THE BELFRY ON HOREČKY HILLS

This open spiritual building symbolizes the residents’ opposition to coal mining in the Beskydy Mountains. The construction was initiated by the civic association Our Beskydy. The modern design of the bell tower is the work of architects Kamil Mrva and Martin Rosa. The building is based on the Wallachian folk tradition of simple wooden bell towers. Next to the all-wooden structure with a shingled cladding stand eight-metre-high poles made of three larch beams carrying a thirty-kilogram bell from the Halenkov workshop, which will sound the dying bell of the Frenštát mine. In addition to the logo of the civic association Our Beskydy, the emblem of Trojanovice and Frenštát, the bell bears the names of 37 towns and villages that have united against coal mining in the Beskydy Mountains. On the bottom edge of the bell is a quote by Frenštát native Josef Kalus “Whoever slanders my mountains, as if he were slandering me, whoever praises my mountains, as if he were bowing down to me.” For the first time, the symbolic death knell rang on the third anniversary of the 100-year lockdown of the Wallachian land on 15 May 2010.