National Monument on Vitkov

During the Hussite wars on Vitkov, the Hussites defeated the army of the Crusaders on July 14, 1420. Even then, the hill was called Vitkov, in honor of the Prague tradesman Vitkov from the Mountain, who owned a vineyard on it. The oldest mention of the hill above Prague's Zizkov comes from 1041.

The idea of ​​creating a national monument, which, unlike the existing reminders of the defeats, would demonstrate the pride and courage of the Czech people, was initially uniquely localized on this hill. In the summer of 1882, a group of several hundred local residents created the Association for the Construction of the Monument to Jan ижižka from Trotznov on top of ижižkov . The idea with changes was implemented after the creation of the new Czechoslovak Republic . It was decided to build a necropolis of the sons of the Czechoslovak people, legionnaires and underground workers, which would open the statue of Jan ижižka. The monument, as a monument to national liberation, was erected in 1929-1933.

During the Second World War there was a Wehrmacht warehouse, and the monument was demolished. After 1948, the monument became one of the places of propaganda of the communist regime. The most prominent representatives of the communist government were buried here. In 1953, the Clement Gottwald mausoleum was created in the interior of the monument, liquidated in 1962, when the decaying body of the leader was cremated and buried among the burial places of his comrades. After the velvet revolution , the remains of communist leaders were reburied elsewhere.

At the present (2013) moment in the reconstructed memorial there is a permanent exhibition “Crossroads of Czech and Czechoslovak Statehood”, which presents historical events from the emergence of Czechoslovakia , through the Munich agreement of 1938, the times of the Protectorate of the Czech Republic and Moravia , the communist coup of 1948 , the invasion of the Warsaw Treaty troops in 1968, the federalization of Czechoslovakia, the fall of socialism , and until the collapse of Czechoslovakia in 1992.

Initially, the tomb of the unknown soldier was located in the Old Town Hall , where the remains of a warrior from the battlefield near Zborov were laid. After 1939, the grave became a place of protests against the Nazi occupation. In 1941, the grave was destroyed, and the remains were removed and burned.

After the end of World War II, it was decided to create the coffin of an unknown soldier on Vitkov. The Soviet government did not give permission to transfer the remains from Zborov ; instead of them, the fallen soldier from Dukla was buried on October 9, 1949. On May 8, 2010, the remains of an unknown soldier from Zborov were also buried.

After a long debate in 1931, a sketch of Bohumil Kafka was chosen as a model for an equestrian statue. The statue was unveiled on the anniversary of the Battle of Vitkov on July 14, 1950. Restored in 2010-2011. The statue weighs 16.5 tons and consists of 120 bronze parts and almost 5000 bolts. It is one of the largest bronze equestrian statues in the world.

In front of the Жižka statue, a grave of an unknown soldier is located under a granite slab, in which the remains of a soldier who fell in 1944 during the Carpathian-Dukel operation are buried. On an inclined granite slab there is an inscription “ Glory to the heroes who fell for their homeland ” ( Czech Sláva hrdinům padlým za vlast ). On May 8, 2010, the remains of an unknown soldier were buried here from the battlefield near Zborov, as was planned during the first republic.

A large Czechoslovak state emblem , created by Otakar Spaniel , was installed above the stove in the front lower part of the equestrian statue, which was replaced in 1962 by the state emblem of the new socialist Czechoslovakia. In 1997, a copy of the original Czechoslovak coat of arms of Otakar Spaniel was installed (copy authors: Vladimir Oppl and Martin Tsepleha).

In the space behind the equestrian statue there are large bronze entrance gates to the Memorial, the works of Josef Maleevsky, decorated with reliefs, some of which are dedicated to the period of the Hussite movement.

On the eastern side of the building (behind the monument) is a large, non-functioning fountain by Karl Stipl. At the fountain are two sculptures. The first, the work of the sculptor Karel Pokorny in 1962, is an allegory of victory (in 1967 it was completed by Jiří Dushek). The second sculpture, the work of Karl Liditsky of 1964-1972, was poetically called "a happy future."

• Národní památník na Vítkově on the website of the National Museum.
• Žižka nikdy nevyhrál. Teď je nejlépe třetí.
• Podívejte se do útrob sochy Jana Žižky na pražském Vítkově
• Národní památník na Vítkově
• Galandauer, Jan, Národní památník na Vítkově / Praha: Národní muzeum, 2012 ISBN 978-80-7036-371-3
• Národní památník na hoře Vítkově / Praha: Osvěta, 1951 cnb000525719
• Národní kulturní památky