Wenceslas Square from the dome of the National Museum
Wenceslas Square from the dome of the National MuseumPhoto: VitVit, 2021 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí) is the central square of Prague's New Town. It runs from Můstek to the National Museum building.[1] It is about 750 m long and 60 m wide and is lined by 58 buildings.[2] Numerous shopping arcades open onto the square, many of them interconnected.[1]*

The Horse Market

The square was laid out when the New Town was founded in 1348 and became its main public space.[1] It stretched from the walls of the Old Town to the walls of the New Town; the St Gall Gate stood at the lower end and the Horse Gate at the upper end. After the horse trade it was called the Horse Market. Annual fairs were held here from 1362, and besides horses, weapons, cloth and, until 1877, grain were sold.[2] The name Wenceslas Square was proposed on 16 March 1848 by Karel Havlíček Borovský.[2][1] From 1680 an equestrian statue of St Wenceslas by Jan Jiří Bendl stood at the crossing with Vodičkova and Jindřišská streets; in 1879 it was moved to Vyšehrad. The square was paved at the end of the 18th century and planted with lime trees around 1875.[2]

Wenceslas Square from the demolished Horse Gate towards Můstek, with the avenue of trees planted in 1876
Wenceslas Square from the demolished Horse Gate towards Můstek, with the avenue of trees planted in 1876Photo: František Fridrich, before 1884 · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The National Museum and the St Wenceslas Monument

The upper end of the square is closed by the Neo-Renaissance building of the National Museum (No. 1700), built in 1885–1890 to a design by Josef Schulz and opened on 18 May 1891. Its facade is 104 m long.[3] It stands on the site of the former Horse Gate.[2]

The equestrian monument of St Wenceslas is the work of Josef Václav Myslbek. The main statue is accompanied by figures of St Ludmila, St Adalbert, St Procopius and St Agnes of Bohemia; Alois Dryák worked on the architectural design and Celda Klouček on the ornaments. The monument was installed in 1912 and unveiled a year later without the statues of Agnes and Adalbert, which were added only in 1924.[3] On 28 October 1918 Alois Jirásek read the declaration of Czechoslovak independence in front of the statue.[2] The date 28. 10. 1918 set into the paving in front of the monument was unveiled on 27 October 1935.[3]

Events of the 20th century

On 16 January 1969 the student Jan Palach doused himself with petrol and set himself on fire in front of the National Museum. Since 16 January 2000 the spot has been marked by a memorial by the artist Barbora Veselá and the architects Čestmír Houska and Jiří Veselý: a bronze cross between two low mounds in the pavement, bearing the names of Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc. Below the St Wenceslas Monument a memorial site for the victims of communism arose after November 1989.[4]

On 21 November 1989 Václav Havel spoke to the demonstrators for the first time from the balcony of the Melantrich publishing house and introduced the Civic Forum; he was introduced as the first speaker by Václav Malý, and Marta Kubišová sang Prayer for Marta.[5] According to the Prague 1 town hall, about 200,000 people stood in the square. Since December 2021 a plaque on the Melantrich building has commemorated this first speech.[6]

Transport and redevelopment

Beneath the middle of the square is a large underground concourse, opened on 2 December 1968. Three entrances lead to the metro: in the upper part to the stations of lines A and C, in the middle and lower parts to the stations of lines A and B.[1] Trams ran across the square from 1884. They remained in service even after metro line A opened beneath the square in 1978, and were withdrawn in 1980.[7]

The redevelopment of the square follows the design by the studio Jakub Cigler architekti, which won a competition in 2005. The lower part was rebuilt first. On 26 June 2024 the Prague Public Transit Company began building a tram line about 550 m long in the upper part of the square, together with new surfaces, a rainwater retention tank and the planting of 67 trees; construction costs were estimated at 1.239 billion crowns.[7] As of May 2026 the work was due to be completed in June 2027, when trams are to run from the square to Vinohradská and Škrétova streets.[8]

Pages linking here

Sources

  1. Magistrát hl. m. Prahy (Praha virtuální)
  2. Městská část Praha 1
  3. Magistrát hl. m. Prahy (Praha virtuální)
  4. janpalach.cz (web.archive.org)
  5. ČT24 — 21 November 2019
  6. Městská část Praha 1 — 20 December 2021
  7. Dopravní podnik hl. m. Prahy — 26 June 2024
  8. Zdopravy.cz — 2 May 2026