In Prague, they are completing the Marian Column, the work has fallen behind schedule

Prague - On the Old Town Square in Prague, sculptor Petr Váňa and his team have been completing the work on the replica of the Marian Column since morning. As a ČTK correspondent noted on the spot, the work was delayed because they struggled to remove the statue of the Virgin Mary, which will be on top of the column, from the temporary pedestal near the Church of Our Lady before Týn. The statue was successfully removed before 11:00, after which a truck transported it to the square. Subsequently, the shaft of the column was raised, and the last step will be lifting the capital and the statue to its top. Construction began in mid-February after the Prague council expressed consent to the placement of the replica.

The foundations and pedestal, surrounded by three steps and a balustrade, were already in place at the square. Váňa told ČTK on Wednesday that the raising of the column was supposed to start around 10:00, but it ultimately happened about two hours later. According to Váňa, the statue weighs about 1.5 tons, the capital one ton, and the shaft of the column approximately 4.5 tons. Around 14:00, it began to rain heavily in the center of Prague, causing the sculptor and his collaborators to go for lunch. Váňa told ČTK that after their return, the work would take at least another hour.

The replica of the original statue had been placed on a temporary metal pedestal at the northern wall of the Church of Our Lady before Týn facing Celetná Street since 2004. The workers had trouble removing it from the pedestal and transferring it to the square with a crane in the morning. According to Váňa, the delay was caused by the necessity to lift the statue from the metal pin, which was then cut off. This was the most complicated step of the day, the sculptor explained.

Váňa had originally planned for the entire work to be completed in September, but the schedule included a month's pause due to the annual Easter markets. These did not take place because of measures against the spread of the new type of coronavirus, so construction continued without interruption, and the new completion date was set for August. However, at the beginning of May, the sculptor told ČTK that they would likely finish earlier than the new August deadline.

"After 23 years, I have a beautiful feeling, but I must say that I have had it all along," Váňa told reporters during the day. "You have to make that joy for yourself during that time; otherwise, you would never finish it," he explained. Besides dozens of onlookers, Cardinal Dominik Duka and the president's spokesman Jiří Ovčáček also came to watch the installation.

After the column is completed, according to Váňa, there will still be some minor work remaining, such as paving between the balustrade and the pedestal. The sculptor added that it will still be necessary to install a so-called dummy step at the column, which will level the sloping pavement in the square precisely to the level of the bottom step. An image of the Virgin Mary, which was the original purpose of the column - for people to pray to it - will then be affixed to the empty space in the middle of the column. Metal grilles will be placed around it. The entire work is to be completed by August 15, the sculptor concluded.

Prague representatives had previously repeatedly refused to express consent to the placement of a replica of the original column. The situation changed at the end of January this year when a majority was found in the council to revoke the city's original dissenting opinion. Following that, TSK approved the construction, which already had a building permit, for occupation. However, not all Prague residents support the return of the column. Petitions against it have also been created.

The original column from the 17th century was toppled by a crowd in 1918, as they saw it as a symbol of the Habsburg monarchy. Discussions of its return have been ongoing since the 1990s. Proponents of the restoration consider it a symbol and a memory of the defenders of Prague during the Thirty Years' War and a significant Baroque artistic work. According to opponents, it is a symbol of Habsburg dominance and intolerant reconversion of the country.