Ceský Těšín

Ceský Těšín

Since the year 1920 Český Těšín has been sharing a fate of a town divided by the state borders. It used to be a bilingual but it is still one city. It lies on the left bank of the river Olše at the edge of the Ostrava Basin at an altitude of 270 metres and 25, 573 inhabitants live there. It is surrounded by several dams and the nearest town is a Polish town Cieszyn. It has several superlatives: the biggest and the busiest border crossing with Poland, the most important centre of the Polish minority in the Czech Republic and the smallest number of historical monuments in a divided town. Although, the Museum of the Těšín Region remained here as well as the Museum Library Silesia and the railway station of Košice-Bohumín track from the middle of the 19th century, most of the historical monuments can be found in the Polish side. Český Těšín had to face and deal with all these factors during the years; the ethnic relations between Czech, Poles and Germans were not negligible, either. Finally, in the year 1938 a Czech part of Těšín was connected to Poland and the town was formally united. But on the 1st of September 1939 the town was invaded by the German army and it became a part of the Great German Empire. This disastrous situation affected hardestly the Jewish community in both parts of Těšín: synagogues were burned and the Jewish inhabitants were deported to the extermination camps.

After the war, life in such a difficult nationality and political situation was returning back to normal only slowly. In recent years we can note a mutual approachement of both parts of the town as well as a developing cooperation across the borders which is also supported by common membership in the European Union.

A division of Těšín in 1920 caused difficulties also to the churches. In the Czech part of the town the Roman Catholic Church had one church from 1894, it was consecrated to the Heart of Jesus. The Protestants lost their church. In 1922 the Czech Protestant congregation was permitted and it joined the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (ECCB) but they wished to remain at the Augsburg confession.

After the Second World War the renewed Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren congregation obtained a church after the German Evangelical Church. This functionalist building was built in a style of basilica in the year 1927 according to architects Koziel’s and Schöne’s plan. A nice rectory was built next to it. The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren congregation in Český Těšín has been using the whole complex until now. In the recent years rooms for lecture activities and accommodation of the young people were also built.