Turnov announced an art competition connected with Masaryk, seeking a work valued at up to two million CZK

Turnov – Turnov announced a competition for an artistic work, which is intended to honor the first Czechoslovak president T. G. Masaryk. The city plans to spend up to two million crowns on its creation and has prepared 200,000 crowns for rewards for the best designs. The object is to be placed in the T. G. Masaryk Park near the train station. The city's spokesperson, Marcela Jandová, informed about the announcement of the competition in a press release today.

"The competition should yield an artistic work that becomes a natural part of the given space, it should withstand the test of time in the long term, both in terms of materials and ideas. The chosen form of the artistic work must exhibit significant artistic quality and be timeless," Jandová stated. It does not have to be a purely figurative work. Artists can submit their designs until mid-March next year.

The monument dedicated to Masaryk was originally intended to be unveiled next year, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his visit to Turnov and the 750th anniversary of the first mention of the town. However, due to delays in preparing the competition, the city now expects the artistic work to be created by mid-July 2023.

Masaryk visited Turnov on September 17, 1922, and his program at the time was, according to contemporary press, more than full. A line of cheering citizens welcomed him from the station to the town hall. He also traveled to the Bohemian Paradise, visited the Marian Outlook, passed through the so-called Mouse Hole, and around the Dragon Rocks to Sedmihorky. Along the way, he observed the aftermath of a previous wind storm and asked about the damages caused to the Hruboskál forest by the calamity caused by the bark beetle.