The Marian Column in the Old Town Square was destroyed in November 1918

Prague - The Marian Column in the Old Town Square in Prague was demolished on November 3, 1918. It was erected in September 1650, and a replica of the original column was erected in the Old Town Square on June 4, 2020.

The project to restore the column after 1990, which cost about five million crowns and was financed mainly through donations, faced numerous opponents. The column is often still perceived as a monument of counter-reformation Catholicism. Discontent was also caused by the fact that both the original column and its erected replica stand near the site where 27 Czech lords, representatives of the non-Catholic estates' resistance, were executed on June 21, 1621. On the other hand, supporters of the Marian monument view it as a symbol of reconciliation and tolerance.

The Marian Column, one of the first significant Baroque works in Prague, was erected in Old Town Square on September 26, 1650, and was consecrated two years later. The sculpture group created by Jan Jiří Bendel was meant to commemorate the salvation of Prague from the Swedes in 1648, but critics over the following centuries regarded it mainly as a monument to counter-reformation Catholicism. The column was created with the contribution of Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III (1608 to 1657) as a reminder of the successful repulsion of the Swedish siege, in which numerous residents of the Old and New Towns of Prague distinguished themselves. It also featured an allegorical depiction of the victory of Catholic justice over reformation heretical delusions.

Attempts to remove the column occurred as early as the 19th century, but it was the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic that sealed its fate. During the return of demonstrators from the People's Camp at White Mountain on Sunday, November 3, 1918 (the anniversary of the Battle of White Mountain on November 8 fell on the following Friday), it was torn down mainly by citizens from Žižkov with the help of local firefighters. Some pulled on the rope, while others secured them with sticks against the anger of local residents who rushed out of their homes to defend the column. It was not a spontaneous eruption of popular anger, but a timed action, a sort of happening by the Bohemians around Franta Sauer, a companion of Jaroslav Hašek.

The Marian Column, the third of its kind in Central Europe (after Munich and Vienna), was an important artistic element of Old Town Square, thanks to its nearly sixteen-meter height. To its dimensions and location, Ladislav Šaloun composed his monument to Jan Hus at the beginning of the 20th century, which is low and flat, thus creating a contrast to the tall and slender column. The works were almost ideologically balanced as well.

The sculpture group, which stood halfway between the destroyed wing of the Old Town Hall and the houses in front of St. Nicholas Church, also served as a gnomon - the shadow of the column aligned with the Prague meridian at noon, which is marked in the pavement of the square. The Virgin Mary standing on the conquered dragon, whose head was surrounded by a halo formed by a dozen stars, gazed down at the town hall. The head of the saint is among several parts of the column preserved in the lapidarium of the National Museum.