A tip for a short walk around the most important monuments for easy orientation in the city centre.

Kostelní ul. (kostel, infocentrum) – Komenského ul. (pěší zóna) – Mírové náměstí (radnice) – ul. Gen. Mrázka (divadlo, pošta) – ul. 28. října (exportní vily) – Horní nám. (kostel) – Mírové nám. – Nám. Dr. Farského (kostel, Eurocentrum) – ul. U Muzea (muzeum)

The route starts at the tourist information centre which is located in the Scheybal House. You will recognise at first glance that this was once a rectory. It belonged to Saint Anne’s Church opposite, which was built at the end of the 17th century, and together they form part of the city’s original historical core. The current small park was once a cemetery… It is also worth mentioning the Garden of Gethsemane located next to the house or the Stone Cross next to the church which recalls a man who froze to death and as such is the oldest monument of its type in the Jizera Mountains

 

Heading up the steep hill will bring you to the beginning of the pedestrian zone (Komenského Street), which will take you directly to the town hall. It would be a pity not to notice the town houses  along the way; for example, the Golden Grapes (U Zlatého Hroznu) (building no. 545/14), which is one of the few Jablonec houses to boast a house symbol and was once a wine shop. The Linke Building (building no. 544) designed by the architect Rudolf Günter is the best example of Expressionist architecture in the Liberec Region. After many years of neglect, extensive reconstruction work has been undertaken on the former Prague Hotel (Hotel Praha) (building no. 446/6), which was famous as the venue for the first striptease in Czechoslovakia, or the formerly famous Café Habsburg, which was later known as Jizera (building no. 407/1).

 

The Peace Square (Mírové náměstí) (formerly the Alter Markt – Old Market) is the largest square in Jablonec and is dominated by the town hall which was built in the Functionalist style in 1931–1932. The town hall tower serves as a lookout tower in summer. You can have a drink at the water fountain by the statue representing an allegory of Jablonec trade and industry, which was created at the time of the city’s greatest prosperity in 1870.

 

From there, the route leads along Gen. Mrázka Street to the theatre, which enchants with its art nouveau noblesse. Walk up past the historical building of the post office to 28. října Street where the villas of once influential Jablonec costume jewellery exporters can be found; for example, Franz Hübner’s villa (building no. 1859/29), the house of the brothers Josef and Max Jäger (building no. 1969/22) or the Hoffman house, nowadays a station of the Police of Czech Republic (building no. 424/10).

 

Before being overcome by the view of the monumental Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Upper Square, where 28. října Street will take you, notice the life-sized knight at the corner of building no. 91/2. We can but speculate why Alfred Kolb placed him there on his house. However, the knight still guards the house to this day, unlike the statue of the German knight Rüdiger from the Song of the Nibelungs, which formerly stood before the church and was removed after the war. We recommend that you rest a while on the square and take in the view of the lookout tower at Černá Studnice, which can be seen on the horizon.

Head back to the town hall, past the buildings of two secondary schools. The older of them,  the Applied Arts Secondary School which was established in 1880 and is part of the Jablonec family silver, is definitely worth mentioning. It trains graphic artists who specialise in costume jewellery, metal jewellery, engraving, graphic design and also medal design

 

Now, turn left from the Peace Square and follow Podhorská Street to the picturesque Church of Dr Farský on the square of the same name. It was built in the neo-Gothic style. The building of the former discount bank, which was built in the neo-Classicist style in 1924, stands on the corner of Jiráskova and Podhorská Streets. This is in stark contrast to the modern facility of the Eurocentrum, which you can walk through so that you find yourself before the building of the Museum of Glass and Costume Jewellery, built  in the art nouveau style in 1904 as an export house for the company Zimmer & Schmidt.

This is the end of the route, but costume jewellery once made Jablonec “the Little Paris” and it was behind the boom in the city’s construction. If the history of the local area has interested you, then now is the time to open the museum’s doors and walk inside…