The Hus Monument unveiled

2008

The Jan Hus Memorial on Old Town Square, Šaloun's bronze group Place: Old Town Square, in front of Týn Church Figures: Ladislav Šaloun, sculptor · Antonín Pfeiffer, architect of the base · the silent crowd · the Austrian authorities, preferring no ceremony Ladislav Šaloun wins the commission in 1900, the year after Masaryk's intervention in the Hilsner affair has made the Hus anniversary into politics. The funding is raised by public subscription across fifteen years. The monument is twenty-five meters wide and ten meters high at its tallest figure: a standing Hus at the center, robe falling vertically, gaze level. Around the base, three groups in bronze: Hussite warriors on the left, exiles after White Mountain on the right, a young mother holding her child at the front. An inscription on the base reads Milujte se, pravdy každému přejte. It is in the secessionist mode, monumental and asymmetrical, far from the academic neoclassicism the Austrian establishment prefers. The bronze is cast in Prague. By the summer of 1915, the Habsburg empire is at war and Bohemia is restive; Czech regiments are surrendering to Russians in batches. The subject dates from 1915; this photograph was taken in 2008.