Monument sights in Prague
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National Monument
Although not, strictly speaking, a legacy of the communist era – it was completed in the 1930s – the huge monument atop Žižkov Hill is, in the minds of most Praguers over a certain age, inextricably linked with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and in particular with Klement Gottwald, the country’s first ‘worker–president’. Designed in the 1920s as a memorial to the 15th-century Hussite commander Jan Žižka, and to the soldiers who had fought for Czechoslovak independence, it was still under construction in 1939 when the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany made the ‘Monument to National Liberation’, as it was called, seem like a sick joke. After 1948 the Comm…
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B
John Lennon Wall
After his murder on 8 December 1980 John Lennon became a pacifist hero for many young Czechs. An image of Lennon was painted on a wall in a secluded square opposite the French Embassy (there is a niche on the wall that looks like a tombstone), along with political graffiti and Beatles lyrics. Despite repeated coats of whitewash, the secret police never managed to keep it clean for long, and the Lennon Wall became a political focus for Prague youth (most Western pop music was banned by the communists, and some Czech musicians were even jailed for playing it). Post-1989 weathering and lightweight graffiti ate away at the political messages and images, until little remained …
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Southern Gardens
The three gardens lined up below the castle's southern wall - Paradise Garden, the Hartig Garden and the Garden on the Ramparts - offer superb views over Malá Strana's rooftops. The two main gardens, Paradise Garden and the Garden on the Ramparts, were landscaped in the 1920s by Slovene architect Jože Plečník, and Paradise Garden has an obelisk marking where the victims of the second defenestration of Prague fell.
You can approach this contiguous bit of greenery from the west via the New Castle Steps into Paradise Garden or from the east via the Old Castle Steps into the Garden on the Ramparts. A third route, the Bull Steps, takes you from the Third Courtyard into the…
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C
Wenceslas Statue
The focal point of Wenceslas Sq (Václavské náměstí) is this equestrian statue of St Wenceslas at its southern end. Sculptor Josef Myslbek has surrounded the 10th-century duke of Bohemia and the 'Good King Wenceslas', of Christmas carol fame, with four other patron saints of Bohemia - Prokop, Adalbert, Agnes, and Ludmila. Nearby, another small memorial to the victims of communism displays photographs of Jan Palach and fellow martyred student Jan Zajíc.
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D
Pinkas Synagogue
The handsome Pinkas Synagogue was built in 1535 and used for worship until 1941. After WWII it was converted into a memorial, with wall after wall inscribed with the names, birth dates, and dates of disappearance of the 77, 297 Czech victims of the Nazis. It also has a collection of paintings and drawings by children held in the Terezín concentration camp during WWII. It's one of the six Jewish monuments that make up the Prague Jewish Museum.
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E
Quo Vadis' Sculpture
Not strictly a public monument, this golden Trabant car on four legs is a David Černý tribute to 4000 East Germans who occupied the garden of the then West German Embassy in 1989, before being granted political asylum and leaving their Trabants behind. Today's German embassy is happy for you to peer through its back fence at the sculpture. Continue uphill along Vlašská, turn left into a children's park, and left again to find it.
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Memorial to the Victims of Communism
This striking sculptural group consists of several ragged human figures (controversially, all are male) in progressive stages of disintegration, descending a staggered slope. A bronze strip inlaid into the ground in front of them records the terrible human toll of the communist era – 205, 486 arrested; 170, 938 driven into exile; 248 executed; 4500 who died in prison; and 327 shot while trying to escape across the border.
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Plečník Monolith
A noteworthy feature near St Vitus Cathedral is a huge granite monolith dedicated to the victims of WWI, designed by Slovene architect Jože Plečník in 1928. Nearby is a copy of the castle's famous statue of St George slaying the dragon; the original 14th-century bronze statue is now in the Story of Prague Castle exhibition.
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H
Jan Palach Memorial
On 16 January 1969, university student Jan Palach set fire to himself and died in protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia the preceding August. The exact spot the martyr fell is marked by a wooden cross in the pavement that seems to have suffered a small earthquake beneath it. The 16 January is now commemorated annually.
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Maroldovo Panorama
The Maroldovo Panorama is an impressive 360-degree diorama (11m high and 95m long) of the 1434 battle of Lipany (in which the Hussite Taborites lost to the Hussite Utraquists and Emperor Zikmund's forces). It was painted by Luděk Marold in 1898.
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Franz Kafka Monument
Jaroslav Róna's unusual sculpture of a mini-Franz sitting piggyback on his own headless body was unveiled in 2003. Commissioned by Prague's Franz Kafka Society, it's beside the Spanish Synagogue.
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