Ostrava

I live and study in Ostrava. It´s located in the north-east part of the Czech republic. Ostrava is the centre of the North-Moravian region and it´s the third largest city in our republic and important industrial center of the country. Ostrava is named after the river Ostravice whose first name was Ostrava. It has about 330 000 inhabitants and it covers (kavrs-zaujímá) 214km.

Ostrava was founded more than 700 years ago. The town began to grow fast after 1763, when the deposites (dipozits – náleziště) was discovered (diskavr – objevit, odhalit, zjistit) in Slezská Ostrava.

This rich black basin (tento bohatý černý základ) became a basis of a quick development (divelopment – rozvoj) of the mining (majning – dolování), metallurgical (metalodžikl – zpracování kovu) and chemical industries (chem.průmyslu).

In Ostrava there are 2 metallurgical (metalodžikl-zprac.kovu) companies. Vítkovice was founded in 1828 and Nová Huť in 1948. They employ (imploj) with the mining company OKD (s důlní společností) many people in the region (rídžn).

Ostrava has become the chief (šíf-hlavní) centre of heavy industry, it supplies (to dodává zemi) the country with the coal, iron, steel (uhlí, železo, ocel)and chemical products. Steell works, power stations and chemical plants (ocelárny, elektrárny, chemičky) employ thousands of workers in Ostrava.

In our town I know historical monuments: e.g.the Church of St.Venceslas (from the 13th century), the Old Town Hall (from the 16th century, there is a museum), the Slezská Ostrava Castle (from the 13th century).

In Petřkovice there is the exposition of the Mining Museum under Landek. It´s the place amusement and sport activities.

There are some ways of spending leisure time. We can go to the cinema, to the theatre, to an art exhibition, to a concert, dacing to the discos, or we can stay at home, watch TV and read books.

Families with small children can visit the ZOO, or they are often visit Shopping park in Zábřeh, because there are a hypermarket Hypernova, a few restaurants, pizzeris, fast foods and many shops, where people can buy many first-rate (frst-rejt-kvalitní) clothes and many others things. For the children there is a children corner.

In Ostrava people can visit five theatres – the Theatre of Antonín Dvořák, the Jiří Myron and Petr Bezruč Theatres, the Musical Theatre and the Puppet Theatre. De have got a House of Culture too, next some musical bodies – e.g. Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, a picture gallery, a New Exhibition Hall in Poruba, several private galleries, several libraries and the big palace of sports, it is named ČEZ Aréna. There take place a concerts of popular music, ice-hockey matches, various exhibitions and shows, e.g.the finale of Miss of our republic, the World Championship in volley-ball, etc.

Fans of almost every kind of sports can find this sport in Ostrava. Typical sports are ice hockey, football. Many fans attend ČEZ Aréna and go to watch matches in ice-hockey or football fans visit a football stadion Bazaly.

In summer a person can visit swimming pools and in winter swimming pools with a roof. In winter people can also visit one of 3 winter stadiums. Near Ostrava people can also play golf at golf course in Šilheřovice.

Not only at the weekend (nejen o víkendu) youth can go to amuse to the Stodolní Street,. There are many bars, pizzeries, records libraries, pubs, clubs and restaurants, where they can dance, sing in caraoke show, amuse and listen various music.

I was there a few times (párkrát), but it doesn´t like me, it isn´t for me, because there are many people and I with my friends can´t always find a place to sit down.

There are elementary schools, Secondary Technical schools, Grammar schools, Secondary Medical schools, Commercial (komeršl) Schools and Vocational schools here.

In Ostrava there are two universities:
VŠB – This University moved to Ostrava from Příbram after the Second World War. Students can study there at 6 faculties – the economy faculty, the electronical and informative faculty, the mining-geological faculty, the metallurgical faculty, the building faculty and the mechanical faculty. VŠB is a technical university.

Ostrava University – has 4 faculties – the philosophical faculty, the pedagogical faculty, the natural history faculty and the faculty of health.

Medical care in our town is provided (je poskytována) by polyclinics, hospitals, first aid stations and first aid servise

In Ostrava there are many types of the schools. It is the necessary to improve the environment, to decrease (digrís-snížit) atmospheric pollution (znečištění vzduchu) and to enlarge (zvýšit) green areas in the city center.

In Ostrava is the biggest problems unemployment.

The town of Ostrava has changed very much in the last years. Banking and servise industries have also been developing very quickly. In the centre there are sevral department stores, a lot of shops, many restaurants, bers and places for entertainment.

The most important Moravian spa is Luhačovice. There are springs there used for treatment of respiratory tract (respirejtry trekt-k léčbě dýchacího traktu) and other diseases. The best known spring is Vincentka. Vincentka is bottled and sold in shops.

Not far from Ostrava there is a spa Klimkovice too.

In Ostrava there exists a developed network (rozvinutá síť) of trams, buses and trolley buses and there are some several railway stations. They connect this region with other towns and other countries. Not far from the city there is the Mošnov airport ensuring (enšuring-poskytující) national and international servis.

When is the nice weather and warm at the weekend, people can go to the trip to the Beskydy mountains, there are beautiful, and they aren´t not far from Ostrava.

During the weekend also people can visit some towns which are not far from Ostrava as Rožnov pod Radhoštěm – it is a very interesting place for visitors, because they can see there a Open-air Museum wooden town and they can buy there a lot of souvenirs.

In the Štramberk – we can find here lovely houses, which were built in the rock and ruins of the castle (které byly postaveny ve skále a rozvaliny hradu) with the tower called Štramberská truba. There is also a well known cave called Šipka.
Other nice towns are Starý Jičín or Hradec nad Moravicí.

People also can visit Hukvaldy – it is not far from Ostrava. There are ruins of the castle from 13th or 14th century. Leoš Janáček was born there and there is a statue of fox from his famous opera (je tam socha lišky z jeho proslulé opery).