Kobylisy Shooting Range

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
File:Kobyl strel3.jpg
Close-up of memorial plaques with names of the victims.
File:Kobyl strel1.jpg
Memorial cross and sculpture by Miloš Zet.

Kobylisy Shooting Range (Czech: Kobyliská střelnice) is a former military shooting range located in Kobylisy, a northern suburb of Prague, Czech Republic.

The shooting range was established in 1889–1891, on a site that was at the time far outside the city, as a training facility for the Austro-Hungarian (and, later, Czechoslovak) army. During the Nazi occupation it was used for mass executions as part of retaliatory measures against the Czech people after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942. About 550 Czech patriots of every social rank lost their lives here, most of them between 30 May and 3 July 1942, when executions took place almost every day. The bodies of the executed were subsequently incinerated in Strašnice Crematorium.

A list of people shot at Kobylisy includes:

The site was converted to a memorial after World War II, and its current dimensions date to the 1970s when the large paneláks (Communist-era tower blocks) of a new housing estate encroached upon it. Kobylisy Shooting Range has had the status of national cultural monument since 1978. Today it is freely accessible and is within ten minutes' walk of the Kobylisy or Ládví metro stations.

External links

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.