Explore the The Equestrian Statue of Jan Žižka of Trocnov of this artwork, National Monument at Vítkov.
After the World War I, the activities of the Association for the Construction of Jan Žižka's Monument in Žižkov were renewed. As early as June 1920 the cornerstone was laid in the presence of President T. G. Masaryk. Art tenders were held in 1923, 1925 and 1928, with no satisfactory results.
The monument was eventually commissioned in 1931 from sculptor Bohumil Kafka, a professor at Prague's Academy of Visual Arts, outside the tender. The sculpture was intended to be monumental and realistic. It took Kafka ten years to complete the sculpture, and an advisory board of nine people was established to supervise his work, consisting of specialists, historians and hippologists. For this job, Bohumil Kafka had a new studio built in Ořechovka, Prague, 27m high and 18m wide. Firstly he began work on model of a horse without the rider. Several men then modelled for the rider part, conceiving the rider's position, body and head. Experts in historical armament provided information not only on the rider's clothing style, but also many other details, such as the design of the foot frame. Kafka made a plaster model of Žižka's statue in November 1941 and died shortly afterwards.
The sculpture was cast after the liberation of the country at the end of World War II. It was unveiled on 14 July 1950, to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Vítkov. It is tethered to reinforced concrete plugs anchored in the structure of the Monument. The sculpture is 9 metres (30 ft) high, 9.6 metres (31 ft) long, and weighs 16.5 tonnes (16.2 long tons; 18.2 short tons).
plaster Žižkov Jan Žižka World War II T. G. Masaryk Prague World War I reinforced concrete sculpture hippologists Bohumil Kafka