Prague 1 wants to restore the statue of Radecký. The Recessionists would rather honor Jára Cimrman
Exactly a week ago, the councilors of the central city district provide the intention to return the monument to Marshal Josef Václav Radecký of Radče to the square where it has stood since 1858. Now the monument is stored in the Lapidary of the National Museum. The cultural commission of Prague 1 also agreed with the proposal. The Radecký Praha Association (previously a civic association formerly called “Radecký 1766–2016”) provided the town hall with the documents for the meeting, for which Tuesday’s decision was the first concrete result of almost ten years of efforts.
“The restoration of the monument to Marshal Radecký, the greatest military leader of the Czech family since the Hussite times, may be a return of pride in important personalities of the past and their contemporary significance. The shield on which the victorious warrior stands is symbolically held by members of the various weapons of the monarchy, which we can symbolically consider to be representatives of individual nations clashing in the battlefields of the time, “writes Jan Bárta, chairman of the association. The architect also recalls that it is “a beautiful work of art” and that Radecký’s monument “formed the perfect urban landmark of the square”.
Since 2018, the association has collected approximately 240,000 crowns in the public collection until the beginning of July this year for the restoration of the Radecký statue. Right now, Prague 1 will deal with financing with the City Hall.
The reconstruction should start this year
“Before the complete reconstruction of Malostranské náměstí, an archaeological survey will also be carried out and the foundations will be prepared so that the erection of the monument will be much incorporated into this reconstruction. The overall transformation should start later this year, “said the contribution of the town hall in Facebook. At the end of March this year, the management of the metropolis, through the municipal Institute of Planning and Development (IPR Prague), announced that Radecký was not expected in the planned revitalization.
Even the initial reactions of the public are not very inclined to restore the monument. Although there are also supporters who speak of Radecký as the most famous military leaders of modern times, who, moreover, have always declared their Czech nationality. And as Bárta writes, “already at the end of the 18th century he fought under Laudon against the Turks and Prussians. As Chief of Staff of the Allied Forces, commanded by another Czech, Karel Schwarzenberg, with the right nobleman in the defeat of Napoleon in the ‘Battle of the Nations’ near Leipzig in 1818. “
Will Stalin come?
But other discussants rather mourn: “Why on earth?” They again criticize Prague 1 for becoming an open-air museum thanks to this return to the past. Some residents prefer a fountain or other water feature on Malostranské náměstí. There was also a demand for a referendum. “Will Stalin come too?” One of the Facebook users asks ironically. A few people, led by doctor and politician Roman Šmucler, plead for the statue of French Bohemianism Ernst Denis, who contributed to the founding of Czechoslovakia and was named after him – removed by the Communists – the railway station in Těšnov.
Opposition representative Petr Kučera (Green Party) even wrote an angry comment: “You live on insignificant crap! Why hasn’t the working group met yet to ban gambling? It’s a month after the deadline. “
It is an exaggeration to say, it is difficult to discern what is and is not a recession in the debate on Radecký’s return to Malostranské náměstí. But in any case, the humor’s lovers of the Žižkov Jára Cimrman Theater, which began in Malostranská beseda, willingly caught the topic. And they quote from a traditional professional seminar before the game Murder in the Salon Coupe.
Brod variant
“It seems perfectly logical for us to build a monument to Jára Cimrman, who never helped the Habsburgs anywhere, on the monument of Marshal Radecký, this Czech Habsburg helper,” reads a replica of “Professor” Ladislav Smoljak as chairman of the commission for the construction of Cimrman’s monument. The authors solved the complications with the placement in a really funny and original way, when dr. Bičík, a native of Malostraňák, proposes a so-called Brod variant: “The statue would represent Cimrman wading on horseback across a watercourse, with the horse immersed in a plinth along his chest and conceived as a horse bust.”
A petition was also created on the Internet, which refers to the honor of the theatergoers and Jára Cimrman himself. The recessionists came up with a proposal to build “a non-conflicting statue of the world’s greatest writer, inventor, painter, physicist, skier and philosopher” on Malostranské náměstí, because the statue of Marshal Radecký divides society.
According to the author of the petition, Luděk Gühl, the erection of Cimrman’s statue would be “a dignified thank you and subscription to this, so much Czech nature and history of a close deed and, if you will, a man.” What you? Would you like Radecký, Denise, Cimrman – or maybe someone else?