Sculpture Park of Saint Joseph in Hořice

The Sculpture Park of Saint Joseph (Czech: Sochařský park Svatého Josefa) is an open-air sculpture gallery in Hořice, a small town in the Podkrkonoší foothills long associated with Czech stonemasonry and sandstone carving. The park brings together works created from 2002 onward and is designed to keep growing with every new edition of the town's sculpture symposium.

Where does Hořice's sculpting tradition come from?

Hořice has hosted international sculpture symposia since 1966. The event was founded and long led by academic sculptor Vladimír Preclík, who gave it its recurring, international character. The symposia went on hiatus between 1970 and 1988, but resumed afterward and have continued ever since. Over the decades this steady rhythm of gatherings has turned Hořice into one of the region's richer sites for outdoor sculpture, shaped by artists from many different countries working side by side.

When was the park created, and how is it laid out?

In 2002, the town council decided to keep the international sculpture symposia going, and works produced from that point on began to be gathered in a newly designated area: the Sculpture Park of Saint Joseph. The park was conceived from the start as an expanding collection — new pieces are meant to be added every year — with the exhibition area eventually reaching toward the Josef quarry, which shares its name with the park and supplies the stone the sculptures are carved from. That direct link between the quarry where the raw stone is cut and the park where it becomes art is what sets this site apart from an ordinary sculpture garden.

Who carves the sculptures on display?

After Preclík, artistic direction of the symposia passed to later sculptors — first Roman Richtermoc (1950–2010), then Jan Pospíšil (born 1975). Under their guidance, artists from Europe, Asia and the Americas have travelled to Hořice to carve local sandstone into works that are then placed in the town's public spaces.

How does it relate to the Saint Gothard sculpture park?

Hořice also has an older sculpture ground nearby, the Park at Saint Gothard, which holds more than a hundred sandstone sculptures produced during earlier editions of the symposium. The Saint Joseph park is younger and functions as its natural continuation: together, the two collections form a continuous record of world sculpture made in Hořice from 1966 to the present. Visitors are worth telling apart, since each park has its own history and its own set of works, even though both trace back to the same symposium.

Visiting the park

The Sculpture Park of Saint Joseph is freely accessible, at no charge, all year round. As an open-air display, there's no need to book a visit or arrange a guide — sculptures can be viewed at your own pace while walking between the works.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the Sculpture Park of Saint Joseph? In Hořice, in the Podkrkonoší region of north-eastern Czechia (coordinates: 50.3703858, 15.6488156).

How old are the sculptures in the park? They date from 2002 onward, when the town decided to continue the international sculpture symposia that began in 1966.

Is there an entrance fee? No — the park is open to the public and free to visit year-round.

How is it different from the Saint Gothard sculpture park in Hořice? The Saint Gothard park is older and holds more than a hundred sculptures from earlier symposia, while the Saint Joseph park gathers works made from 2002 onward. Together they form a continuous overview of the sculpture produced in Hořice.

Who is behind the sculpture symposium that supplies the park? The symposium was founded by sculptor Vladimír Preclík in 1966; artistic direction later passed to Roman Richtermoc and then Jan Pospíšil.