Elisabeth de Kleer
The Hell of Mořina: Mexico Quarry Memorial
Memorial to political prisoners held at the Mořina limestone quarries, specifically the "Mexico" (Trestný) quarry, between 1949 and 1953. Following the 1948 Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, this site became a forced labor camp (TNP) for "class enemies."
Prisoners endured brutal conditions: extreme physical labor, minimal food, and lack of medical care. The "Mexico" quarry earned its name because it was considered a "land where law does not reach," notorious for the sadism of guards and the high mortality rate from exhaustion or mining accidents. The sculpture’s barred window represents the prison cell, looking out over the site of their enslavement. The nearby "Contaminated Tunnel" refers to a separate Cold War era legacy—a secret underground military command post built within the quarry system, rumored to have been intended as a fallout shelter for Communist elites or a storage site for hazardous materials.