The “Memory of Vrchlabi” Cemetery Trail

Ignatz Theodor Petera (1840 –1904) was the founder of the automobile industry in Vrchlabi. He settled in Vrchlabi in 1862 and his tutor was the master saddler Peter Ettel. In 1864 he founded a company producing English saddlery and sleigh and horsedrawn coaches and married Anna Kostalova the same year, later to have nine children with her. After his sudden death from pneumonia on 20 June 1904, his company was run jointly by three of his sons, Theodor, Josef and Robert. A change in the production portfolio of the company which, until 1908, specialised in producing horse harnesses, saddles, horse-driven coaches and sleighs, came at the moment when it manufactured the first car body for the local factory owner, Jerie. After that, following a contract with an RAF factory based in Liberec, the era of manufacture of car bodies began. One of the bodies from the factory was said to have been designed for the Austrian Emperor. Legend has it that the Emperor has never sat in a car in his life. During World War One the company switched to warfare production, which included twowheel barrows, machine gun bipods, ambulance car bodies and sleighs, and made a trial series of aircraft. During the time of the so-called First Republic, i.e., 1918 –1938, horse coach production stopped and the company produced bodies for various brands of chassis from Czech and foreign automobile producers. Around the year 1930 the company launched the production of sailplanes and powered gliders. In its heyday, during World War Two, the company was owned jointly by Josef Petera sr. and jr. and son-in-law and brother-in-law Theodor Petera. The company was then a manufacturer of weapon components, training gliders and vehicles with built-in machine guns. The workforce comprised prisoners of war from France, Russia, Belgium, Poland, Holland and Ukraine. After the war, the company’s property, worth some 25 mil. crowns, was declared state property on the grounds of the Benes Decrees and later became part of the well-known Skoda factory in Mlada Boleslav. This not so ostensible family tomb in the Classicist style with Art Nouveau decorations was built in 1894.

(today Franek and Hrkel family)
The Classicist tomb, left to dilapidate after the forced withdrawal of Germans after the war, became the property of the Hrkel family, who carried out an exemplary restoration. It has the typical Classicist features: a symmetrical front with pilasters and a flat avant-corps topped with a triangular, segmented or lowered gable. The tomb was designed by the architect Zirm of Vrchlabi in 1901. The entire design folder can be seen in the archives of Vrchlabi’s Building Authority.

A remarkable personality of Vrchlabi in the latter half of the 19th century (1824 –1888), the pastor of Vrchlabi, who also contributed to the building of the new parish church on Namesti Miru Square, was also a school inspector and fought against the emancipation of the Czech language in the then educational system. During the Prussian – Austrian war in 1866 he intervened with the Prussian army command against looting and the requisition of foodstuffs. As the first chairman of the Austrian Krkonose Fellowship he won just desserts for the development of tourism and his name is still borne by a path leading down the Bile Labe river valley. He was awarded honorary citizenship of Vrchlabi.

These structures in the Classicist and various revival styles are typical examples of more spectacular sepulchral architecture of the first half of the 19th century.

This tomb dating back to 1814 is among the oldest in the cemetery. It is decorated with sculptures by Vaclav Prachner and was built at the request of the trader Jan Kostial, who died in 1814. Two years later his son Ignatz Antonin was buried here, and in 1822 his other son Jan Antonin. Vaclav Prachner (1784 –1832) was a sculptor based in Prague whose family had Bavarian origins and became one of the most important representatives of Classicist-style sculpture in Bohemia. The sculptures are evidence of the partial influence of the Czech, or Prague, sculptural school in the northern Bohemian border regions, where to a greater extent the Silesian or Saxonian influence otherwise prevailed. The tomb has held national heritage status since 2010.

This formerly quite damaged tomb was fully restored to its original shape by the Danek company of Vrchlabi. Its restoration was financed and supervised by Kristian Ehinger, a former lawyer of the VW concern where also Vrchlabi’s ŠKODA AUTO a.s. company now belongs, otherwise the great-great-grandson of a factory owner, textile manufacturer and, in the latter half of the 19th century, also long-time mayor of Vrchlabi, Adalbert Ehinger.

This dilapidated Classicist tomb is dominated by a valuable sculpture of a women by an unknown artist. The name of Pohl is linked in Vrchlabi with the art of engraving and later the trade in engravings. The archives of the Building Authority also hold a design after which the tomb was planned to be reconstructed in the Neo-Gothic style which was, however, never carried out.

The torso of a Classicist tomb, one of the oldest on this trail. It was built at the time the cemetery was established at the beginning of the 19th century. The red sandstone was easily available then, and also matches the family name, which means “Red”. This family of textile traders also owned the bleaching plant, today the headquarters of the Havex company.

Guido Priesel (1890 –1918) was a pioneer in flying and aviation in Vrchlabi. Before World War One he designed several types of aircraft which he tested in a meadow in Vejsplachy (the name comes from the German word ‘Weissbach’, or White Brook, today Bela) near today’s new football stadium, where he also had a canvas hangar and a small workshop. During World War One he worked near Vienna as an aviation designer and developed fighter planes for the Austrian army. He worked on a single-seater pursuit plane and was the inventor of the synchronising device for aircraft machine guns. He was promoted to lieutenant, but did not live to see the end of the war. He died in a plane accident in March 1918 and was buried in this cemetery on 20 March 1918.

Josefina Kablikova, daughter of the factory owner Ettel, married Vojtech Kablik after he had bought the ‘U Orla’ (“Eagle’s”) pharmacy in Vrchlabi, known today as Devetsil pharmacy. Thanks to her work in the pharmacy, she learned a lot about herbs and botany, and toured the mountains in her leisure time to collect herbs for preparations. She sent some 50 thousand herbs from the Krkonose Mountains to the botanical institutes in Prague, Vienna and Regensburg and also made several botanical herbaria. She was often visited in Vrchlabi by the natural scientist Jan Evangelista Purkyne and the painters Josef and Quido Manes. She was painted by Quido in 1848 on her walk near the Snezne jamy valley. Her name can be found in the names of several local plants. She also established a foundation in Vrchlabi to support poor talented pupils during their studies. Her husband Vojtech was also a keen natural scientist who created extensive collections and, together with his wife, founded the first museum of natural exhibits in the town. Besides that, he was a skilled chemist and invented new methods of fabric bleaching and paper dyeing.

This family tomb, built in the Neo-Gothic style, is among the most valuable in the cemetery. Its design is similar to that of the parish Church of St. Lawrence in the town. Wilibald Jerie sr. (1819 –1895) was a textile businessman, owner of the factory on Nadrazni St., and was involved in politics. In 1861 –1867 he was a member of the Czech Landtag for the Vrchlabi – Lanov – Hostinne constituency. His grandson, Wilibald Jerie jr., was owner of the factory until his death in 1927 and was one of the very first customers of Vrchlabi’s car body factory Petera and sons. It was for Jerie jr. that the Petera factory manufactured the first automobile body. The tomb was used for many years as a temporary repository of the remains of the Czernin-Morzin family, owners of the Vrchlabi domain. The remains were transferred to their family tomb in 2017. This tomb has held national heritage status since 2010.

The tomb was built in 1880 in the early Art Nouveau style with characteristic floral ornaments, circles, wreaths with ribbons and perpendicular mouldings. Karl Sirowatka, buried in this tomb, was a businessman and trader and also one of the Krkonose’s first skiers and promoters of skiing. In 1892 he and four other pioneers of skiing from Vrchlabi undertook the first great two-day skiing tour along the ridges.

Another Art Nouveau tomb. The Ettels were entrepreneurs in the paper industry and their plant used to stand near Vrchlabi’s oldest stone bridge across the River Labe (the Elbe). They later sold their factory to Wilibald Jerie.

This Classicist tomb dating back to 1882 is the final resting place of the Rotter family, who were textile entrepreneurs and the owners of spinneries and the weaving plant in Horejsi Vrchlabi. Guido Rotter sr. was a promoter of tourism and skiing and it is thanks to him that Vrchlabi can be justifiably seen as the birthplace of skiing in Central Europe. He established and managed a network of holiday dormitories for pupils and students which expanded rapidly in Bohemia, Austria, Silesia and Germany. He was the first President of the Austrian Ski Association, as can be seen in a commemorative tablet on the tomb wall. His son Guido Rotter jr. fought in the Great War in Northern Italy. During the First Republic, i.e., 1918 –1938, he was an officer of the German Ski Association in Czechoslovakia.

The Neo-Romanesque tomb made up of nicely sculpted sandstone blocks was designed by the architect Zirm of Vrchlabi. The Rotters were important entrepreneurs in the textile industry and their factory was located in Horejsi Vrchlabi. The tomb has been protected as national heritage since 2010.

This Neo-Renaissance tomb is embellished with some Art Nouveau decorations. The statue of Christ is signed by Karl Heinrich Scholz, a sculptor from Luh, near Raspenava, North Bohemia. He is well known especially for his bronze statue of Duke Albrecht of Waldstein on the main square in Frydlant, the seat of Waldstein’s duchy. He made the statue in 1934, like the statue on this tomb. Sculptor Scholz is allegedly depicted in Hasek’s well-known satirical work The Good Soldier Schweik as “sculptor Scholc”. This statue is one of the main reasons for the national heritage status of the tomb since 2017.

This is an exceptional tomb dating back to 1915, made in the Cubist style with typical crystal-shaped features.

This is the tomb of Kleofas Hollmann (1865 –1924), the builder and architect who contributed to today’s appearance of the town. One of his best buildings is undoubtedly a villa in Zizkova St., today an orphanage. He also designed or built Vrchlabi’s Gymnasium (the grammar school), the CSOB bank building, the little Art Nouveau church in Zadni Herlikovice and the protestant presbytery with the former church in Prostredni Lanov. He greatly contributed to the architecture of the former Jewish cemetery. Traces of his work can also still be seen in the partially preserved municipal park in Vrchlabi. He died on 13 July 1924 as the mayor of Vrchlabi while on a march during the Turners’ Feast.

This tomb featuring interesting architecture was made in the Cubist style with crystal shaped features.

This Memorial was built in honour of the soldiers who died of the injuries they’d suffered during World War One. After World War Two, probably still before the end of 1945, the exhumed remains of six young Soviet prisoners of war were transferred here. They had fled and were executed and buried in a pit in the former Jewish cemetery. A soldier who had been shot dead during looting on 10 May 1945 near the school on Namesti Miru Square was also buried here. The Soviet guards from the Lorenz company, later Tesla Vrchlabi, are also thought to be buried here. They had allegedly found several barrels with warning symbols in which methyl alcohol was stored, drank it and died. Remains of a total of 22 Soviet soldiers are supposed to be buried here.

“Wer zu mir kommt, den werde ich nicht verstoßen.” (Whoever comes to me I will never drive away. John 6, 37)
This inscription can be seen on the crucifix in the centre of the cemetery when coming from the memorial to war victims. The crucifix was made from cast iron in the Komarno foundries. There are only three other similar crucifixes in the Czech Republic. This one in Vrchlabi is remarkable for its size, more than 6 m, and extraordinary aesthetic value. The body of Christ in life size is made in polychromy. The base bears quotes from the Gospels of John and Matthew.

The tomb of the last direct victim of the communist atrocities can be found by the Crown of Thorns which decorates the tomb of Pavel Wonka (1953 –1988), a native of Vrchlabi. He was imprisoned three times by the communist regime: first for criticising the conditions at his work and the ruling hierarchy, second for criticising and “abuse” of the election system when he, fully in accordance with the law, tried to become an independent candidate for the Czech parliament in 1986. He was bullied and tortured in prison. The third imprisonment was fatal for him. He went on a hunger strike and died of general exhaustion as a result of insufficient medical care. His burial was undoubtedly the biggest in Vrchlabi’s post-war history. It was directly participated by some 2000 people, mostly Charter 77 signatories, members of the VONS (Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted), the Jazz Section and dissidents, together with representatives from eight embassies, namely Australia, Great Britain, France, Italy, Canada, the USA, Holland and Germany. The event was recorded by the State Police but also followed by the German ARD television.

The Jewish cemetery used to be located in the lower part of today’s columbarium, built in 1910 following a design by Kleofas Hollman, who proposed 8 tombs in the upper part and several dozen graves in the lower part. Until then, the local Jews used the cemetery in Horice. There were some 40 tombs there in 1938. The Nazis did not damage the cemetery during World War Two and a municipal officer drew a detailed plan of it that has been  preserved. The Jewish cemetery was, however, destroyed after World War Two, the town sold the tombstones and levelled the site. Its demolition may have been directly influenced by an act of disparagement during the war when Soviet prisoners of war were executed and buried here.