The statue of St. Wenceslas on the Vršovice church was blessed by the bishop

Prague - Today before noon, Bishop Václav Malý blessed the statue of Saint Wenceslas located on the facade of the church in Prague's Vršovice, which has borne the name of this patron of the Czech lands for 80 years. The bronze sculpture was placed high above the church entrance at the end of September.
    The figure of the saint, weighing 600 kilograms and measuring nearly four meters with the spear, was cast thanks to a financial contribution of 1.2 million crowns from the Vršovice town hall. Adorning the facade of the building was part of the original intention of architect Josef Gočár (1880-1945), a co-founder of Czech Cubism, who designed the object.
    According to the mayor of Prague 10, Vladislav Lipovský, the history of this intention resembles a detective story. The statue was never successfully placed on the church, partly due to financial reasons and also due to the unfortunate times - the Nazi occupation and the subsequent seizure of power by the communists. The design of the statue dates back to 1929, created by Professor Bedřich Stefan, whose Way of the Cross is a significant element of the church's interior. However, due to the aforementioned circumstances, the statue was never created, and its smaller model ended up with the author's nephew, Jiří Stefan, as part of his estate. When he happened to read an article about the churches of St. Wenceslas in Prague, he realized that a model of the original existed, contacted the parish of the church, which approached the town hall for assistance, and the project was successfully realized. The life-sized form of the statue was created by academic sculptor Jan Roith, thus becoming its rightful co-author.
    "All involved contributed to the realization of the statue without compensation; they deserve great thanks for that," Lipovský pointed out.
    The Vršovice Church of Saint Wenceslas is considered one of the most successful functionalist church buildings in the Czech Republic. It was built between 1929-1930. With the unveiling of the statue of St. Wenceslas, it has finally been practically completed after 80 years.