THE CITY OF OLOMOUC

The city of Olomouc is the administrative centre of a region bearing its name and the seat of one of the country's universities. Situated in the Central Moravian heartland of Haná (Hanakia), Olomouc has a population of approximately 100,000 people, which makes it the fifth largest city in the Czech Republic. It lies in the flatland of the Upper Moravian Vale, in the floodplain of the Morava.

Olomouc is an ancient metropolis: it was the main centre of medieval Moravia and, until the Thirty Years War, the largest Moravian city and the second largest city of the Bohemian Kingdom. It was probably founded between 1239 and 1246, but the earliest evidence of human settlement at its present location is much older: some of the stone tools found in Olomouc date back to the Upper Paleolithic. Today Olomouc is the seat of an archbishopric, established in 1777; other important institutions located in the city include the Olomouc High Court and the Palacký University, the second oldest university in the Czech lands, founded in 1573. The city's significance as a centre of learning is underscored by the presence of the State Research Library and the Slavonic Grammar School, which has the longest continuous tradition of providing secondary education of all Czech-language secondary schools in Moravia.

Olomouc is the second largest heritage reserve in the Czech Republic: the city's most significant sights include the Holy Trinity Column, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the pilgrimage site at Svatý Kopeček (Holy Hill), the neo-gothic St Wenceslas Cathedral with the highest church spire in Moravia, the Archdiocesan Museum, the Archbishop's Palace which saw the ascension to the throne of the Austrian Emperor Francis Joseph I, and many other important monuments and sites, especially from the baroque period. The post-war refashioning of the city's medieval astronomic clock in the Socialist Realist style turned it into a global rarity: a display of moving mechanical figures of workers, sportsmen and village people in the Hanakian folk costume.

Due to its genius loci, Olomouc is a popular venue for all kinds of events, including, for example, Academia Film, an international festival of science documentaries and videos, or Flora Olomouc, a horticultural exhibition and fair which annually attracts some 80,000 visitors. We hope you will let yourself be enchanted by this ancient city and trust that the COS Congress will prove a pleasant experience, enriching your professional career.

The map of Olomouc is available here.