Staletá Praha 36, 1/2020, 26-44 | DOI: 10.56112/sp.2020.1.02

Half a Century of the Maintenance of St. Wenceslas Monument on Wenceslas Square

Marie Foltýnová

Galerie hlavního města Prahy, Oddělení správy veřejné plastiky, Mariánské náměstí 98/1, CZ-110 00 Praha 1

Caring for historical monuments is challenging for every administrator. In the case of St. Wenceslas Monument on Wenceslas Square, which is not only a national cultural monument, but also an important state-forming symbol, this is doubly true. Appropriate care, maintenance and restoration method ought to derive from the assessment of all the influences causing destructive processes on the surface and inside the sculpture itself or on the architecture of the granite pedestal. In 2018, after previous comprehensive surveys, the GHMP completed the restoration of the granite pedestal of the monument. Apart from not very frequent earlier maintenance the destruction of the granite surface was also caused by the physical characteristics of the material itself, or by the location of the monument in the middle of a busy street junction. The surveys also resulted in an accurate 3D model of St. Wenceslas Monument enabling future evaluation.

Keywords: Prague-New Town - Wenceslas Square - Monument of St. Wenceslas - granite from Dolní Požáry - bronze - maintenance of cultural monuments - surveys - restauration - destruction - climatic conditions - 3D model - Prague City Gallery (GHMP) - Josef Václav Myslbek - Alois Dryák

Published: June 15, 2020