Lower Vítkovice Welcomed a Record of 1,655,514 Visitors Last Year

Last year marked another record for the national cultural monument Lower Vítkovice in Ostrava. For the first time in its history, the unique industrial area welcomed a total of 1,655,514 visitors. In 2017, the number of visitors reached 1.5 million.

Lower Vítkovice’s management attributes these record numbers to the program of the Science and Technology Centre, Milan Dobeš Museum and Landek Park. Also, there are always new sightseeing routes, as well as various side events.

Last January, a unique original mining machine was made available on one of the tour routes, the Science and Technology Centre saw the opening of a temporary exhibition “Klamárium” in March, Landek Park in cooperation with the Regional Military Headquarters in Ostrava successfully organized the first Army Family Day. The end of the year saw the opening of the first original exposition Body and Technology – How technology helps the disabled, which reflects the everyday needs of disabled people living around us. At the same time, the exhibits show how today’s modern technology helps to compensate for their handicaps. In 2018, the site hosted a series of events celebrating 100 years anniversary of our country.

Lower Vítkovice welcomed the millionth visitor of 2018 in mid-summer, ahead of the end of the year packed with many events. The most important events of the last year again involved educational activities for schools, which, thanks to the support of cities (in particular significant support from the City of Ostrava), were visited by over 24,500 pupils from nursery, primary and secondary schools.

For 2019, Lower Vítkovice promises a no-less interesting program and a number of new projects. The renovated coke plant will open in mid-2019. It will become part of a newly-created tour route around the site. Exclusive works will be again presented at the Milan Dobeš Museum. In the spring it will host an exhibition of Andrzej Nowacki, a Polish geometric abstraction artist.

Today, Dolní Vítkovice is the most visited tourist destination in the Moravian-Silesian Region, regularly ranking first in the national list of CzechTourism. The one million visitors mark was hit already in 2015 and 2016, when they became the most visited tourist destination outside Prague. According to the CzechTourism statistics, in 2016 Lower Vítkovice was overtaken only by the Prague Castle, Petřín Tower and the Prague Zoo. Over the past 11 years, the site has already been visited by 7,870,258 people.

Its architectural design has been created by the most important contemporary architects, such as Josef Pleskot, Zdeněk Fránek, Peter Lacko, Filip Tittelbach, Milan Šraml, Helena Zemánková and others. Today, the industrial complex is one of the main icons of Ostrava. It is the venue of the biggest music festivals (e.g. Colours of Ostrava or Beats for Love), conferences and public events. It includes the highest-placed café in Ostrava and the largest mining museum in the Czech Republic. Now works are underway to open a branch of the National Agricultural Museum.