Corrected historical villa on Landku will open to the public

Ostrava-Petřkovice - Interested parties can view the newly restored former Misk villa in the Landek Park mining museum complex in Ostrava-Petřkovice. The villa, over 100 years old, is under the management of Cylinders Holding, owned by entrepreneur Jan Světlík. In recent months, it has undergone renovation. The building will be used as a guesthouse with a capacity of 11 apartments. Eva Kijonková, the company's spokesperson, said this today.

"This Thursday, the restored villa will be open to the public from 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM. It will be an unconventional open house day, which will also include the christening of the reconstructed building," she said. Kateřina Hladká, director of Hotel VP1 from Cylinders Holding, which is also responsible for the management of the villa, added that the interior contains dozens of works of art. "It is, therefore, a kind of exhibition space," said Hladká.

The so-called director's villa served the heads of former mines, which were part of the Vítkovice Ironworks until post-war reforms, and later OKD. The villa was originally built for the director of the mining part of the Vítkovice Mining and Metallurgical Company. A large safe, where money for miners' wages was stored, may be an attraction for visitors.

"However, the artistic works that we have placed in the specific interior are far more significant. For example, a four-meter painting by Josef Liesler, works by Miroslav Grabovský, Ladislav Čepelák, Emílie Tomanová, and others. There are also many interesting works with period and industry themes," said Jan Světlík, general director of Cylinders Holding. According to him, one of the apartments features the original interior of the directors' office. There are also pictorial stories by Zdeněk Burian, including a special educational tool illustrating how coal was formed in prehistoric times.

The villa, which will receive a new, currently undisclosed name on Thursday, is located near the original Anselm Mine, the oldest shaft on the Ostrava region, and the mining museum. It has recently undergone a complete renovation costing more than ten million crowns. The renovation of the valuable villa was designed by architect Milan Šraml.

The Silesian hill Landek is a natural monument. It is known for the discovery of the prehistoric statue of the Landek Venus and for the fact that people lived there more than 20,000 years ago and first used coal in prehistory. Landek Park, located there, is the site of the former Anselm Mine, the oldest in the Ostrava region. It features a well-known mining museum that was established after the closure of the mine, which during socialism was named Důl Eduard Urx.

The first exhibition of the mining museum opened in 1993 precisely in the Misk villa, which was built in a historicizing style in 1906. The villa served as an administrative building and was named after the mining foreman and later director of OKD, Jaroslav Miska.