Prague: Encountering the Bohemian Patron Saint Wenceslas – Part One of a DIY Journey Through the Former Austro-Hungarian Empire

After a 10-hour direct flight from Chengdu, we arrived in Prague at 6 a.m. on November 23, 2019, kicking off our independent tour of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

We cleared immigration at the airport, withdrew 1,000 Czech koruna from an ATM, and bought two 24-hour Prague transport passes for 110 koruna each. We took bus 119, then transferred to the metro to Muzeum station; our hotel was just 200 meters from the National Museum.

We checked in before 11 a.m., though the room wasn’t ready yet. After a short rest, we headed out to explore.

A pre-booked day trip from Prague to Dresden, Germany, through the airline didn’t work out, so we decided instead to visit the UNESCO-listed town of Kutná Hora (often called “KH Town”) on the outskirts of Prague.

Walking back to the metro at the Czech National Museum, we saw crowds gathering in Wenceslas Square in front of the museum.

I had visited Prague two years earlier for a few days, but at that time the old National Museum was closed for restoration. I always put museums on my first-day itinerary, so now it was time to see the reopened old National Museum.

The National Museum in Prague turned out to be free! It turned out we had bumped into the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.

Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, set in the Central Bohemian Region along the Vltava River. More than 1,000 years ago this was already the political center of the Kingdom of Bohemia. It became the first royal city of the Bohemian dynasty in the 13th century, so it has over 700 years of history.

It is known as one of Europe’s quietest and most beautiful cities, and it was the first entire city to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Right in front of the National Museum lies Wenceslas Square, the famous boulevard of Prague’s New Town. In the middle stands an equestrian statue of Wenceslas, the patron saint of Bohemia.

Every year on 28 September, the date of Wenceslas’s historical martyrdom, Czechs celebrate a public holiday that blends religion and national sentiment: “St. Wenceslas Day.”

Wenceslaus I (c. 907–c. 935) is said to have been not only a devout and humble Christian but also learned, kind, and wise – widely regarded as a “good king,” even though he was actually a duke; people simply called him king.

Wenceslas inherited the Duchy of Bohemia at 13, began personal rule at 17 by exiling his pagan mother who meddled in politics, defeated the rebellious Duke of Kouřim at 18, and at 28 was murdered by his own brother, known as “the Cruel.”

During his rule he vigorously promoted Catholicism, founding a rotunda dedicated to St. Vitus in Prague Castle and the forerunner of today’s St. Vitus Cathedral.

In Czech legend, Wenceslas became Bohemia’s protector after his death. In times of national crisis, St. Wenceslas would rise, awaken the sleeping army, draw a legendary sword, and lead the revived host to aid the Czech people and drive out invaders.

The 750-metre Wenceslas Square in the New Town is often called Prague’s “Champs-Élysées.” Lined with shops, hotels, offices, and restaurants, it is not only the commercial and entertainment centre of the New Town but also the place for celebrations, gatherings, and demonstrations, having witnessed countless defining moments in Czech history.

After the collapse of the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I, Czechoslovakia declared independence in front of the statue of St. Wenceslas on 28 October 1918;

it saw the Prague Uprising against the Nazis in 1945;

the tragic “Prague Spring” of 1968;

and, exactly twenty years after the Prague Spring, the square witnessed another major event – the Velvet Revolution.

Alexander Dubček, the leader ousted during the Prague Spring, and the long-imprisoned writer Václav Havel reappeared before the crowds, delivering impassioned speeches and becoming symbols of freedom and democracy.

The ruling party renounced power, and Havel, with broad popular support, was elected Czechoslovakia’s first president, completing a peaceful transfer of power.

The country’s democratisation saw no large-scale violence; it was as smooth as velvet – hence “Sametová revoluce.”

17 November became the newest Czech public holiday.

By chance, we stumbled upon the 30th-anniversary special exhibition of the Velvet Revolution!

The old National Museum of the Czech Republic is a Neo-Renaissance building, ornate and stately.

We joined the stream of visitors filing in; inside, the Baroque dome is exquisite.

Then I turned around and noticed my companion was missing. I went back outside – my companion couldn’t find the entrance and was still by the side of the square…

We re-entered the museum, agreed to meet at the entrance at 12:30, and wandered around.

The museum’s architecture is its greatest highlight.

The circular dome and the symmetrical murals on all sides are gorgeous, casting a soft light throughout the exhibition halls.

All the galleries on the museum’s three floors had been turned into thematic displays about the Velvet Revolution – an unexpected exhibition steeped in historical atmosphere, telling a story of a nation’s loves, hatreds, and entanglements through photographs, artefacts, and videos…

In the main hall, a screen scrolled through Cold War imagery:

Czechoslovakia as one of the front-line states between the two global blocs;

everyday life bearing the stamp of the Eastern Bloc;

I was reminded of the film Prague Love (the adaptation of Milan Kundera’s novel), Kafka’s The Metamorphosis;

and Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

A large thematic installation dedicated to the leftist writer Havel was set up in the gallery, though I couldn’t quite decipher how the combination of elements conveyed the story of Czechoslovakia’s first democratically elected president.

Leaving the National Museum, the crowd still filled Wenceslas Square, now mixed with a few hippie entertainments.

Again and again I saw the equestrian figure of Wenceslas in the square – Bohemia’s patron saint.

Yet when it comes to the building of Wenceslas Square and Prague’s New Town, it is another Wenceslas who deserves the credit: Charles IV, voted the “Greatest Czech” by Czech media.

Born into the House of Luxembourg, this Wenceslas inherited the Bohemian throne at 30 in 1355, served twice as King of the Romans, and in 1355 fully conquered Italy, being crowned Holy Roman Emperor. He then took the name Charles IV, and Prague became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire.

Determined to turn Prague into a metropolis worthy of an imperial capital, Charles IV personally involved himself in urban planning and construction: he laid out Prague’s New Town that contains Wenceslas Square, built Charles Bridge across the Vltava, and rebuilt the city’s most famous landmark, St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle. He also founded the first university in Central Europe, today’s Charles University, and recruited renowned scholars at great expense. By the time Charles IV died, this young university already had 110,000 students.

It was also then that Prague was elevated to an archbishopric, and the Kingdom of Bohemia gained ecclesiastical autonomy, ushering in Bohemia’s most glorious medieval era.

In one corner of Wenceslas Square stands a mysterious statue, surrounded by fresh flowers and candles.

Jan Palach was a Czech student of history and political economy at Charles University in Prague. After the Prague Spring, he became the first Czech to set himself on fire for freedom in Wenceslas Square.

Not far away is a memorial dedicated to Jan Palach and his classmate Zajíc (who did the same thing a month after Jan’s death).

Some in the media have compared his sacrifice to that of the Bohemian religious thinker Jan Hus, burned for his beliefs in 1415.

After the Velvet Revolution, in 1993, the federation of Czechoslovakia came to an end. This peaceful independence of the Czech Republic and Slovakia – and the peaceful dissolution of the federation – was also called the “Velvet Divorce.”