Liptaň

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Liptaň
Municipality and village
Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
Flag Coat of arms
Liptaň Location in the Czech Republic
Coordinates: 50°13′20″N 17°36′20″E / 50.22222°N 17.60556°E / 50.22222; 17.60556Coordinates: 50°13′20″N 17°36′20″E / 50.22222°N 17.60556°E / 50.22222; 17.60556
Country	Czech Republic
Region	Moravian-Silesian Region
District	Bruntál District
Government
• Type	1256
• Mayor	Blanka Klimošková
Area
• Total	20.23 km2 (7.81 sq mi)
Elevation	295 m (968 ft)
Population  (2020)[1]
• Total	456
• Density	23/km2 (58/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Website	https://www.liptan.cz/

Liptaň (German: Liebenthal) is a village and municipality in Bruntál District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic.

Geography[]

The municipality lies in the centre of the Osoblažsko region by the narrow-gauge railway. It is an attractive municipality of the region due to its location in the narrow, steep Liptaň stream valley and well kept village character with the dominating feature of the Neo-Gothic church. Presumably that’s the reason for the original German name of „Liebenthal“ (free translation of „lovely valley“).

To the south of Liptaň along the blue marked hiking trail is situated the natural monument of Liptaň glacier erratic boulder. Reminding of the period 250–800 thousand years ago the boulder was carried there by a continental glacier from the south of Sweden. Measuring its weight of nearly 4.7 tons, it is one of the biggest erratic boulders in the Czech Republic. To the north of Liptaň on the top of Strážnice hill there is a lookout tower where tourists are all year round able to see the northern and eastern part of Osoblažsko region, Polish plains and the dominant Praděd mountain together with the summits of Jeseníky Mountains to the west. The lookout tower is accessible by a marked path leaving the blue marked hiking trail. At the upper end of Liptaň just below the Strážný hill there is a ski lift.

Liptaň also consists of the municipal parts called Horní Povelice and Bučávka. They are both worth destinations to be visited as there are renovated chapels close to which the cycling services places were built. The village of Horní Povelice keeps the original village character without the disturbing influence of new buildings.

Landmarks[]

The dominating feature of the village is the parish Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary built of red bricks in Neo-Gothic style in 1866-1870. Valuable interior shows the decor has been preserved in a uniform style. An important landmark is the former police station of National Guards Defense (NGD, Building No. 261) where six NGD members were shot dead by Sudetendeutsches Freikorps in dramatic circumstances in 1938. Commemorating this event there is a memorial plaque on the former police station building, as well as two additional ones in town (one of which was replaced in 1988 with one commemorating World War I victims panel, but has been reverted in 2013). The house No.240 is a monument representing the former Osoblažsko folk architecture. Every Friday in the village centre, at the municipal office, the Drak Gallery can be visited (Building No.149).

History[]

22 September 1938[]

The Sudeten German Free Corps (Sudetendeutsches Freikorps) gained control over police stations in nearby towns Město Albrechtice (Olbersdorf) and Zlaté Hory (Zuckmantel), cutting both main routes from Liptáň with the rest of the Czech inland. Later in the evening, local Freikorps members opened a secret stash of German army rifles and submachine guns that had been previously smuggled across the border and stored within a railway station. Then a mob of 150 - 180 men, most of them armed, proceeded towards the local gendarme station.

The mob leaders compelled Chief Constable Rudolf Mokrý to call to the nearby station in Mokrá where gendarmes already had surrendered. Gaining information that several nearby stations were handed over without any violence and with Czechoslovak official mostly being allowed to withdraw inland, still under orders preventing use of firearms and facing armed mobs, the station chief agreed to surrender the station. The Germans took the officers' firearms and held them captive inside the building while someone was sent to procure a car that could be used to transport the captives (it is unknown whether inland or to Germany).

Shortly after the officers within the station building were disarmed, two gendarme officers driving on a motorcycle arrived to town. As they were nearing the station firefight erupted. In the general confusion, the Germans started shooting not only at the officers but also at each other; it is not known whether the officers managed to fire their weapons. The officers used the chaos and attempted to reach the station not knowing that it was already fully under German control. Both gendarme officers Inocenc Dostál and Vítězslav Hofírek were shot dead immediately after entering the station. Outside of the station, most of the mob dispersed, leaving behind three dead bodies and several angry Freikorps members. The remaining disarmed gendarme officers Chief Constable Rudolf Mokrý, Constable Vilém Leher and Constable Ludvík Svoboda were dragged outside of the station and lynched to death.Constable František Čech, station's messenger, was also lynched to death either with the three other officers or elsewhere in the town's vicinity.^{[2][incomplete short citation]}

The gendarme officers' bodies were transported over the border to the German town Leobschütz where they were buried in an unmarked mass grave.^[3] Their fate remained unknown until the March 1939 Nazi German takeover of the remainder of Czechoslovakia, when Nazi German authorities acknowledged their deaths.

The victims' bodies were later exhumed and ceremonially buried in Czechoslovakia. The perpetrators were never captured (although having been identified), however, three other Germans that took part in the attack were arrested, tried and executed by hanging in October 1946.^{[3][incomplete short citation]}

References[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Liptaň.