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AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE IRON CURTAIN
The material
A changing landscape
My guide David, an official guide at the Podyji National Park, knows the
area like the back of his hand. He is now in his mid-30s and since the age of
11 he lived just within the second forbidden zone as his stepfather was a
forest ranger managing the woodlands in what is now the Podyji National
Park. He takes me to areas that would normally be closed to the public as
the woodland is particular sensitive here and to places so well hidden I
would never have found them on my own. We talk as we travel around in
the park and I ask him about the former border guards but he tells me that
he knows nothing about them. They lived separate lives and he only saw
them when they came into Vranov nad Dyji to go to a bar on their days off.
He shows me patrol paths, a small soldiers hut in what seems like the
middle of nowhere, 19 th century monuments that have been restored after
years of neglect or even vandalism during the Cold War period and border
guard stations where soldiers worked, trained, ate, slept and spent their time
off trying to entertain themselves until their two years of service was
finished. For days we go around the park and although he claims not to
know anything of the soldiers that once controlled this area he shows me
their history through the traces they have left behind. It is only after a few
days he tells me that he as a child with some of his friends visited the
Hájenka border guard station a few times. For a young boy there was
something exciting about soldiers and the border guards were bored and
appreciated the visits from the local children. I ask him what it used to look
like and what the soldiers were doing but he says that he does not
remember. We walk around the border guard station and he stumbles
across materials that are barely visible anymore, such as two cement blocks
decorated with yellow dogs, the symbol of the border guard (Figure 60).
Although the paint has peeled in places, the yellow colour of the dogs is still
vibrant and show little evidence of having spent 20 years slowly
disappearing into nature. The cement blocks, which were part of a larger
display arrangement, are tilted so that the pictures could be better seen.
Between the two cement blocks are several other cement blocks with holes
in the middle to support poles of sorts. It is easy to imagine the two bright
paintings of the dogs flanking a sign displaying either the name of the
station itself or a socialistic slogan to reinforce the importance of the border
guards themselves. Placed opposite the main entrance to the border guard
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