V3 · Sonnet

Cieszyn on both sides of the Olza

Until July 1920 this was one town. This page sets the town hall, the station and the hospital side by side on both banks of the Olza: which side has the institution in the material, and which will add it later.

A pair of institutions on both banks of the Olza in the chosen year

1925two states · dva státy

Today: Cieszyn · Poland / Dnes: Těšín · PolskoPolish side of the border · polská strana hranice

Town hall

exists from 1496 · je od 1496

The old town hall on the Polish side of the border; from 1922 the town is run by an elected Municipal Council.

Stará radnice na polské straně hranice; od roku 1922 řídí město volená Městská rada.

Today: Český Těšín · Czechia / Dnes: Český Těšín · ČeskoCzechoslovak side of the border · československá strana hranice

Radnice

not yet · zatím chybí

No town hall of its own yet (a new one only in 1929). How the administration worked in 1920–1928, the material does not describe.

Vlastní radnice ještě chybí (nová až v roce 1929). Jak fungovala správa v letech 1920–1928, materiál neuvádí.

Next: 1929 — new town hall in Český TěšínDále: 1929 — nová radnice v Českém Těšíně

Bridge over the Olza · Most přes Olši:

State border on the Olza: two towns in two states.

Státní hranice na Olši: dvě města ve dvou státech.

Year 1925: two states. Town hall: Cieszyn — exists from 1496; Český Těšín — not yet. Addition on the Czech side: 1929, in 4 years. Rok 1925: dva státy. Radnice: Těšín — je od 1496; Český Těšín — zatím chybí. Doplnění na české straně: rok 1929, za 4 roky.

  • exists from… · je od…institution recorded in the material / instituce uvedená v materiálu
  • in one town · v jednom městěbefore 1920 a single urban organism / před rokem 1920 společný organismus
  • not yet · zatím chybíadded only later; the marker says what is missing / doplnění až později; co chybí, uvádí značka
  • no entry · bez záznamuthe material is silent; this is not zero / materiál mlčí; není to nula

A schematic of relations built from entries in the input material (V1/V2), not a map: it does not reproduce distances, the directions of the banks or the positions of buildings. Colour + word pairs: the text gives the meaning.

Without JavaScript only one state is visible: the town hall in 1925. All the dates are further down, in the section “Dates from the material”.

Three needs, one scale

How many calendar years passed from the year of the division (1920) until the function was added on the side where the material lacked it. All three bars use the same scale of 0–20 years. The side that adds the function is not always the same: Český Těšín added the office and the hospital, while Cieszyn added its own rail link to the Polish network.

  1. Town hall · RadniceCzech side: new town hall, 1929
    9 years after 1920
  2. Railway station · NádražíPolish side: own line to Zebrzydowice, 1934
    14 years after 1920
  3. Hospital · NemocniceCzech side: own hospital, 1937
    17 years after 1920

The difference in calendar years (without months), calculated from the dates recorded in the material. It is neither a construction time nor an assessment of pace: a town hall, a railway line and a hospital are not equivalent institutions, so the bars show how events are spread over time, not a ranking.

Dates from the material

The full set of entries used in the charts. Sides are labelled by today’s state. The Czech descriptions are an editorial translation by the author, not quotations.

Town hall · Radnice

  • 1496 · Cieszyn.

    Duke Kazimierz II gives the town land for a new market square and buildings for a town hall.

    Kníže Kazimír II. daruje městu pozemek pro nový trh a budovy pro radnici.

  • until 1920 · Český Těšín.

    The districts belong to Cieszyn; there is no separate town hall.

    Čtvrti patří k Těšínu; samostatná radnice neexistuje.

  • 1922 · Cieszyn.

    The town is run by an elected Municipal Council.

    Město řídí volená Městská rada.

  • 1929 · Český Těšín.

    New town hall opened; a new market square around it.

    Nová radnice předána do užívání; kolem ní nové náměstí.

  • undated.

    Administration of the districts that are now Czech in 1920–1928: the material does not describe it.

    Správa čtvrtí dnes českých v letech 1920–1928: materiál neuvádí.

Railway station · Nádraží

  • 1871 · Český Těšín.

    Station opened; industry around it (bentwood furniture, printing works).

    Nádraží otevřeno; kolem něj průmysl (ohýbaný nábytek, tiskárny).

  • 1911 · bridge.

    A tram links the market square with the station across the bridge.

    Tramvaj spojuje náměstí s nádražím přes most.

  • 1920 · border.

    The station stays in Czechoslovakia; according to the input material it becomes a border station.

    Nádraží zůstává v Československu; podle vstupního materiálu se stává pohraniční stanicí.

  • undated.

    Fate of the tram after the division: according to the input material it did not survive in its former role.

    Osud tramvaje po rozdělení: podle vstupního materiálu nezůstal v dřívější roli.

  • 1934 · Cieszyn.

    Line to Zebrzydowice: own connection with Upper Silesia.

    Trať do Zebrzydowic: vlastní spojení s Horním Slezskem.

Hospital · Nemocnice

  • 1892 · Cieszyn.

    Pastor Teodor Haase founds the General Evangelical Hospital.

    Pastor Teodor Haase zakládá Všeobecnou evangelickou nemocnici.

  • 1903 · Cieszyn.

    The facility is taken over by the Silesian authorities.

    Zařízení přebírají slezské orgány.

  • until 1937 · Český Těšín.

    No hospital of its own yet; before 1920 these were districts of one town.

    Vlastní nemocnice ještě chybí; před rokem 1920 jde o čtvrti jednoho města.

  • 1937 · Český Těšín.

    Český Těšín’s own hospital opened.

    Vlastní nemocnice Českého Těšína předána do provozu.

Explanation and limits

How to read the result

Each side shows the state in the chosen year according to the entries in the input material. “No entry” means that the material is silent, not that the institution did not exist. “Not yet” appears only where the material points to a later addition, and the marker says what is missing. Before 1920 the districts that are now Czech belonged to Cieszyn, so the lack of a separate institution was not then a shortfall.

The Railway station | Nádraží pair does not mean two equivalent buildings. According to the material the station has stood on the Czech side since 1871, while on the Polish side “not yet” refers to a connection of its own to the Polish network (the line of 1934), not to the station itself. Whether a separate station existed on the Polish side, the material does not settle.

The year 1920

The border came into being in July 1920, and the model counts years, not months. For 1920 the page shows both states: before July and from July. Where they differ, the marker says “change in July 1920”.

Sides of the Olza

The sides are named after today’s state, not by direction. V2 described the banks as “left” and “right” and as “west” and “east”; the input material gives no basis for these terms, so they were removed. The geography of the banks has to be checked on a map.

Language

The EN / CS / EN + CS switch changes only the language of the descriptions, markers, legend and result sentence. The dates, states and result stay the same. The large names of the functions always stand as a pair: the English one on the Polish side, the Czech one on the Czech side. The Czech texts are an editorial translation that needs checking.

What changed relative to V2

  • The crossing planner was removed. The number of crossings of the bridge depended on the order of the walk, not on history, and said nothing about institutions. It was replaced with nothing; instead the main relation is the state of both sides in a single year.
  • The notebook kept in the browser’s memory was removed. The page saves nothing.
  • The two era buttons were replaced with a continuous year. The order of the banks was kept as the “Swap sides” button.
  • The photograph of the railway bridge from Wikimedia Commons is not embedded (the page works without external resources); the link is in the sources.

What the page does not do

  • It is not a map or a walking route and says nothing about the present-day accessibility of bridges or crossings.
  • It does not judge which side developed better.
  • It does not settle dates from outside the material, historical names or translations; these need checking by someone who knows the sources.

Sources

The links come from V1 and V2. In this run they were neither opened nor checked; the dates and descriptions taken from them are not confirmed here.

  1. J. Spyra, „Okres międzywojenny 1918–1945” [The interwar period, 1918–1945] — City of Cieszyn website: the division, the new town hall and hospital, the connection with Upper Silesia.
  2. J. Spyra, „Cieszyn’s Built Environment” — Visit Cieszyn: the development of the market square, the station and the tram between the banks.
  3. J. Spyra, „Okres konstytucyjny” [The constitutional period] — City of Cieszyn website: the Evangelical hospital founded in 1892 and its takeover in 1903.
  4. Photograph, not embedded: Most graniczny kolejowy w Cieszynie [The railway border bridge in Cieszyn], Wikimedia Commons. According to the description in V2: Marian Siedlaczek, 31 January 2008, CC BY-SA 3.0. Authorship and licence must be checked on the file page before any use.

The schematics (the pair of sides, the timeline, the bars) are the author’s own V3 illustrations built from the entries above; they contain no photographs, maps or archival quotations.