Stop Three – The Locality And Its Story ENG

You are standing on the western side of the square. The square opens out to the West, since the block of buildings that used to close the square was demolished as a result of insensitive urbanistic interventions in the 1970s and 1980s. 

The memories of this part of the town are shared by the former director of the local museum Miloslav Bařina:

“The town of Nová Paka did not have the right of fortification. From the perspective of defence, the problematic past was the western side facing the Kumburk castle; the town was part of the Kumburk estate. From the remaining three sides, the square was relatively safe, as the back walls of houses surrounding the square had no windows, so they replaced the town walls, including the backside of the parish church of St. Nicholas, which could be entered from the square and whose presbytery was logically situated on the eastern side. So, the only problem was to the West. This side of the square was apparently protected at least by some primitive fortification.

At present, the western side of the square (sometimes called “the demolition site”) shows the sloping of the original square – it was as late as 1831 that the square was levelled to the present state. 

Looking around the square, we can see the former Hotel Mach (presently Pascal garments shop) on the corner. In 1904, the venue hosted the first lecture of the Czech spiritism leader Karel Sezemský (1860-1936), and it also saw the establishment of the local football club. Above it, we can see the commemorative plaque referring to the birth house of F. F. Procházka (1749-1809), a scholar and Bible translator. The dominant feature is still the first department store in the town built by Karel Záhejský (the house with a turret). The wall above the door bore the inscription ‘Built in the dry year of 1904’. 

The elderly certainly remember the pub ‘U Nálevků’, formerly ‘U Zeleného Stromu’. The pub’s hall saw many interesting events including regular performances of Matěj Kopecký and his puppet show. Next to the pub, closer to the monastery, was a famous butcher’s and deli ‘U Boršických’ – a house with a Neo-Renaissance front. The houses below were those of a goldsmith and stone collector Pavlovec, and tailor Pipek – as late as 1970 it was still possible to have clothes tailored by him.  

Unfortunately, in 1970s and 1980s, all these interesting buildings were demolished, although they were an integral part of the town, as they constituted the typical centre of the town with entrepreneurs and salesmen. The demolition was a result of a megalomanic vision of a new shopping centre with a café and the view of the monastery. The present-day parking lot under the demolition site is another evidence of urbanistic interventions of that period. Today, we can no longer see the functionalist ‘Goder’s House’ or the majestic house of Karel Záhorský (1820-1895), a composer and first local industrialist. In the period of the First Republic, there used to be a drugstore ‘U Paříků’. Another demolished one was Volanec’s confectionery. Also, it is almost a miracle that the facade of Sucharda’s House and Hotel Centrál were saved from generic plastering – many other buildings, such as the building of the former court (present-day town hall) were not so lucky. 

At that time, we laughed at those demolition plans of the former town authorities and called the place ‘Vikenplatz’ in reference to the director of nearby Bonex and chair of the local Communist Party organization. However, what nobody knew was that the existence of a useless hole on the western side of the square would last half a century. The square lost its secluded atmosphere. In the past, it used to be joined with an arcade, which started to disappear after 1835. Prior to that, the citizens met there on their Sunday walks, protected from the sun and rain, and the place saw important decisions in the life of families and the town. I think that the later citizens missed the arcade. This sad fact was obvious especially with the pub ‘U Zeleného Stromu’, where the arcade was at least hinted with ornamentation of the facade. 

The square has always been the most important place in the life of our town. Perhaps some enlightened person will come and close the square on this side in order to recreate a dignified square for Nová Paka.”

Every place has its memory. Sadly, people oftentimes lose it and know nothing about the place they live in.