The university town of Olomouc 
The university town of Olomouc
The town of Olomouc with its cultural, military and ecclesiastical tradition is now mainly a town of education. The eighteen thousand university students, the large body of teachers and research workers, and hundreds of secondary school pupils in relation to the population of one hundred thousand make Olomouc a town of intellectual inspiration.
You can meet the students everywhere, in the Central University Library, the Research Library, and the Municipal Library, in the wonderful parks below the medieval walls surrounding the historical town, in the theatre, museums, at concerts of the Moravian Philharmonic and in the art galleries. You will meet them in the halls of residence in the Envelopa area, full of student activities, in sports grounds, and in boats on the river Morava.
Students are the main element at restaurants, pubs and bars, in summer with outdoor seating around the town hall with its astronomical horologe. The historical centre of Olomouc is the second largest urban preservation area in the Czech Republic. Among the numerous churches in Olomouc, the most prominent of which are the neo-Gothic cathedral of St Wenzeslas, the Gothic church of St Moritz with its renowned Engler organ, the Baroque church of St Michael, is the Baroque church of V. Mary-in-the-Snow, now in the role of the students’ church.
The most important historical landmark is the Holy Trinity Column in Upper Square, since 2000 on the UNESCO list of World Cultural Heritage. Other colourful features in town are the early-Baroque Archbishop’s Palace, where in 1948 Franz Joseph became Austrian Emperor, the Hradisko Monastery, and the six Baroque fountains, to which in this century a modern seventh fountain on the ancient Arion theme was added.
This unique atmosphere attracts foreign students to Olomouc. They study full-time or attend special courses at the university. Olomouc is an ideal venue for international academic conferences; foreign visitors have already called the town a “Moravian Oxford”.
