MONUMENT TO THE CAVALRY CLASH NEAR STŘEZETICE (15/10/2015)

The real event commemorated by the monument took place near the end of the battle. About 11,000 cavalrymen and horses took part. The Prussian units had numerical superiority, but the Austrians stopped the attack despite heavy losses. On their side they suffered about 1,200 dead, wounded and missing, but during the half hour that the clash lasted, more than 2,000 horses were also killed.
The intention to build near Střezetice in the Hradec Králové region a monument dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the second largest cavalry battle of the 19th century first appeared in 1913. A design already existed, but the whole plan was interrupted by the First World War. Almost a hundred years later, this idea was revived by the Committee for the Preservation of Monuments from the War of 1866. Between 2009 and 2012 it managed to collect money for the production of a 1:1 model by the academic sculptor Petr Novák from Jaroměř, who specializes in 'horse monuments'. He is, for example, the author of the equestrian statue of President T. G. Masaryk in Lány.
Thanks to financial support from the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic and the Hradec Králové Region, a bronze sculptural group will be cast in the coming months and the monument will be ceremonially unveiled precisely on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Hradec Králové. This will happen on 1 July 2016 directly at the site of the cavalry battle near Střezetice.

Hradec Králové, October 2015
Further information: Radek Teichman
tel.: 605 205 331