Samuel Fritz
Father Samuel Fritz was born in 1654. Trutnov is mentioned as the place of his birth, due to his study registration as Boemus Trauttnoviensis, translates “a native of Trutnov”. By today's standards he could be called a traveller or a cartographer. However, his life was led by faith. He is often described as one of the most successful missionaries of the Society of Jesus in South America, where he spread Christianity among the Native American tribes.
He was one of the first Europeans to explore the entire Amazon River to the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean, creating the first accurate and detailed map of the world's largest river in 1691, published in Quito in 1707. It was the first map to capture the geographical form of the Amazon Basin, the length of the river Amazon from the source to the mouth and the number of its tributaries. Unfortunately, Samuel Franz never returned home - he died at the Jéberos mission station on March 20, 1725.
One of the streets in Trutnov Central Suburbs was named after Fritz in 1997. On August 9, 2000, his greatest legacy - the creation of the first detailed map of the Amazon River - has been commemorated with a plaque decorated by a stone from the Peruvian settlement of Jéberos, where Father Samuel Fritz spent the last period of his full life. This plaque is located on the facade of the city library building in Trutnov Krakonoš Square and was ceremoniously unveiled by the town mayor Mgr. Ivan Adamec in the presence of Karel Otčenášek the Archbishop Emeritus of Hradec Králové, the priest Vladimír Janouch - a representative of the Jesuit order, and with the participation of city representatives and the public. The second memorial plaque of the same appearance, dedicated to Father Fritz, is located on a rock block at the Lake Lauricocha, where the Amazon tributary Marañon springs. The statue was unveiled to its founder, Samuel Fritz, by the Peruvian city of Yurimaguas in 2017
(see T. Nídra's article https://reportermagazin.cz/a/psN5p/amazonan-ztrutnova).
