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Writer's pictureI Love Praag

Wenceslas Square, the most famous square in Prague

Wenceslas Square Czech: Václavské náměstí is a square or rather a boulevard in the center of the Czech capital Prague. Since 1848, the square has been named after Saint Wenceslaus. The square was originally created to accommodate a horse market. With a length of 750 meters, Wenceslas Square is one of the largest in Europe. The Velvet Revolution took place on this square in 1989. This revolution also marked the end of the communist era.

Measuring 750 by 60 meters, Wenceslaus Square is more of a boulevard than a square. The square rises slowly from the northeast to the southwest. The National Museum is located on the southeast side. In front of the museum is a statue of Saint Wenceslaus on horseback. On the other side of the square is the Maria Snow Church.

Line A of the Prague Metro runs under Wenceslas Square. The city's two busiest metro stations, Muzeum and Můstek, are located on the square. The square also contains the plaque in memory of Jan Palach, the student who set fire to himself in the square in 1969 in protest against the lack of democracy in the then communist Czech Republic.


Wenceslaus

Wenceslaus the Saint circa. 905 – Stará Boleslav 28 September 929 or 935) was Duke of Bohemia and is a saint of the Catholic Church.

He was born in 903, 908 or 910 (the exact year is not known) as the son of Vratislav I of Bohemia. His grandmother, Saint Ludmila, raised him in a Christian way. After the death of Wenceslaus' father, his pagan mother Drahomíra became regent of the duchy. She led an antichristian reign. The Bohemian people begged Wenceslaus to take power. He did so around 925 and placed the duchy under the protection of the German Empire. Under his authority, the Church in Bohemia no longer celebrated the liturgy in Byzantine, but in Latin. Wenceslaus was a pious and virtuous man. His love of the Eucharist seemed to be legendary: it was said that he himself sowed the wheat for wafers and pressed the grapes for the sacramental wine himself. Wenceslaus had taken a vow of virginity.

In a conspiracy of his mother and his brother Boleslav, he was killed on September 28, 935. His body was dismembered and buried at the place of the murder. His brother succeeded him as Boleslav I but, repenting of his crime, put on the sackcloth and ordered his brother's relics transferred to St. Vitus Church in Prague.

Wenceslaus is still seen as the patron saint of Bohemia and the Czech Republic. He is still commemorated annually on September 28.


Velvet revolution

The velvet revolution refers to the political upheaval that took place in Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1989. I personally like to know that the Czech Republic became independent just around the time I was born. The communist regime was overthrown without military action. This revolution took place due to, among other things, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the election of the non-communist Tadeusz Mazowiecki as Prime Minister of Poland. The fact that this revolution took place without violence was due to the refusal of Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev to send troops to Prague.

On November 17, 1989, 15,000 students held a peaceful memorial march in Prague for Jan Opletal. Opletal was shot by the Nazis on October 28, 1939 during a student demonstration against the German occupation and died a few weeks later. He thus became the symbol for later student uprisings.

During this march, they were stopped by riot police and beaten with batons, despite the fact that they had declared their peaceful intentions. There were protests against this display of force by the police, which demanded in particular a dialogue with the communist party about democracy, freedom and human rights. On November 20, 1989, the students once again took to the streets en masse. The Civic Forum was founded by writer Václav Havel and economist Václav Klaus, who intended to organize the protest. Strike committees were set up in factories, hospitals, offices and schools. Demonstrations were therefore not absent, but were neatly held after the working day.

On November 24, 1989, Alexander Dubček (who wanted to lead the country towards reforms as early as 1968 during the Prague Spring), Cardinal František Tomášek and Václav Havel delivered speeches on the balcony of the Socialist Party newspaper 'Svobodné Slovo' on Wenceslas Square. They were supported by an action in which hundreds of thousands of people jingled their keys. Mass demonstrations followed, and a general strike broke out, paralyzing the country. The government succumbed to this pressure and talks began between Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec and the Civic Forum. The talks led to a new government, which was appointed on 10 December by President Gustáv Husák (already in power since the end of the Prague Spring in 1968). The same day, Husák tendered his resignation, and on December 29, Havel was elected by parliament as the new president of Czechoslovakia at a ceremony held in the Coronation Hall in Prague Castle.

The Velvet Revolution was over. In the subsequent elections in June 1990, the Civic Forum officially gained the confidence of the people.


National Museum

The Czech National Museum: Národní muzeum is the most important and best-known museum in the Czech Republic. The main building is located on Wenceslas Square in Prague's New Town. It was founded in the year 1818 by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg with the cooperation of František Palacký. Today, the National Museum has a collection of 14 million objects, spread over dozens of buildings.

The museum was founded on April 15, 1818, as Vlastenecké muzeum v Čechách What means in the Dutch National Museum in Bohemia. In 1848 this name was changed to České muzeum which in Dutch means Czech Museum and in 1854 the Muzeum was called Království českého which in Dutch means Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia.


The main building on Wenceslas Square was designed by the Czech architect Josef Schulz. Construction took place from 1885 to 1891. Before that time, the museum had always been temporarily housed in various palaces. Now that there was a permanent building, the purpose of the museum became to collect new materials. Initially, the goal was to preserve the current collection.

During the Second World War, the building was destroyed in a bombing raid, but the collections were preserved by being temporarily moved to other storage areas. The museum reopened its doors after intensive restoration work in the year 1947.

During the Prague Spring in 1968, the facade was severely damaged. The loopholes that were caused were repaired in the 1970s to 1972, but remained visible because the restorers used a lighter form of sandstone. The main building was also damaged during the construction of the Prague Metro in 1972 and 1978.


The collection consists of different types of objects and themes, namely:

  • Prehistory

  • Archaeology

  • Ethnography

  • Coins

  • Theater


Mary Snow Church

The Maria Snow Church or in Czech: Kostel Panny Marie Sněžné is the church on Wenceslas Square, a church built entirely in Gothic style.

Even before Wenceslaus Square was built, there was already a Carmelite monastery on the location of the current church. The foundation stone was laid by Charles IV in September 1347 as a memento of his coronation as king the year before. The name of this monastery was the Maria Snow Monastery Klášter Panny Marie Sněžné and the building still bears that name. In 1379, construction probably started on a three-nave basilica, which, with a planned length of more than 100 metres, would even have surpassed St. Vitus Cathedral. However, only the priest's choir was completed until 1397. The tower, which was completed at the beginning of the 15th century, was again completely destroyed during the Hussite Wars. At the same time, the Maria Snow Church was a center of the radical supporters of the Hussites. After the church fell into disrepair in the 16th century and the vaults collapsed, the Franciscans rebuilt the Maria Sneuwkerk from scratch in the Renaissance style at the beginning of the 17th century.



Jan Palach

Jan Palach lived from August 11, 1948 to January 19, 1969 and was a Czechoslovak student who set himself on fire in Prague on January 16, 1969 in protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops. He did this in response to the Prague Spring of 1968 and because of the lack of democracy in Czechoslovakia.

After setting himself on fire, Palach was taken to a hospital with severe burns (he was 85 percent burned) and died three days later. Even on the day of his death, January 19, 200,000 people gathered in Wenceslas Square to commemorate him. On January 24, the day of his funeral, a minute of silence was unofficially observed throughout the country. More than 10,000 citizens attended his funeral.

With his action Palach tried to make a statement against the communist regime led by Stallin at the time. He had written letters to the government in advance demanding, among other things, the lifting of censorship and propaganda. He spoke on behalf of a group of people willing to sacrifice themselves for their demands. His great example was Jan Hus, a church reformer. Palach wanted to 'let the truth prevail' and thought he could achieve this by setting himself on fire. After writing these letters, he went to Wenceslas Square and set himself on fire.

The government was charmed by Palach's action and distorted the reason for the self-immolation. There are also suspicions that the government would have ended the life of the seriously injured Palach. This has never been proven.

Palach is buried in the Olšany cemetery in Prague. The funeral turned into a large demonstration against the occupation. A month later (on February 25, 1969), another student, Jan Zajíc also set himself on fire on Wenceslau Square. In the end, Palach and Zajic turned out to be one of a total of ten people who set themselves on fire in protest against the country's way of governing. Palach is best known for setting himself on fire first.



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