Library

The word ”knihovna” in Czech, in general, may indicate different things. First, it is a piece of , where books are stored. Everybody certainly has got such a bookcase in various forms at home. It may be also a room, e.g. in the castle or in the monastery. Absolutely unique combination of both meanings of the words can be found in the library of the Premonstratensian monastery at Strahov in Prague. Native Dobšice and artistic woodcarver Jan Lahofer made the monastery bookcases originally for the monastery Louka by Znojmo, South Moravia. He worked on them 10 years. The monastery, however, fell victim to the reforms of Austrian Emperor Joseph II and in 1784 it was cancelled. It is very ravaged; there were military quarters here till 1993. Nowadays only 1/25 of monastery area is commercial used. The company Znovín Znojmo place its seat. It deposits bottles here. The small wine shop offers wines from own production and you can find here also small wine museum. Lahofer personally moved the monastery library to Strahov and the visitors can admire it till now.





The other meaning of the word library comes from computer terminology. Library is a binary file that is attached to the executable program. The last meaning is library as institution for the preservation of books. And this is exactly the meaning for which I decided to write this post. Enter of new institution to Bohemia – Karviná Regional Library – was my inspiration. Its virtual branch is in Bohemia second sim (Czechoslovakia 2) immediately after the building of the sections of the Czech Police and close to Villa Tugendhat here. The building is interesting and with impressive design. It offers on the ground floor, the floor and on the open terrace classic library services and through the weblinks one can enter to te webpages of the library. If you climb up to the terrace, you can see a nice view of the Bohemia or try another view from the opposite side from the terrace of Villa Tugendhat. Appearance and shape of the building bears witness to the great creativity of builder (Zuza Ritt) and offers visitors a turn something new interesting than only a copy of reality.