Orlová

Orlová is a town in the Karviná District of the Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic, about nine kilometres east of Ostrava in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia. It lies in the Ostrava Basin at the confluence of two streams, the Rychvaldská Stružka and the Petřvaldská Stružka, and has about 27,000 inhabitants. The name is most probably derived from a personal Slavic name meaning eagle, and a local legend ties the founding of the settlement to an eagle that frightened Duke Mieszko IV Tanglefoot and his wife during a hunt. The first written mention dates from 1223. For centuries the place was mainly agricultural, but from the first coal mining attempts in 1817 and the opening of the mines after 1844 it grew rapidly, and the Košice-Bohumín Railway reached it in 1868. It was promoted to a town in 1922. Coal mining badly damaged the town, especially the district of Lazy, and in the 21st century Orlová faces unemployment and structural problems; it has ranked last in the Czech Quality of Life Index since 2018. Its best-known landmark is the neo-Gothic Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, built in 1903-1906.