Landek Park

Landek is a hill above the confluence of the Odra and the Ostravice where coal outcrops at the surface, and people have used it for a very long time: excavation of a hunters' camp on the hill produced the Petrkovice Venus, a small figure of a woman carved from haematite around twenty-three thousand years ago, and the same site yielded evidence of coal being burned - among the earliest known uses of the fuel anywhere. Mining on an industrial scale followed from the nineteenth century, and the Anselm pit here is now the centre of the largest mining museum in the country, with surface plant, a rescue-service collection, machinery and an underground route through original workings where the guides are former miners. The Lower Vitkovice ironworks in the city, a separate site, completes the picture of what Ostrava was.

What you actually see

• The Petrkovice Venus site - a haematite figure of about 23,000 years ago.
• Early coal use - among the earliest known evidence of burning the fuel.
• An underground route - original workings, with former miners as guides.
• The largest mining museum in the country - surface plant and machinery at Anselm.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

The underground route is guided, timed, cool and involves a cage descent - book ahead. The Venus itself is in Brno; a replica is shown. The site is spread out and the surroundings are industrial.

Nearby

Lower Vitkovice is in the city centre; Poodri is south.