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Street Prophets Friday: Ostrava (photo diary) [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-08
I can't even jokingly pretend to leer at you hungrily this evening. Just finished an evening of grilling and eating out in the country. Lemme see, there were little Bavarian-style sausages with chili, a few plain, hotdog-ish sausages, grilled Camembert style cheese, grilled marinated zucchini … uf!
I'll just settle in and get the usual, bit of Friday-flavored fluff going then, shall I?
Ostrava
— is a very green and pleasant city on the Ostrá River. It straddles the border between Moravia and Silesia in the Czech Republic. The first mention of the Silesian portion of the dates back to 1229, while the Moravian side of Ostrava dates from 1267. The whole region is known for the extensive coal mining that took place here up into the 1990s and the massive coke, iron and steel works that grew up here to take advantage of the abundant coal.
The square in front of the Moravian Ostrava Town Hall.
Bishop Bruno, before going to war against the pagan Prussians with King Přemysl II in the year 1267, set aside a forested area along the Ostrá river for the founding of the city of Ostrava.
There was a rather grand portico on the Town Hall where our Silesian guide told us some of the history of the area while we waited for the rain to let up.
In the Town Hall's courtyard, looking up at the clock tower
We walked along the river to a nearby bridge
Pausing briefly at a monument to the tank (and the soldiers— of course) that rolled though, ending the Second World War for the folks of Ostrava
A nice view of the Silesian Ostrava Town Hall peeking above the treeline
We walked up through a quiet neighborhood and made our way to a massive pile of coal mining waste— a pile so big it has its own name, Ema.
A nice walk through a young forest
The best point for gazing over the city and terrain below
The actual peak of the mound was behind us, surrounded by birch trees
From the better vantage point you could see some of the iron works that were still operating
The massive iron foundry and coal mining complex of Dolní Vítkovice was also visible.
The mound contains so many scraps of coal that it'’s quietly smouldering. Piles of rock under mesh cover venting points. Some of my friends there are gazing at a spot on the right that's smoking. The whole area gives off toxic and caustic gasses. A homeless population used to risk it for the warmth and the scraps of coal which they gathered to sell and to use for heating stills for making their own special liquor
Needless to say, we didn’t stay too long.
Crossing another bridge— one made of local steel. The Moravian Ostrava Town Hall seen in the background
Library!!! For some reason, somebody thought it'd be a clever ad campaign to add three exclamation points after everything in Moravian Ostrava.
Inside the Town Hall
We went up in the Town Hall’s tower for a look …
Just in time for the rain to start again
That bump on the horizon is tailings mound Ema— it was a pretty long walk!
And I’ll leave you with a Lego model of the Town Hall from the gift shop inside the tower.
Thanks for stopping by.
This is an open thread.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/8/2192249/-Street-Prophets-Friday-Ostrava-photo-diary
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