Where to Stay in Ostrava, Moravskoslezský kraj

What is Ostrava known for?

Ostrava is known above all for its coal-and-iron past and the rivers that meet beneath it. The confluence made the city. Where the Oder, the Opava, the Ostravice, and the Lučina come together on the border of Moravia and Silesia, the town grew into the largest city of Czech Silesia, its old ironworks and shafts turned over the years into halls for art and music that now draw travellers to the Moravian-Silesian Region.

What are the main landmarks in Ostrava?

Ostrava holds landmarks that span its churches, its castles, and its industrial past. The Cathedral of the Divine Saviour anchors the centre. Its towers rise over the old squares, while Silesian Ostrava Castle guards the far bank of the Ostravice, Landek Castle stands above the mine shafts, and the Bolt Tower and Ostrava Zoo draw visitors out to the edge of the city among them.

What is the history of Ostrava?

Ostrava was first recorded in 1267 as a settlement on the border of Moravia and Silesia, above the meeting of its rivers. The rivers set the place. The town spread on both banks of the Ostravice, one side Moravian and the other Silesian, and for centuries it lived by farming and trade at the crossing of the Oder and the Opava on the road toward the land that became Czech Silesia.

Coal changed everything beneath the town. When seams were found under the valley, the Lučina and the Ostravice powered a run of shafts and ironworks, and the small border settlement grew into the largest city of Czech Silesia and the industrial heart of the surrounding region. Through boom and decline the confluence held.

From a market town at the meeting of four rivers, Ostrava grew into the mining city that shaped the borderland of Moravia and Silesia.

Where is Ostrava?

Ostrava lies on the borderland of Moravia and Silesia, at the confluence of four rivers near the frontier with Poland. The setting is shaped by water. The Oder gathers the Opava, the Ostravice, and the Lučina beneath the city, the Ostravice dividing the Moravian bank from the Silesian, so that the largest city of Czech Silesia sits where the plains open north toward the Polish border in the Moravian-Silesian Region.

What is the climate of Ostrava?

Ostrava has a temperate inland climate, with cold winters and warm summers over the valley of its rivers. Seasons swing broadly here. Snow settles along the Ostravice and the Oder through the coldest months, while warm, changeable summers bring rain and thunder across the borderland of Moravia and Silesia, the surrounding hills of the Moravian-Silesian Region tempering the weather that reaches the city.

How do you get to Ostrava?

Ostrava is reached by rail and road, a junction near the meeting of the Czech, Polish, and Slovak borders. Rail and motorway carry most arrivals into this border junction. Main lines and motorways run through the Moravian-Silesian Region toward the Polish frontier just to the north, linking Ostrava across the borderland of Moravia and Silesia and down the valley of the Oder toward the wider country.