Project Heading From the Past into the Future
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This year, it will have been 90 years, since the Marian Column disappeared from the Old Town Square. Shortly after the Habsburg dynasty was overthrown on 28th October 1918, a crowd of people under Franta Sauer, set off to destroy this historical monument on 3rd November. The crowd thought, that the column was the symbol of the Habsburg rule over Czech Lands. It was not difficult to persuade a lot of uneducated people to pull the monument down. Today, the issue of Marian Column is topical again. It is possible to speak about it as of a future project, as the Society for the Renewal of the Marian Column in Prague has already been taking steps to build the monument again. Sculptor Petr Váňa and his friends have already finished a great part of the monument for free.Váňa himself says, that it is not a problem to built an exact copy of the column, as it is supported e.g. by correspondence between authorities and the sculptor and restorer Jan Bradna.
As early as 1938, there were efforts to build the monument again but they were interrupted by the war and then, at the times of socialism, there was no will even to discuss the topic. At present, however, the column is not only being discussed, it is for a great part finished as well.
