Basic information
The architectural work from 1926 is an example of Olomouc’s interwar neoclassicism. It was built according to the project of Hubert Aust, who was a pupil of Josip Plečnik, a prominent Slovenian architect and urban planner.
It is a one-storey building, preserving the remains of Yugoslav soldiers who died during World War I in Olomouc’s lazarettos and were buried in Moravia and Silesia. On the monumental two-armed staircase there is a small antiquated temple with a portico with a hammer, on which the inscription VĚRNOST ZA VĚRNOST / LJUBAV ZA LJUBAV is placed.
Above the entrance to the crypt is a sandstone relief by the academic sculptor Julius Pelikán, depicting a grieving woman, a Czech lion and the emblem of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
In the underground crypt, the remains of 1,224 South Slavic soldiers from the former Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia (including Vojvodina) and Slovenia are placed in wooden coffins. A small number from Montenegro and Macedonia. Among them, several Czechs, members of the Czech minority in Croatia, were also identified. A special part of the total number consists of 37 Serbian prisoners. The mausoleum is a distinctive urban element of Bezruč Gardens and an important symbol of Czechoslovak-South Slavic relations.
Between 2016 and 2019, a complete reconstruction was carried out, during which the original figurative and decorative paintings in the circular chapel were also restored.