American citizens of Czech origin, who donated the statue to Prague in the 1920s, decided to rectify this mistake and managed to collect the money to renew the memorial.

A big celebration

The importance of the statue is evident in the fact that it was unveiled by President Václav Klaus, former Foreign Minister Madeleine Albright, Mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda and a representative of the American Friends of the Czech Republic. The ceremony was also attended by former President Václav Havel, Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka, American Ambassador Norman Eisen and many other guests.

Wilson and Masaryk

President Wilson and Professor T.G. Masaryk were the men responsible for the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia. It is therefore no surprise that the organisation American Friends of the Czech Republic erected a memorial to Masaryk in Washington several years ago.

A symbolic location

The original site of the memorial is now occupied by the new station building, so the memorial has been relocated. Maybe the organisers of the event did not realise, but the new memorial stands in a place where, in the early 1980s, an information centre was built to inform Prague residents of the successes of the Soviet people. This was abandoned at the end of the 1980s and later became a refreshment kiosk for a short time in the 1990s. The Wilson Memorial has therefore returned a sense of dignity to the location.

An exhibition in memory of the President

The unveiling of the memorial is the main event in the Wilson Week programme, which also includes an exhibition in the new building of the National Museum. Incidentally, it is also thanks to the museum’s collections that the statue was renewed. Several years ago a plaster-cast of the head was found in the museum depository. This was used by sculptors Václav Frýdecký, Michal Blažek and Daniel Talavera in creating the new memorial. Ten panels of the exhibition give information about the life of Woodrow Wilson and the first Czech President, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, as well as telling the story of the statue.