<div>Před pardubickým nádražím je socha Jana Pernera</div> <div>In front of the Pardubice train station is a statue of Jan Perner</div>

"The author based on the established idea of how Perner looked."

Pardubice - A statue of Jan Perner has stood in front of the train station in Pardubice since Wednesday. The builder of railways was created by academic sculptor Jaroslav Brož. The work is part of a new transport terminal that the city will complete in June.

The bronze statue stands directly in the pavement. "After Jan Kašpar, Jan Perner, another pioneer of transport, will also have a dignified reminder. Thanks to Perner, or more specifically the railway, Pardubice began to develop and became a natural transport-logistic center of Bohemia, or the Czech Republic," said Mayor Martin Charvát (ANO).

The sculptor created Perner in slightly larger than life size, the figure is straddling and has its arms crossed over its chest. Imaginary sleepers will lead to the statue, part of which will form the designer's name.

Brož relied on the established idea of how Perner looked, as not many of his likenesses have survived. The gesture of the hands is meant to express pride in his engineering work.

The city will pay 2.3 million crowns for the memorial. Initially, architects budgeted 250,000 crowns for the memorial project. Brož's workshop also produced a bust of Jan Perner, which was installed two years ago in the vestibule of the transport faculty of the University of Pardubice.

The reconstruction of the area in front of the Pardubice station began last autumn. It should be completed by mid-June, with the complete commissioning of the public transport terminal, which is part of it, expected from July 1. The revitalization of the surroundings of the listed building of the Pardubice station will cost approximately 176 million crowns, with Switzerland contributing up to 108 million crowns through the Swiss-Czech cooperation program.