Astronomy has a long tradition in Hradec Králové, dating back to the 14th century, when a Latin or grammar school was founded here, teaching, among other things, natural sciences and astronomy and served as a preparation for university studies. Two eminent figures of astronomy in the region went to this school – Master Iohannes Schindel (1370-1443), rector of Charles University and author of the Prague astronomical clock, and Cyprián Lvovický of Lvovice (1514--1574), astronomer and personal astrologer of Emperor Maximilian II. The tradition of local stargazers has been preserved in the region until modern times. When the Czech Astronomical Society was founded at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, having finally been established in 1917, the Hradec Králové branch had the most members both among amateurs and professionals and created its own Astronomical Society in Hradec Králové. One of the tasks of the society was to build a public observatory where professional and amateur astronomers could observe the sky and educate the public in the increasingly popular field of astronomy. Due to financial and real estate difficulties, the public observatory could not be built, so the inhabitants of Hradec at first observed the stars through telescopes placed on the roofs of the so-called Masaryk Schools in the town. The observatory could not be built before the Second World War, but right after the war the Hradec Králové Astronomical Society started to raise funds and in 1947 the foundation stone of the new observatory was laid. In 1955 the building was completed and opened to the public. Since then it has served the public and today it is used for scientific observations as well as popular lectures and sky observations for the public and for school groups. The observatory provides the public with an astronomy club, a digital planetarium and several educational trails on the observatory premises.
