A replica of a historic statue of the Virgin Mary has been restored to the spot in Prague where a revolutionary mob tore down the original more than a century ago.
It had been erected in 1652 to celebrate the victory of pro-Catholic Habsburg forces over Sweden in the 30 years’ war, but a group of radicals toppled it in November 1918 as the Habsburg empire crumbled at the end of the first world war. The revolutionaries saw it as a symbol of Habsburg oppression.
The sculptor Petr Váňa has finally realised his 25-year quest to return the Virgin Mary to her spot atop a 17-metre column in the Czech capital’s Old Town Square, a magnet for tourists until coronavirus prompted the country to shut its borders in March.
To a backdrop of applause, cheers, prayers and hymns, Váňa was raised with a hoist on Thursday to affix his recreation of the baroque figurine to the top the column.
The statue, which weighs about three tonnes, was put in place after a seven-hour operation involving a mobile crane to move it from a less distinguished site outside the nearby Tyn church and next to a pizzeria, where it had been for the last 17 years.
Váňa worked with a team of stonemasons to fashion painstaking copies of the original and its supporting column. The damaged remains of the originals are displayed at Prague’s lapidarium, which is part of the Czech national museum.
He fought off entrenched opposition to the plan, including from Prague city council, which raised repeated obstacles to placing the replica statue in the square despite giving the initial go-ahead in 2013.
Some opponents of the scheme argued that the statue was still a symbol of Habsburg repression and enforced Catholic domination of the country. Among those arguing against it were Protestant and atheist groups. Surveys suggest the Czech Republic has one the lowest levels of religious belief in Europe.
The sandstone statue sits yards from another of Jan Hus, a theologian and key figure in the Bohemian reformation, a forerunner to the Protestant reformation.
Final permission to close off a section of the square was only secured in January, after years of wrangling. Váňa and his co-workers started work in February to build the plinth on which the column sits.
They have finished nearly two-and-a-half months ahead of schedule, helped - campaigners say - by the coronavirus lockdown which emptied the square of its usual crowds of tourists and market stalls, enabling them to work unhindered.
