The City of Olomouc has undergone numerous interesting changes over the years, a fact that is documented by the large number of local monuments. The three-day program is devoted to military monuments. Tour town wall remnants and preserved buildings from the city's former system of fortifications. Let your imagination run wild and perhaps you'll hear flying bullets and the thunder of cannons, all with the smell of gunpowder in the air.

Famous Individuals

Ernst Gideon von Laudon (1716-1790)

An Austrian commander who became famous during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) for his courageous attack on a transport with supplies intended for the Prussian forces surrounding Olomouc. He also gained fame on the battlefield against the Turks in 1788-1789 by taking the city of Belgrade.

Marie-Joseph de LaFayette (1757-1834)

French politician and general. On 19 May 1794 LaFayette was jailed with three former deputies of the French Legislative Assembly in the "Jesuit Barracks" (today the Military Administration Archive building on náměstí Republiky) in Olomouc. He became the only state prisoner to attempt an escape the same year in November. He was caught not far from Olomouc and thrown back in jail. His wife Adriena and their two daughters shared his internment beginning in October of 1795. The LaFayette family was released from detention in Olomouc in 1797 after the Treaty of Campo Formio was signed by representatives of France and Austria.

John Joseph Wenceslaus Radetzky von Radetz (1766-1858)

Czech aristocrat and Austrian military leader. Commander of the Olomouc fort beginning in 1829. In 1831 he was named the commander of the Austrian army in Lombardy and Venetia. In 1857 he became the viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia.

Lennart Torstensson (1603-1651)

Count of Ortala and Swedish field marshal. Under Torstensson's command the Swedes penetrated Silesia in April of 1642 and defeated the imperial army the same year at Svídnice. This victory opened a path to Moravia to the invading forces. After occupying the town the Swedes set to work to reconstruct it as a military fort. They cancelled the Olomouc suburbs, commenced repairs to thetown walls, and destroyed nearby Hradisko Monastery. The Swedish forces remained in Olomouc due to war reparations until July of 1650.

Moreover, in 1655 Olomouc was declared an imperial fort, giving the city a greater chance of reconstruction. This work was performed in the decades to follow.