A crystal dragon accompanies the glass festival

This year, the glass show is newly announced by a mythical animal. A dragon spewing fire, with which it melts its own glittering tail. It can be seen on the wall of one of the houses in Liberec's Františkovská Street in the form of a large-scale circular painting. It has a diameter of about 11 metres, its creators Jiří Hořavka and Ondřej Beneš used 120 coloured sprays to colour almost 100 square metres of the area.

"Mural art is common not only abroad, but also in many cities in the Czech Republic. In addition, we want the Crystal Valley to be seen in different forms and in different places. And glass is so artistically interesting that it offers a great space for the imagination of the creators", says Květa Vinklátová, Deputy Minister for Culture, Heritage Care and Tourism of the Liberec Region.

"In our opinion, the creator of the very good visual is the Liberec studio __STROY." Says David Pastva, director of the Crystal Valley project. Visitors to Liberec can admire the dragon on the wall of the former grinding plant from April. "We were thrilled with the dragon theme, it exactly meets our ideas. I am also very pleased that the dragon mural is being realized in cooperation with Preciosa."

"We were looking for a theme that resonates the fact that glassmaking is historically inseparable from the Liberec region and the whole Crystal Valley project is also about giving this beautiful craft a future." says one of the creators of the dragon Jiří Hořavka. "I originally thought of a snake, but the dragon is ideal. It's about the fire it carries. It's a clear symbolism of rebirth. Just as he will melt his own tail on the wall here with his own fire, so glassblowers repeatedly melt glass shards to create a new fragile beauty.

And at the same time, it's also about the history of the glassmaking craft that was, is, and we want to see remain in the Crystal Valley into the future."