Kobylisy Shooting Range

Kobylisy Shooting Range (Czech: Kobyliská střelnice) is a former military shooting range located in Kobylisy, a northern suburb of Prague, Czech Republic.

Kobylisy Shooting Range
Part of Heydrichiáda [cs], German occupation of Czechoslovakia
Memorial cross and sculpture by Miloš Zet
Native nameKobyliská střelnice
LocationKobylisy, Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Coordinates50°7′54″N 14°27′47″E / 50.13167°N 14.46306°E / 50.13167; 14.46306
DateMay 30, 1942 (1942-05-30)-
July 3, 1942 (1942-07-03)
TargetCzech resistance to Nazi occupation
Attack type
Mass executions
Deaths550
Victims
PerpetratorsKarl Hermann Frank
MotiveRevenge for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
Close-up of memorial plaques with names of the victims.

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 (and, later, Czechoslovak) army. During the Nazi occupation it was used for mass executions as part of retaliatory measures against the Czech people after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich 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 in Strašnice Crematorium.

The site was converted to a memorial after World War II, and its current dimensions date to the 1970s when the large paneláks (Communist-era tower blocks) of a new housing estate 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 Kobylisy or Ládví metro stations.

Notable victims

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50°07′54″N 14°27′47″E / 50.13167°N 14.46306°E / 50.13167; 14.46306