Znojmo has a statue commemorating telephone booths

Znojmo – Znojmo has a new statue, created based on the design by designer Maxim Velčovský, and it is a tribute to the street telephone booths. The massive metal piece on a concrete pedestal weighs more than a ton and takes the form of a cluster or "crystal" of booths and their fragments. The statue, which was unveiled yesterday on Kollár Street, also rings twice a day. The ceremonial unveiling was attended by dozens of people.

The statue is the result of a long-standing effort by the association Art into Znojmo, which established the artistic center Gallery and Space (GaP). Right in front of the gallery, where a functional booth once stood, passersby will now find Velčovský's statue. According to Andrea Krejčí, the artistic director of GaP, it is a monument to telephone booths, but in a broader sense, it also serves as a reminder of an offline era when people were not constantly online thanks to mobile phones.

The original plan was to make the statue from discarded telephone booths, but it gradually became clear that they were not very suitable as material. Therefore, the monument was created according to Velčovský's design by locksmith Dušan Pokorný from the Znojmo region using steel sheets. The statue is one of the successful projects supported by the participatory budget We Create Znojmo.

Telephone booths served in the Czech Republic for 110 years. The first appeared in Prague in 1911, and the last operated until this summer in Hlubyně in the Příbram region. Czech booths never had as distinctive a design as, for example, the British ones, yet according to the GaP team, they are worth remembering. They facilitated contact between friends and families, and journalists also used them to report news to their home editorial offices.