The Hamza park and arboretum

Near the picturesque Košumberk hill with the ruins of the castle is the Hamza Arboretum and Park, founded more than a century ago, which includes a unique collection of trees and plants and serves the public and patients of the hospital for relaxation and education. There is also a medical museum open to the public in the adjacent Hamza Hospital.

The local park and arboretum was founded by the eminent physician František Hamza M.D. (1868─1930) at the beginning of the 20th century as part of a hospital for tubercular and scrofulous children. Hamza was an important figure not only in the Chrudim region. This energetic doctor first came to Luž near Chrudim in 1897 as a general practitioner and soon began building a sanatorium for the then widespread and difficult-to-treat tuberculosis. In 1901, the first building of the sanatorium was opened and others gradually followed. In 1905 he co-initiated the establishment of the first Czech anti-cancer society and in 1908 he also founded a local orphanage. In his hospital, he developed a, for his time very modern, dietary and exercise programme and laid the theoretical foundations of occupational therapy, which later became an independent field thanks to his work. Gradually he became a very popular and well-known figure and began to work on the development of social medicine in the new Czechoslovak Republic. With the support of President T. G. Masaryk, he founded the then very successful Masaryk League Against Tuberculosis and also co-founded the Masaryk Institute of Oncology. In addition to his medical and social work, he was also an avid dendrologist and lover of flowers. Next to his sanatorium he built a spacious park with an arboretum to serve his patients in movement therapy. He had the park planted with rare trees from different parts of the world and established a small botanical garden. In the garden there are several nature trails and information on individual trees according to their place of origin, as well as an outdoor natural history classroom and thematic areas such as the miniature garden, the quiet world of bark and Miss Dior's garden. The premises of the hospital also include a medical museum, which preserves original objects from the history of the hospital and Hamza's life and shows the history of medicine and treatment of tuberculosis in our country.

SKÁLOVÁ, M.: Hamzova dětská léčebna 1901─1961. Diplomová práce. Univerzita Pardubice: Filozofická fakulta, 2011.

 

LINHARTOVÁ, V.: Prof. MUDr. František Hamza ─ lékař a pedagog. Universitas. Revue Masarykovy Univerzity v Brně, 41/2008, č. 4, s. 3─11. 

(Author: www.hamzuv-park.cz)