Maria column in Mnichovo Hradiště, Baroque Marian column on Masarykovo náměstí, Mnichovo Hradiště, Czech Republic
The Maria column in Mnichovo Hradiště stands in a small park in front of the town hall on Masaryk Square. Its hexagonal base, ringed by a chain on six posts, carries a three-sided plinth with three angel statues holding oval inscription cartouches, one bearing the Waldstein coat of arms. A three-sided shaft rises to a globe encircled by a snake and a crescent, topped by a life-size gilded-haloed Virgin Mary of the Immaculata type.
The column's date and authorship are debated: Šimák places it under dean Jan Julius Rucký (1684–1706), and it is attributed either to Martin Jelínek the Elder or to Martin Ignác Jelínek (born 1728), which would move it to the second half of the 18th century. The top sculpture was restored in 1971, the column was replaced by a copy in the 1980s, and Josef Vitvar restored it in 2002 and 2010, most recently Martin Pokorný in 2017. It has been a protected cultural monument since 1958.
The three angel statues on the stylobate's corners carry oval cartouches with Czech inscriptions: "Pozdrawenj nemocznich", "Autoczisste hrissniku" and "Potessenj zarmauczenich" (greeting to the sick, refuge of sinners, consolation of the sorrowful). An oval cartouche with acanthus leaves and a crown above it holds the carved Waldstein coat of arms; a wrought-iron lantern once hung beneath it.
The column stands in the small park in front of the town hall on Masaryk Square. Its six-sided base is reached by a low step and is enclosed by a chain on six-sided posts, so it can be viewed up close from all sides.
The column is not the original: in the 1980s the monument was replaced by a copy, and the top sculpture of the Virgin Mary had already been restored in 1971. Later restorations were carried out by Josef Vitvar in 2002 and 2010 and by Martin Pokorný in 2017.
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