Landek

Landek is a wooded hill in the northern part of Ostrava, in Czech Silesia, rising above the point where the Ostravice river flows into the Odra. Since 1992 the site has carried the status of a national nature monument covering 85.7 hectares, protecting both valuable forest stands and unusual geological formations together with an exceptional set of archaeological sites.

What makes Landek an important archaeological site?

People first settled on Landek more than 25,000 years ago, when Stone Age mammoth hunters lived on the hill near what is now the Petřkovice district. The traces they left behind rank Landek among the most significant Palaeolithic sites in Central Europe. Its best-known find is the so-called Landek Venus (also called the Petřkovice Venus), a tiny 4.7 cm figurine carved from mammoth ivory depicting a female torso. It was uncovered beneath the remains of a mammoth, a detail that adds weight to its importance for research into Ice Age human life.

Where did the mining tradition on this hill come from?

Landek's industrial history began in 1776, when a local resident noticed odd black stones while walking along the hill's ridge — the stones turned out to be coal. That discovery set off decades of mining in the area, and in 1830 the Anselm Mine (originally named Ferdinand) was founded here, becoming the oldest mine in Ostrava. Coal was extracted continuously until 1991.

What can visitors see at Landek Park today?

Construction of a museum began four years before the mine closed, and in 1993 an underground exhibition of mining equipment opened to the public. Today, the Landek Park Mining Museum is the largest mining museum in the Czech Republic. Its exhibition occupies the actual galleries of the former Anselm Mine, and a visit begins with a descent in a real mine cage from the historic pithead building down into the old coal seams — one of the museum's most distinctive experiences. The sprawling former industrial site, sitting right at the edge of the protected nature monument, traces a continuous line of human activity here: from the Stone Age, through characteristic industrial architecture, to twentieth-century mining technology.

What is worth knowing before a visit?

Landek brings together three layers rarely found in a single place: a natural one (protected forest and geological formations on the hill itself), an archaeological one (25,000-year-old settlement traces and the Landek Venus figurine), and an industrial one (more than 150 years of coal-mining history centred on the Anselm Mine). It is precisely this combination that gives the site significance reaching beyond the local level, into geology, history and science on a European scale.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is Landek located? It is a hill in the Silesian part of Ostrava, at the confluence of the Ostravice and Odra rivers, near the Petřkovice district.

What is the Landek Venus? A small, 4.7 cm figurine carved from mammoth ivory, depicting a female torso, made by Stone Age hunter-gatherers more than 25,000 years ago.

Since when has the hill been protected? Since 1992, when it was declared a national nature monument covering 85.7 hectares.

Is the mine still active? No — extraction at the Anselm Mine ended in 1991, and its former underground workings have been open to visitors as the Landek Park Mining Museum since 1993.