Painful rebirth of White town: A new identity of the post-war Opava and its reflection in the material structure of the historic centre
Abstract
The paper deals with architectonic and symbolic changes to the historic centre of Opava in 1945-1989. It focuses on the methods by which the representatives of the post-war political representation constructed the official image of Opava and on the values which they tried to manifest in the physical and symbolical space of the town, badly damaged due to the World War II.
The politically and economicly motivated efforts to "recode" the preserved environment included demolitions of the original buildings, constructions of new buildings and monuments, reconstructions of some monuments and changes of the street names. The complex process of the gradual reconstruction of the Opava centre after 1945 can be perceived at a general sociocultural level as clear evidence of how the attitudes of the then political elites towards the historic environment of the town and its traditions were changing.