Kobylisy Shooting Range () is a former

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

shooting range A shooting range, firing range, gun range or shooting ground is a specialized facility, venue or field designed specifically for firearm usage qualifications, training, practice or competitions. Some shooting ranges are operated by military ...

located in

Kobylisy Kobylisy is a district in the north of Prague, located in Prague 8. The eastern part of the district is home to a large panel housing estate with over 10,000 residents. The area is served by Kobylisy and Ládví stations on the Prague Metro, bo ...

, a northern suburb of

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. The shooting range was established in 1889–1891, on a site that was at the time far outside the city, as a training facility for the

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1 ...

(and, later, Czechoslovak) army. During the Nazi occupation it was used for mass executions as part of retaliatory measures against the

Czech people The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, ...

after the

assassination of Reinhard Heydrich On 27 May 1942 in Prague, Reinhard Heydrichthe commander of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), acting governor of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and a principal architect of the Holocaustwas attacked and wounded in an assassination ...

in 1942. About 550 Czech patriots of every social rank were killed here, most of them between 30 May and 3 July 1942, when executions took place almost every day. Their bodies were subsequently

incinerated Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high ...

Strašnice Crematorium Strašnice Crematorium (in cs, link=no, Krematorium Strašnice) is the largest crematory in Europe in terms of area. President Václav Havel was cremated here. The crematorium was involved in the disposal of those who had been executed by the ...

. The site was converted to a memorial after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and its current dimensions date to the 1970s when the large

panelák () is a colloquial term in Czech and Slovak for a panel building constructed of pre-fabricated, pre-stressed concrete, such as those extant in the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in the world. Paneláks are usually located in housing e ...

s (Communist-era tower blocks) of a new

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States ...

encroached upon it. Kobylisy Shooting Range has had the status of national cultural monument since 1978. Today it is freely accessible and is within ten minutes' walk of the

or Ládví metro stations.

Notable victims

Jan Auerhan Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

, director of the State Bureau of Statistics *

Gen. The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning"). ...

Alois Eliáš Alois Eliáš (29 September 1890 – 19 June 1942) was a Czech general and politician. He served as prime minister of the puppet government of the German-occupied Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from 27 April 1939 to 27 September 1941 bu ...

, prime minister * František Erben,

Sokol The Sokol movement (, ''falcon'') is an all-age gymnastics organization first founded in Prague in the Czech region of Austria-Hungary in 1862 by Miroslav Tyrš and Jindřich Fügner. It was based upon the principle of " a strong mind in a ...

member and gymnast *

Lt. Col. Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

Josef Mašín soldier, member of the Three Kings resistance group * Matěj Pavlík-Gorazd, bishop of the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church, later canonised as St. Gorazd * Františka Plamínková, senator, feminist *

Evžen Rošický Evžen Rošický (15 October 1914 Olomouc – 25 June 1942 Prague) was a Czech athlete and journalist. Prague's Stadion Evžena Rošického is named after him. During World War II, he and his father Jaroslav Rošický were part of the anti- Na ...

, journalist, athlete * Vladislav Vančura, physician, writer and film director * 26 citizens of

Lidice Lidice (, german: Liditz) is a municipality and village in Kladno District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 600 inhabitants. Lidice is built near the site of the previous village of the same name, which was co ...

(members of the Horák and Stříbrný families arrested before the extermination of the village, and men who were away at work that night)

External links

History of the site, complete lists of the executed, photogallery

{{coord, 50, 07, 54, N, 14, 27, 47, E, region:CZ_type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures in Prague Execution sites 1942 in Czechoslovakia History of Prague National Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic Nazi war crimes in Czechoslovakia World War II sites in the Czech Republic Shooting ranges in the Czech Republic Mass murder in 1942