Jan Hus monument

This is monument of Jan Hus - national Czech hero. From his activities the religion split into Catholic and Protestant. He was a preacher and lecturer on Charles University (end of 14th - beginning of 15th century). He wanted to introduce asceticism to catholic faith, reduse all spiritual profession and cancel payment the taxes to the churches. He also proposed introducing preaching in Czech language, because all people were uneducated, they did not know Latin and didn’t understand preachers at the worships. But he had one bad idea - to take all richness from churches, bishops, archbishop and give it all to the state, means to the king. And when the Holly Father heard this promotion, he came with other one - to remove Hus, burn him at the stake like a heretic.

The Pope really did it 6 of July year 1415.

Till now this day is day of memory of Jan Hus. Because for Czechs this personality is of great importance as a symbol of freedom.

After his death people started to revolt. They named in honour of Hus - hussites. This revolts became to wars, which in Bohemia had continue more than 200 years. Sometimes victored Catholics, sometimes - hussites. But year 1622 after the battle on the White Mountain (it’s just 8 kilometres from this place, now it is the neighborhood of Prague) definitely the Catholic warriors had victored. And 27 Czech nobles, who supported Hus’s ideas, were executed here, on this square. Their property was taken away for the benefit of the state, and then donated or sold cheaply to Austrian nobles. This is one of the reasons why the names of our nobles are German.

Photo: Alesia - guide in Prague