Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ant, slot-faced babies crawling all over a TV transmitter tower - something to do
with consumerism and the media. We think.
your head up a statue's backside and watch a video of the Czech president and
the director of the National Gallery feeding each other baby food.
ná, Malá Strana. Two guys pissing in a puddle (whose irregular outline, you'll no-
tice, is actually the map outline of the Czech Republic) and spelling out famous
quotations from Czech literature with their pee. (Yes, the sculpture moves! It's
computer controlled.)
Sculpture
Public sculpture has always played a prominent role in Prague, from the baroque
saints that line the parapets of Charles Bridge to the monumental statue of Stalin that
once faced the Old Town from atop Letná Hill. More often than not, that role has been
a political one.
In the baroque era, religious sculptures sprouted in public places; they included
'Marian columns' erected in gratitude to the Virgin Mary for protection against the
plague or victory over anti-Catholic enemies. One such Marian column stood in the
Old Town Square from 1650 until 1918. The placing of the statue of St John of Ne-
pomuk on Charles Bridge in 1683 was a conscious act of propaganda designed to cre-
ate a new - and Catholic - Czech national hero who would displace the Protestant re-
former Jan Hus. As such, it was successful. John of Nepomuk was canonised in 1729
and the Nepomuk legend, invented by the Jesuits, has passed into the collective
memory.
The period of the Czech National Revival saw Prague sculpture take a different
tack - to raise public awareness of Czech traditions and culture. One of the most pro-
lific sculptors of this period was Josef Václav Myslbek, whose famous statue of St
Wenceslas, the Czech patron saint, dominates the upper end of Wenceslas Square.
The art nouveau sculptor Ladislav Šaloun was responsible for one of Prague's most
iconic sculptures, the monument to Jan Hus that was unveiled in the Old Town Square
in 1915 (to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Hus being burned at the stake).
