Standing guard: understanding our statues

During the early part of the Koronavirus measures, I went to Charles Bridge. The quietness was strange but the sense of history was stabilising. It was the statues, I think. When we face some kinds of crisis, the figures of history or even the work of the artist expressing them or inventing them, inspire us with the knowledge that others experienced and overcame the challenges of life.

Travelling through Prokopova Square where there is a statue of Jaroslav Hasek, I noticed that someone had placed a mask on him, reflecting no doubt Hasek’s sense of humour. During the latter part of the Koronavirus measures, I was impressed by the statue of Churchill in Zizkov, where there is the newly opened Churchill shopping and…