In front of the museum in Uherský Brod there is a remarkable statue of the important theologian, philosopher and educator John Amos Comenius (1592-1670). Important impulses for Comenius`s pedagogical work, as well as his holistic pansophic and cosmological understanding of the world, came primarily from his study of nature and the natural sciences.

John Amos Comenius grew up in Uherský Brod and went to school here. His parents died when he was twelve and he went to live with his aunt in Strážnice. Comenius studied Latin grammar school in Přerov and from 1611 theology in Hebron and in Heidelberg. He was the headmaster of the school in Přerov and after his ordination to the priesthood in 1616 he headed the congregation of the Unity of the Bohemian Brethren in Fulnek. After the distressing years of the Bohemian Revolt and the following expulsion of all Protestant preachers from Bohemia and Moravia, Comenius left in 1628 for Leszno in Poland, where he stayed (although he was often on the road during this period) until 1656, when the town burned down. He then took refuge in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he died on 15 November 1670.

Uherský Brod is one of the possible places - next to Nivnice and Komňa, of John Amos Comenius`s birth. Today, however, it is considered most likely to be Nivnice. The local John Amos Comenius Museum has become one of the most important centres of Comenius studies not only in Bohemia and Moravia, but also abroad, thanks to the extraordinary commitment of prominent experts working here since the 1970s and 1980s. And it was in front of this museum that a bronze statue of John Amos Comenius was unveiled on 21 October 1956. This larger-than-life statue stands on a massive pedestal and was created by the prominent Czech sculptor Vincenc Makovský.

Connected places: John Amos Comenius
John Amos Comenius Museum in Uherský Brod
Monument to John Amos Comenius in NivniceJan Amos Komenský; Muzeum Jana Amose Komenského v Uherském Brodě; Pomník Jana Amose Komenského v Nivnici

Keywords: astronomy; physics; cartography; naturfilosofie [natural philosophy]; pansophism; cosmology; Vincenc Makovský; Museum of John Amos Comenius

Kraus, I.: Fyzika. In: Kraus, I. a kol.: Věda v českých zemích. Dějiny fyziky, geografie, geologie, chemie a matematiky. Praha 2019, s. 21–113, zde 33–36.

Statue of John Amos Comenius in Uherský Brod