Resistance Memorial
After the Czechoslovak declaration of independence, numerous villages as well as towns began to create memorials of the fallen fellow citizens. In 1919, Ústí nad Orlicí witnessed the foundation of the association called “Initiative for the Resistance Memorial Construction”. Its activity was supported, among others financially, by local personalities. The responsibility for the choice of the sculptor was taken by school directors Josef Chramosta and Josef Jaroslav Filipi. They asked for help their friend, a pupil of Rodinʼs, the academic sculptor Josef Mařatka. This artist succeeded not only in creating a spacous work of art, but also in endowing the statue of the French drumming legionary with a timeless symbolism. The legionary heads towards the north, because the enemy would approach Bohemia from Lower and Upper Silesia. He summons the Czechs to strike back in the sense of the motto “Now or neverˮ.
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It ought to be mentioned that the lateral side of the base contains the soil from Zborov.
After the fall of the 2nd republic on 15 March 1939, Ústí was occupied by the Nazis who gave order to remove this symbol of the legionary tradition. The workers deconstructed the statue with utmost care and stored it in the paling of the Radechovský company, where the statue survived the war to be renewed in 1945. Few years later, the front side of the base was supplemented with a memorial plaque conveying the names of the World War II casualties.
