Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
PRAGUE'S PASÁŽE
Prague has an impressive array of old
shopping arcades
, or
pasáže
as they're known in
Czech, the majority of which are located in and around Wenceslas Square and date from
the first half of the twentieth century. Compared with the chic
passages
off the Champs-
Élysées,Prague's
pasáže
offermoremodestpleasures:afewshops,theoddcaféand,more
often than not, a cinema. The king of the lot is the lavishly decorated
Lucerna
pasáž
at
the Palác Lucerna, which stretches all the way from Štěpánská to Vodičkova and contains
an equally ornate cinema, café and concert hall. You can continue your indoor stroll on the
other side of Vodičkova through the
Světozor
pasáž
, which boasts another cinema, and a
wonderful stained-glass mosaic advertising the oldCommunist electronics company Tesla.
The Wenceslas Monument
Metro Muzeum
A statue of
St Wenceslas
has stood at the top of the square since 1680, but the present
Wenceslas Monument
, by the father of Czech sculpture, Josef Václav Myslbek, was only
unveiled in 1912, after thirty years on the drawing board. It's worthy and heroic but pretty
unexciting,withtheCzechpatronsaintsittingresolutelyastridehismightysteed,surrounded
by smaller-scale representations of four other Bohemian saints - his mother Ludmila, Pro-
copius, Adalbert and Agnes - added in the 1920s.
In1918,1948,1968andagainin1989,themonumentwasusedasanationalpoliticalnotice
board, festooned in posters, flags and slogans, and even now it remains the city's favourite
soapboxvenue(mostrecentlyusedbyPrague'sUkrainiancommunityduringtheEuromaidan
revolution of 2014).
OnOctober 28,1939,during the demonstrations here against the Nazi occupation, the med-
ical student
Jan Opletal
was shot when troops opened fire on protesters. Two of Prague's
most famous martyrs were fatally wounded close by. On January 16, 1969, the 21-year-old
philosophystudent
JanPalach
sethimselfalightinprotestagainstthecontinuingoccupation
of his country by the Soviets; he died from his injuries three days later.
Jan Zajíc
followed
Palach's example on February 25, the twenty-first anniversary of the Communist coup. At-
tempts to lay flowers on this spot on the anniversary of Palach's protest provided an annual
sourceofconfrontationwiththeCommunistauthorities;VáclavHavelreceivedthelastofhis
many prison sentences for just such an action in January 1989. A simple memorial to
obětem
komunismu
(the victims of Communism), adorned with flowers, lies close to the monument.
Twomoundsofcobblestones,andacrosssetintothepavementoutsidetheNárodnímuzeum,
mark where Palach and Zajíc ended their lives.
