National Memorial on Vítkov Hill

Historic · Žižkov / Vítkov HillPrague,Czechia

A nine-metre bronze Hussite commander on a ridge above Prague, over a memorial begun for legionaries and made to mean two other things after.

The National Memorial stands on a long ridge over Žižkov, and on the ramp in front of it is Jan Žižka on horseback. The statue is nine metres high and weighs sixteen and a half tonnes, cast in 120 bolted bronze pieces, and it is one of the largest equestrian figures anywhere. Bohumil Kafka made it and died in 1942 without seeing it unveiled. From the roof the whole city lies out to the west. The suburb spread out below took its name from the man on the ramp, which is how a one-eyed Hussite commander ended up naming a Prague district. The building behind him has been three things. It was begun for the legionaries who fought Czechoslovakia into existence, with a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier inside it. The Wehrmacht used it as a store. It was still unfinished when the Communists took power in 1948, and they kept the building and changed what it stood for. Nothing was pulled down between one use and the next, so the granite you walk through was meant three different ways by three different states.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Come up the ridge from the Žižkov side on foot — The memorial is built to be met head-on along the spine of the hill; the road delivers you to its back.
The terrace looks along the ridge, east Prague on one side and the castle on the other — a long low frame across the whole basin rather than a picture of the old town.
The building shuts on Mondays — the hill, the ramp and the statue are open ground at any hour, so a Monday visit gets the monument and none of the rooms behind it.

Things to do

1
Stand in front of nine metres of horse
Walk out onto the ramp and put yourself directly in front of the statue rather than beside it. From here the rider leans out over you with his axe up and his blind eye towards the city. Sixteen and a half tonnes of bronze in a hundred and twenty bolted pieces reads as one movement only from this angle.
2
Read the ridge from the roof
Go up to the terrace and look along the hill rather than at the skyline. The ridge runs east to west, with the castle at one end of the basin and the tenement districts spreading below on both sides. It explains the battle immediately: this is a wall across the approach to the city.