The renewed park in the center of Most attracted the first visitors

The new era of Střed Park was launched on the first day of May with a ceremonial ribbon cutting by the mayor of the city, Marek Hrvol (ProMost), in the presence of representatives of the Karl Komárka Family Foundation (KKFF), donors, architects and other guests who participated in the transformation of the park.

“Park Střed has come a long way from an abandoned and dilapidated space to this new and beautiful place,” said the mayor, among other things.

According to him, thanks go to everyone who participated in the transformation of the space. From citizens who expressed support and interest in revitalizing the park, to witnesses who helped to look into the park’s past, as well as local organizations.

“Further thanks go to the Karel Komárek Family Foundation and all the workers who participated in the restoration from the beginning. Park Střed is now a place where history meets the future, where new stories are born and where we can all find a place to rest and relax,” the mayor emphasized.

The city has been working on the transformation of the park since 2016. The municipality’s management at the time included the area, which had been neglected for decades, among its development priorities. The main effort was to bring back the life to the park that had been lost over the years. Residents should once again find an opportunity to meet and relax in it.

“In order to really revive the depopulated place, the city management involved the public and also experts in the transformation of public space using the principles of participation and architectural competition in the process of planning the renewal of Střed Park. Our foundation helped the city with these steps. Thanks to the cooperation, this unique place was created, which has the potential to attract visitors to the park, revitalize the city center and increase its attractiveness,” said Luboš Veselý, director of the KKFF Foundation, to Novinkám.

Visitors can look forward to a new cafe with a residential roof, which should be the heart of the park. In the park, people will also find a children’s playground, game elements, a sports field, a stage, a caretaker’s house, or new, illuminated paths.

It is not only the memorialists who will be pleased by the water feature – a cascade with a water fountain – which refers to the connection of the new park with its history. “It was preserved at the request of the public and was restored almost in its original form. The most popular part of the original concept was even preserved, i.e. the water cascade and the pool with the fountain. Most of the photos that the city obtained from eyewitnesses during the search for the park’s past show this part of the water element, which is why it was preserved,” the mayor recalled.

“We really like it here. It cannot be compared at all to how it looked before the repair. In addition, many attractions for children have been added. We will definitely come here,” Žaneta Galová, a mother of four, told Novinka.

According to Veselý, the foundation considers public space as a platform in which the social life of the city develops naturally by building relationships in the local community. “This is also why, in cooperation with the architects and the city of Most, we conceived the transformation of the Střed park from the beginning in such a way that people from all social groups living in the city would find a place on this imaginary stage,” emphasized Veselý.

The architects took into account the original form of the park from its golden era in the 1970s. This enabled them to conceptualize the space in a new way, but at the same time to preserve the atmosphere that the earlier architects Václav Krejčí and landscaper Otakar Kuča had breathed into it.

“Our proposal reflects the character of the surrounding mining landscape. We modeled the terrain using terraces that created active strips on which we placed park elements and sculptures. At the same time, we connected the terraces with footpaths,” said the German landscape designer Till Rehwaldt.

“We used part of the removed water feature for the bar counter in the cafe and we also moved the popular Biological Body sculpture to make it stand out better in the park,” added architect Patrik Hoffman.

In addition to the restoration of water features, safety is also key for the public. For this reason, facilities for administrators were built in the park. Events in the park are monitored by 20 camera points connected to the caretaker’s house and the city police. The park is also designed in such a way that it does not require high financial or time requirements for maintenance.

Thanks to the involvement of the public in the creation of the project plan and thanks to the fact that the vision of the city management coincided with the vision of the Karel Komárek Rebirth Foundation, Most won with its project plan in the 2016 Parks Foundation competition. The foundation thus provided the city with professional support throughout the implementation of the project called Rebirth park Střed and also financial support in the total amount of 25 million crowns.

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