Obětem první světové války

The Monument to the Victims of the First World War stands in Roštín, a village in the Kroměříž district of Moravia, right in front of what is today the village square. It belongs to a wave of modest yet moving memorials that appeared across hundreds of Czech and Moravian villages after the First World War, marking the place where the community of Roštín chose to honor the neighbors who never came home from the front.

When was the monument built?

The unveiling date was chosen deliberately. On 28 October 1928, the monument was ceremonially placed in the village — exactly on the tenth anniversary of the founding of independent Czechoslovakia. The event took the form of a village-wide celebration, complete with a lantern procession through the streets of Roštín. Linking the anniversary of the state's birth with tribute to the fallen was common practice at the time: for many communities, newly won independence and the memory of wartime losses were two sides of the same experience.

Who created the monument, and what did it cost?

The monument was made by Petr Kubáček, a native of Roštín who, at the time of the commission, lived and worked in the nearby town of Morkovice. Its production cost the village 9,000 Czech crowns — a substantial sum for a small rural community at the time, reflecting how much importance the villagers placed on properly commemorating their dead.

What does the monument depict?

At the center of the composition is a bust of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia, a figure who for the villagers of that era embodied the freedom regained after the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Beside the bust, the names of Roštín's fallen residents were carved into the stone. The monument did not remain unchanged over the decades: after the end of the Second World War, further names were added, this time of victims of that later conflict, turning the site into a shared record of memory spanning both world wars.

How many residents of Roštín does the monument commemorate?

Eighteen names of Roštín residents killed during the First World War were originally inscribed on the monument. That number gains extra weight when set against the village's overall wartime toll: 207 men from Roštín were called up for military service, of whom seventeen were wounded. For a village that counted only a few hundred inhabitants at the time, these losses would have touched almost every family.

Why is this monument worth seeing?

The monument in Roštín is not a grand structure drawing crowds of visitors, but an authentic piece of local history — a place where the memory of a small rural community's wartime tragedy remains legible to this day. Standing beside the bust of Masaryk and the eighteen carved names on what is now the village square, visitors can sense a direct link between the vast history of the First World War and the fate of specific people from a specific Moravian village.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where exactly is the monument located? The monument stands in Roštín, in the Kroměříž district, near the present-day village square.

When was the monument unveiled? It was unveiled on 28 October 1928, on the tenth anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia, during a ceremony that included a lantern procession.

Who made the monument? It was created by Petr Kubáček, a native of Roštín working in Morkovice, and its construction cost 9,000 Czech crowns.

How many people does the monument commemorate? Originally eighteen names of those killed in the First World War were carved into it; names of Second World War victims were added later.