City hall rejects plan to install replica of Marian column on Old Town Square

A plan to install a replica of the Marian column that stood on Prague’s Old Town Square for over 250 years has hit the rocks after Prague City councillor vetoed the idea, on the grounds of a petition signed by over 1,000 people.

Prague City Hall earlier gave its consent to the idea and will now have to take legal action to withdraw from a contract with the Society for the Restoration of the Marian Column which wanted to give Prague a replica of the column as a gift.

The original Marian column was built in 1650 to commemorate the Habsburg victory over the Swedes.

It was torn down in 1918 by an angry mob which perceived it as a symbol of the Habsburg takeover of the Czech lands and the violent re-Catholicization that followed.