Lapidarium Museum for Toppled Statues

Lapidarium: a collection of stone statues. That sounds pretty boring! Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to take a look at the Lapidarium museum in Prague. The museum is housed in a pavilion on Vystaviste which was built for the World Exhibition of 1891. Stone and bronze sculptures once in market squares, on bridges or near churches and cathedrals in Prague are now on display in the museum.

TEMPORARILY CLOSED

Tip: Free entry for Prague City Card holders!

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The Marian Column in the Lapidarium

As in many Catholic regions in Central Europe, Prague’s Old Town Square contained a plague column known as Marian Column. Most plague columns are dedicated to Holy Mary, the mother of Jesus, because she is a mediator between God and man. A plague column is not only a reminder of plague epidemics it also protects against new outbreaks. Fragments of the Marian column that stood on Old Town Square are on display in hall 4. The Holy Virgin in the midst of four archangels fighting dragons. Emperor Ferdinand II placed the column placed in the seventeenth century and in 1918 anarchists toppled it.

On August 15, 2020, the day on which the Catholic Church celebrates the Assumption of Mary, Prague raised a new Marian column on Old Town Square. It is a faithful copy of the original of which the torso is in the Lapidarium. The missing left part, the folded hands, were reconstructed using other Marian columns as guideline.

Lapidarium Museum: museum full of sculptures

Many of the statues you see in Prague are replicas. The originals are in the Lapidarium to protect them from the elements and prevent further damage. Others fell out of favor, such as the bronze monument of Field Marshal Radetsky, leader of the nineteenth-century Austrian army. This statue once stood on Malostranske namesti, but the field marshal was not popular. After Czechoslovakia became independent in 1918, the statue was moved to the Lapidarium.

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The Statues of Charles Bridge

The statues of the saints on Charles Bridge are all replicas. The originals are made of sandstone and would weather too much outdoors. The Lapidarium exhibits six original statues. Vysehrad, Prague’s second castle, also has some original statues of Charles Bridge in the Casemates.
A whole series of other statues that submerged in the Vltava River after the flood in 1890 were recovered and are also on display in the museum.

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Showpieces of the Lapidarium

The centerpiece of the collection is the marble Krocin fountain that once graced Old Town Square. When this fountain was still on the square, it was never used because it leaked. Another showpiece is the first equestrian statue of Wenceslas that stood on Wenceslas Square. Wenceslas was killed by his brother in AD 953 for preaching the word of God. The present statue on the Square was unveiled in 1913.

After the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire fell apart and the Czechs founded the first Czechoslovak Republic. The Republican authorities did not want to be reminded of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and removed memorials from the public space. (but didn’t destroy them!). Many of these ‘unwanted’ monuments were moved to the Lapidarium.

How to get there

The Lapidarium was built as a summer palace for the Jubilee Exhibition of 1891. The collection comprises sculptures from the 11th to the early 20th century. The collection includes 2,000 objects, 420 of which are on permanent display in eight halls.

Address: Vystaviste 422, Bubenec
Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday 12 pm-6pm, Wednesday 10 am-4pm, closed Mondays and Tuesdays

photos Marianne Crone

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