History and controversy of the Marian Column in the Old Town Square in Prague

The history and controversy of the Marian column on Prague's Old Town Square Abstract In the fall od 1648, nearly at the end of the Thirty Year's War, the Swedish army has been occupying Prague's Little Side and Castle and heading towards the Old Town. The weakest point of the defense was the Charles Bridge guarded by the so called Marian legion - a small unit of untrained students, townsmen and merchants facing professional army with double the size. During these harsh times these protectors praised the higher power, especially Virgin Mary for help, promising that they would erect a column with her statue on the Old town square. The promise was kept and one of the first monuments of this kind in Europe was bulit. The reason of its later demolition was Jirásek's interpretation of that time. He described this period of history as an era of darkness and opression of the Czech nation after the Battle of White Mountain. The column was considered a glorification of this specific period of time. Most of our society nowadays does not have a clue about the origin and the demolition of the column that once was one of the most beautiful baroque monuments. Just like many other times in our history, our nation has been divided into two sides defending their own opinion. The aim of this thesis is to find relevant..