Benedikt Roezl memorial, Bronze and sandstone monument in Charles Square, Czech Republic

The Benedikt Roezl memorial stands in the southern part of Charles Square near the Faust House. A tall sandstone pedestal with bronze sculptures and inscriptions rises from a five-step semicircular stylobate flanked by two stone vases. The bronze group shows the standing botanist in a hat and open coat, a book in his right hand and a bronze flower in his left, with a naked Native American boy holding a machete seated behind his stepped left leg.

The memorial was funded by an international committee formed after Benedikt Roezl's death and took thirteen years of negotiation before Prague councillors approved its placement in 1898. Sculptors Gustav Zoula and Čeněk Vosmík created the bronze group, with architecture by Eduard Sochor. A hoax in 1897 claimed the site had been intended for a Presl monument.

The front inscription reads "BENEDIKTU ROEZLOVI" with his dates, 12 August 1824 and 14 October 1885, added by his admirers. Below the cornice are a metal Prague emblem and a band of orchid flowers, and stone benches surround the pedestal on three sides. A nude Native American boy with a machete sits behind Roezl's striding left foot.

The memorial stands in the middle of Charles Square and is easily accessible on foot, as the area is well served by several tram lines and metro stations. The open plaza allows visitors to view the monument from different angles and walk around it freely.

The band of orchid flowers under the cornice is easy to miss. In 1897 the magazine Zlatá Praha published an anonymous hoax claiming the monument's site had been meant for a Presl memorial and that the person honoured had been swapped twice; the claim still circulates as fact.