unknown underground from the times of the bastion fortress.
Everything will start on Saturday and Sunday, 20 and 21 August. The six forts and the Crown Fortress will be opened, and their visit will be facilitated by a special bus line that will run on Saturdays and Sundays (for the exact timetable, see non-western traces of military history” with historian Zdeněk Zeman. He is offering two routes and will guide them on the weekend of 20-21 August and the following Friday and Saturday, 26 and 27 August. No reservations are required for the walks and participation is free.
The former major military airfield in Neředín offers an attractive programme from 20 to 27 August. There will be an exhibition on the 100 years of the airport, a commemoration of 112 years since the first flight in Moravia by Ing. Kašpar, as well as tours of the permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions on the history of the Olomouc airmen and their involvement in the RAF.
The official opening ceremony of the programme in the city centre will take place on Monday, 22 August, on Horní náměstí with the Day with the Army, in which the Olomouc garrison of the Czech Army is significantly involved. From 2 p.m. there will be a varied programme with demonstrations of the work of the bomb squad and their unique robot, the Czechoslovak Legionnaires, military medics and military police will present themselves, the soldiers will build a machine gun nest and will also demonstrate several special army vehicles. At 5 pm sharp, JAS-39 Gripen fighter jets will fly over the city. From 4 p.m. the Red Socks Orchestra and the Vojenská hudba Olomouc will play.
“From Monday until Saturday, a four-metre high sand statue of Empress Maria Theresa, who declared Olomouc a bastion fortress during the wars with Prussia, will be erected on Horní náměstí,” said Deputy Minister Záleská. The statue will stand on the square until autumn.
Probably the biggest attraction for fans of Olomouc’s history, not only military history, will be guided tours of part of the intricate system of underground miners’ tunnels, which were built in the 18th century and a large part of which still exists under Smetana Gardens. From Monday to Friday, Vladimír Gračka, an expert on the Olomouc underground, will guide visitors through the mysterious labyrinth, in which a layman could easily get lost. Due to the cramped and small space of the corridors, it is impossible to allow a limited number of visitors into the underground and therefore registration on the event website is required.
On Monday, August 22, you can visit the former barracks in the Stone or Passinger Mill building in Mlýnská Street. On 20 and 21 August and 26 and 27 August, the Institute of the Memory of the Nation will open the Civil Defence command shelter in Bezručovy sady. On Tuesday and Thursday, the Administrative Archive of the Army of the Czech Republic will be opened in the baroque Jesuit building on the Square of the Republic.
“I appreciate the fact that the Olomouc garrison has also joined the Military History Week with gusto. For example, the Open Days of the House of the Army Olomouc from Tuesday to Thursday, 23 to 25 August, offer an interesting programme,” emphasises Deputy Minister Markéta Záleská. The building in 1. May, an exhibition on the important battle of the legionaries at Bachmač is being prepared, historian Zeman will comment on the exhibition on the bastion fortress, visitors will see the period encampment of the members of the 6th Haná Regiment of the CSOL, and there is also an exhibition on life in the foreign missions of the Czech Army.
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