Tomáš Adamec • Miroslav Lysek
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Tomáš Adamec • Miroslav Lysek Šenov Václavovice Řepiště Vratimov Sedliště Žabeň Paskov Kaňovice Author of text: Tomáš Adamec Author of photographs: Miroslav Lysek Prefatory word I am very glad that I can introduce the fi rst book about the Silesian gate Region. The publication presents all 8 towns and villages, which are members of our micro-region in a comprehensive and attractive way. Nearly seventy pages of interesting texts by PhDr. Tomáš Adamec and beautiful pho- tographs by Ing. Miroslav Lysek show the history and the present day of the whole area. While brow- sing through the book I was very pleasantly surprised how many beautiful places there are around our homes, how many majestic trees grow in our villages, and how many different statues we can fi nd when walking. After reading the texts I acquired a lot of new information and I was surprised how much our villages have in common: same masters who once owned them, agricultural history, which in the 19th and 20th century mingled with the development of the nearby industrial Ostrava region (coal mining, iron production in iron works, pulp production), various civil association acti- vities emerging in the early 20th century and the current potential of quality housing and suburban tourism in the countryside in the vicinity of nearby bigger cities. The Silesian gate Region has an area of 71,5 square kilometres and 22 817 inhabitants live here, which means an average of 320 inhabitants per square kilometre. The original landscape with a so called scattered Silesian family houses building is being densely built up with new houses already today. The entire territory, the citizens and the local authorities are now under intense pressure from landowners, real estate agents and potential builders to expand the family houses building to the undeveloped land, and that mainly at the expense of quality agricultural land. The villages´ landscape plans delineate more land meant for building houses. New buildings are arising on the fi elds and meadows; the landscape is changing fundamentally and irreversibly. I think we need to consider responsibly, how many more houses and new citizens is our territory able to accept, how many services we can provide for these citizens, whether the ongoing development is not at the expense of quality of life, and especially if we are using the potential of the territory properly and economically. Hopefully our children will be able to show their children the beautiful places, which this book captures, they will be able to take them for a walk to the fi elds, meadows, forest or the river Ostravice, and their children will want to stay to live here. The book has no ambition to become an epic and attractive encyclopedia. Nor will it be a textbook on history of our villages. My wish is for the book to become a pleasant and kind part of your lib- raries, so that it can show your friends your neighbourhood and help children get basic information about places, where they live. And I would be very glad if we found the places captured in it around our homes in twenty or thirty years as well. I wish you a pleasant reading and viewing Rostislav Kožušník Chairman of the Union of villages Silesian Gate Region 4 Town hall square with a fountain Size of territory: 16,63 square kilometres | Number of inhabitants as of January 1, 2011: 5 974 Šenov The exact date of Šenov establishment is not known, historians admit the possibility of its emergen- ce in 12th century but the village is fi rst mentioned in a deed from the early 14th century, where it is listed along with other villages of Wroclaw bishopric liable to pay tithes. The deed has survived only in a copy that is not dated, but it is generally stated that it was written around the year 1305. The name of the village is mentioned here in the form Sonow. From the number of masters who changed here in the fi rst centuries the family Šaškové ze Šenova stand out in the sources, who are fi rst mentioned in the surviving records in 1388. In 1531 the dominion was bought by Sedlničtí z Choltic and the origins of the Šenov castle are associated with them. However, only the next owners - Skrbenští z Hříště provided for the construction of the defi nite form of the castle in the second half of 16th century. The castle met a sad fate. We can read about its end in the local chronicle, which contains a few photographs of the castle ruins. Since the early 20th century the building had not been continuously inhabited, the castle was only occasionally visited by the then owners the family Larisch-Mönich. The castle was not even given the necessary care and it gradually began to fall into disrepair. Be- tween 1915 and 1916 all valuables (including furniture, paintings and books) were taken from there and moved to the castle in Ráj by Fryštát. During the war the Hungarian troops were housed here, after the war the Czechoslovak military troops and eventually the estate workers. None of these groups treated the castle as a cultural monument. During the hard winters everything was used for heating - furniture, doorframes, roofi ng and eventually beams. The castle soon became a ruin and in 1927 offi cial permission for its demolition was issued. What remained is only the former admini- stration building, which now houses the Art school of Vilém Wünsche, and the park established in the early 19th century. Let us now devote some time to the name Vilém Wünsche. The most important Šenov native, pain- ter, graphic designer and illustrator was born in 1900 in a miner‘s family and the subject matter of miners and the mining environment became one of his main subjects. In his other works he then captured the life of villagers in their native land in its strong unity with the nature. Shortly before his death in 1984 he was deservedly named national artist. He is however not the only native, whose importance transcended the city. Josef Bilan (1902 - 1973) was also born in Šenov, writing under the pseudonym Šinovsky. He is the author of several books on the subject matter of his native town and region; he was a publishing worker and a regional communist offi cial. The name of the contempora- ry popular writer and mysteriologist Arnošt Vašíček is also associated with Šenov. In the park area we can fi nd the most important architectural monument of Šenov - the baroque church of Divine Providence from the year 1764, called the Pearl of Silesia. One is mesmerized by this grand three-tower building at fi rst sight by its form and stylish setting in the surroundings. The 6 church is also remarkable for its interior, though. Visitors can see a beautiful altar made of Carrara marble from Italy, a Renaissance copper chandelier or several valuable paintings by Jan Jablonský: one portrays Charlemagne, who is having the pagan idols torn down and having Christian churches built in their place, others portray St. John of Nepomuk, St. Hedwig and the Pieta (Mary with her dead son Jesus on her lap). The name of the author of another painting, representing St. Barbora, the patroness of miners, is unfortunately not known. Part of the interior form four tombstones, portraying the main representatives of the Skrbenští family, who ruled the Šenov dominion for three centuries, until 1867. There are other religious monuments to be found in Šenov. They are especially the brick chapel of the Evangelic Church - Augsburg Confession of 1896 and the church of the Czech Brethren Evange- lic Church. Its foundation stone was laid in late June 1936 and one year after that the church was consecrated. We can also fi nd three statues with religious themes here: St. John of Nepomuk, St. Anthony (located near the building of the called Old School) and St. Florián (at the intersection of streets Lipová and Kaštanová). Not only architectural monuments are to be found in Šenov, though. The town can boast natural sights, too. The Lučina River has created a number of meanders on its stream, which were included in the territorial system of ecological stability. Around the river and its tributaries many ponds were established in the past. But up to this day only a few remained. Most of them have been replaced by green fi elds or roads. The largest of the current ponds is the Volenský pond; Košťálovský pond is then a little smaller. When Šenov became a town in 1998, it was a compelling reason for establishing a town museum. Facility fi rst found for the museum was the building of the kindergarten, where the basic perma- nent exposition originated from the initiative and thanks to donations from local history lovers as well as room for occasional exhibitions and lectures. In 2010 the museum was moved to the former elementary school building (Old School) near the Church of Providence. Among others the museum also publishes the Bulletin of Šenov Museum. Because of the confi ned spaces the new location un- fortunately lacks the needed exhibition space. A good guide to the town’s places of interest is Šenov’s nature trail, which was established in 2004. It has two loops. The small loop is 1,5 km long, passes through the town streets and has 6 stopovers at its historical monuments. The big loop is 10 km long and acquaints the visitors at seven stopovers with natural places of interest around the town and it includes, among other things, a stopover at Skrbeň, where you can see four small wind mills from the years 1911-1922.