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PanoramaPanorama
In Panorama this week – military history buffs invited to take their pick
from Warsaw Pact era equipment and facilities. Will Karlovy Vary get a
life-size statue of Peter the Great? And why producing a stuffed elephant
can be a tall order. More
Current AffairsWoodrow Wilson statue returns to Prague after 70 years
On Wednesday October 5th, history came round full circle in Prague as a
bronze statue of US President Woodrow Wilson was unveiled outside the
city’s Main Railway Station. The original 3.5 metre tall monument by
Czech-American sculptor Albín Polášek was funded by Americans of Czech
and Slovak descent and erected on 4th July 1928. It was pulled down by the
Nazis 70 years ago and a restored copy has just been re-erected by the
non-profit organization The American Friends of the Czech Republic. More
SpecialA tale of two brothers, and the building of a nation
For the occasion of September 28, I’m here at a place that some people
actually call the real centre of the Czech Republic. Not the geographic
centre to be sure, but certainly the focal point for much of the Czech
Republic’s rocky modern-day history. It’s a statue of a man on a horse
(which people call ‘the horse’ when they arrange one of the hundreds of
meetings that take place here each day). But it’s of course the man on
the horse that has overseen everything over the last hundred years from the
declaration of Czechoslovak independence to the various political
demonstrations that gravitate here today. Above me is of course Saint
Václav, or Wenceslas, from which the surrounding square takes its name,
and his likeness has adorned this place for at least three hundred years,
in different incarnations. Legend has it that when worse comes to worst for
the Czech lands he will come un-petrified, and ride away to quash their
enemies – a disconcerting prophesy when one considers the parades of
Nazis and Communists that the statue saw come and go. But even in that,
there is a good point to be made: this symbol of Czech statehood is
indomitable; the legacy of St. Václav rides on through the ages, now for
about the 1,076th year. More
Current AffairsNew sculpture by leading Czech artist pays tribute to Prague suicide victims
For decades, most Prague residents would automatically associate the tall
Nusle Bridge, which connects a motorway with the city center, with the
suicides that occurred there. Some 300 people are said to have jumped to
their death from it. Now, a leading Czech artist has installed an unusual
work right under the bridge, which towers over a park in the city’s Nusle
neighborhood. The sculpture is meant as a reminder of those who lost their
life there. More
ArtsExhibition at Prague Castle looks at remarkable life of forgotten Czech ‘Futurist’ Růžena Zátková
Last week saw the opening of a new exhibition at Prague Castle, Růžena:
The Story of a Painter, focusing on the life and work of the remarkable
early 20th century Czech artist Růžena Zátková, forgotten for years in
her homeland. Born to a well-to-do south Bohemian family in 1885, she along
with her sister, most unusually for the period was encouraged by her
parents to develop talents in the arts, and she pursued these in earnest in
both music and painting after the family moved to Prague. More
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