If you enter Čechovy sady/Čech gardens from the pedestrian overpass at the southern end, you’ll probably have noticed a tall monument with a bright red star at its peak. It’s a monument to the liberating soldiers of the Russian army and four of them lay buried at its base. Constructed in June of 1945, the monument was the first of its kind to be built in the Czech lands after the end of the Second World War. Čechovy sady is of a much less formal layout than Smetanovy sady. The paths are paved, but wind and meander. There is one long path running the entire length of the gardens (from Wolkerova to Palackého) that is divided in two to also serve as a bicycle trail. The rest of the paths seem as if they’ve been placed according to where people have taken short cuts across the park, from the historic centre to the so called Vilové čtvrť/Villa Quarter. If Moravia were an independent land and Olomouc was the capital, the villa quarter is where all the foreign embassies would be; in the grand free standing houses with their richly decorated art nouveau and neo-gothic facades.
The largest clear area of the park is home to a graceful bronze statue of Božena Němcova, whose face you may recognise from the Czech 500 crown banknote. Ms Němcova was a writer and leading figure of the National Revival movement of the first half of the 19th century, which endeavoured to raise the level of Czech language and culture within the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire. Her many fairy tales and novel ‘Grandmother’, telling of an idyllic childhood in eastern Bohemia, are among the best-known pieces of Czech literature. Being the only structure within sight, it’s also a natural landmark and meeting place. If you’re going to meet someone in the park for a hit of badminton or to play a few rounds of petanque, U Boženy (by Božena) would be the most likely place.
Sheltered by a ring of shrubs towards the northern end of the park is a children’s playground, with the old fashioned metal water-pipe swings and climbing equipment. The playground is mostly intended for children but those who are older but young of heart may also be tempted to ride the see saw or the spring-mounted horses. Among the shrubbery are also some inaccessible mostly-underground concrete structures, which I believe are (now disused) bomb shelters from the time of cold-war.
At the very northern end of the park you might leave through the Litovel gate, one of the former city gates which was moved from its original location on nearby Náměstí Hrdinů in 1898. The stone gate was restored in 2004 and its pair of Moravian eagles now again have sharp enough eyes to keep watch over those entering and leaving the park.