The restored memorial in Ploština will open to visitors at the end of April

Zlín – The restored monument at Ploština in the Zlín region, a national cultural monument commemorating the burning of the settlement of loggers at the end of World War II, will open to visitors at the end of April. A new visitor center with an exhibition has been created on the site, and another can be found in the renovated building numbered 23. The concrete monument from 1975 designed by architect Šebestián Zelina has also been renovated. Representatives of the Zlín region and the Museum of Southeast Moravia in Zlín told journalists this today.

Construction work began in 2020. The costs amounted to approximately 151 million crowns. Almost 110 million was covered by a European grant, and the remaining costs were financed by the region. The settlement was burned on April 19, 1945, by the Nazis due to the collaboration of local people with partisans. They murdered 24 people, and another four were killed on the way. For decades before the reconstruction, these events in Ploština were commemorated by a complex of buildings with a simple exhibition.

The closure of the site three years ago was, according to Governor Radim Holiš (ANO), inevitable. "The old amphitheater, the exhibition, and the monument itself had long ceased to serve the purpose for which they were created, namely to be a dignified reminder of events that culminated here, and not only here, in the violent death of dozens of people," stated the governor.

The dilapidated amphitheater has been replaced by an oval structure of the visitor center set into the landscape. Its part is an exhibition presenting Ploština as a typical logger settlement set in the landscape of the Vizovice Hills. The core of the exhibition consists of a detailed description of the war events. "At the same time, because it is a memorial, it still has a solemn character, there are light columns dedicated to the victims," said the author of the exhibition Ondřej Machálek, historian and ethnographer of the Zlín museum, which manages the site.

Building number 23 was constructed as a replica of the original building that was created on the site of the burned settlement in 1947, together with three other houses. It houses another exhibition, which provides interested parties with insights into life in Ploština after World War II. At the same time, the building serves as a place for hosting short-term exhibitions. Also new is the extension of the barn that once stood on the site, which can host cultural and social events. The concrete memorial to the victims of the war has been cleaned, and the sandstone paving that was part of it has been replaced by granite. New paths connect the visitor center, the exhibition house, and the memorial.

The grand opening of the restored memorial will take place on Friday, April 21. Two days later, according to the director of the Zlín museum Pavel Hrubec, a memorial act is planned, which the public will also be able to attend. "The full-fledged visitor operations will begin on the last weekend of April,” stated Hrubec. From May to September, it will be open daily except Mondays from 10:00 to 17:00, and in October on weekends.

Loggers were referred to as small farmers in mountainous areas. The logger settlements scattered across the Vizovice Hills became a refuge for members of the partisan movement at the turn of 1944 and 1945. After the devastation of Ploština, similar acts of hateful revenge by the Nazis were repeated at the end of the war against the inhabitants of nearby Prlov and Vařákovy paseky as well.