In Marian column (Prague), how is the Destruction discussed?
In 1915, the Jan Hus Memorial, sculpted by Ladislav Šaloun, was erected in the square. Hus was the founder of the Hussites, a pre-Protestant religious reform movement, who was executed by the Catholic Church for heresy. The construction of this memorial was considered to show the shifting attitudes of Prague, which increasing shifted away from the Catholic Church.
In autumn of 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was close to defeat and about to be dismantled and Czechoslovakia declared independent. In this context, on 3 November 1918, the column, considered a symbol of the monarchy and Catholicism, was torn down.The Czechoslovak official press accepted the demolition of the column with understanding, but most of the important political figures of the First Republic did not publicly support its destruction, though they expressed understanding in private. Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who learned about the demolition of the column in England, stated that "when the people of Prague removed the statue, I was glad because the statue was a political disgrace for us".The remaining parts of the column were removed on the night of 18–19 December 1918 and taken to the courtyard of the Church of St. Anna in the Old Town. Fragments of the statue of the Virgin Mary, the four sculptures with angels, and the stone railings were stored in the Prague Lapidarium at Výstaviště Praha. The broken head of the Virgin Mary was found in 1957 in an antique shop on Národní třída. It was bought by the National Museum and also placed in the lapidarium. An almost identical statue of the Virgin Mary by Bendel, created in 1673, is located on the Marian Column in Louny.
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Národní třída Marian Column Czechoslovakia Prague Lapidarium Výstaviště Praha Catholic Church Hussites Old Town Ladislav Šaloun Louny Virgin Mary Prague Jan Hus Memorial