Giant Animals as Climbing Frames are Yet Another Work of Matěj Hájek. It´s Pecka!
Deer antlers as a toboggan
The unique project designated for children was ceremoniously opened up on 21. July at the upper cableway in Pec pod Sněžkou. It is made up of luxury wooden climbing frames in the form of animals, such as you could actually come across in Krkonoše Mountains; in larger than life size! You can find here a nine-metre adder, you can speed through antlers of a fallen deer like on a toboggan. You can learn something of the bird empire at a height of 5 metres above ground, when under the leaf canopy you can walk through their huge nests.
The aim of the project is to get kids to come out, get them to enjoy and appreciate nature. The oversize wooden animals should help children to realise their existence.
Pecka connects Krkonoše Mountains from two sides
Pec stands for Pec pod Sněžkou and Ka for Karpacz - a town on the Polish side of Krkonoše Mountains. Linked together makes up ´Pecka´. (Transl. Note: one of the meanings of the word in Czech is ´fantastic´). The entire project cost 45 million crowns, of which 32 million came from a subsidy for Pec pod Sněžkou from the programme Interreg ČeskoPolsko.
Matěj Hájek, who cooperated with architect Tereza Kučerová from the atelier Molo architects (they worked together to design the Bororo park project in Prague ZOO) had made the design as far back as in 2016.
"It's a playground, it´s work of art, and perhaps more. It is alright when there are no borderlines."
The huge animals have wooden and steel constructions and by their finish and material used they blend in with the Krkonoše countryside quite naturally. Inspiration for this creation of the designer duo was British biologist and author of 1,627 BBC-produced documents, David Attenborough.
From Velká Úpa you can get access by cableway or you can follow the path of mountain carriers. You can get back by hiring a scooter and luxuriously speed down the hill.
