8. Our region and My Hometown

Our region and my hometown

THE REGION WHERE I LIVE

Moravian-Silesian Region is an administrative unit of the Czech Republic, located in the north-eastern part of its historical region of Moravia and in most of the Czech part of the historical region of Silesia. The region borders the Olomouc Region (to the west) and Zlín Region (to the south). It also borders two other countries - Poland to the north and Slovakia to the east.

It is a very industrial region, which was called the "Steel Heart of the Country" in the communist era, for its prevalence of heavy industry, especially steel works. Since the fall of communism these industries have been in decline and the region suffers from high unemployment. There are, however, several mountainous areas in which the landscape has preserved its natural character. Nowadays, the region benefits from its location on the boundaries with two other Central European countries, Poland and Slovakia.

GEOGRAPHY:

The geography of the region varies considerably and comprises many types of landscape from lowlands, to high mountains.

In the west lie the Hrubý Jeseník mountains (sometimes named just Jeseníky), with the highest mountain of the region (and all Moravia), Praděd (1491 m). The mountains are heavily forested, with a lot of spectacular places and famous spas (Karlova Studánka, Jeseník) and are therefore very popular with tourists. There are also several ski resorts (e.g. Červenohorské sedlo, Ovčárna) with long-lasting snow cover. The Hrubý Jeseník mountains slowly merge into the rolling hills of Nízký Jeseník and Oderské vrchy.

To the east, the landscape gradually descends into the Moravian Gate (Moravská brána) valley with the Bečva and Odra rivers. The former flows to the south-west, the latter to the north-east, where the terrain spreads into the flat Ostrava and Opava basins (Ostravská a Opavská pánev), where most of the population lives. The region's heavy industry (which has been in decline for the last decade) is located there too, benefiting from huge deposits of hard coal.

To the south-east, towards the Slovakian border, the landscape sharply rises into the Moravskoslezské Beskydy mountains (often referred to just as Beskydy), with its highest mountain Lysá hora (i.e. Bald Mountain) at 1323 m, which is considered to be the place with the highest annual rainfall in the Czech Republic (around 1500 mm). The mountains are heavily forested and serve as a holiday resort (e.g. Pustevny, Bílá) for the industrial north.

NATURE CONSERVATION:

There are three large Landscape Protected Areas (Chráněné krajinné oblasti, CHKO – Jeseníky, Poodří and Beskydy = the largest Czech CHKO) and a number of smaller nature reserves in the region. Countryside more affected by humans, yet still scenic is protected in five Nature Parks (Přírodní parky).

There are altogether 125 small protected nature areas covering an area of 52 km². The most notable of them is the lime Cave of Šipka (Jeskyně Šipka) near Štramberk, where remnants of a Neanderthal man were discovered in the late nineteenth century.