Jan Valerian Jirsík, Bronze statue before St. Nicholas Cathedral, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
The Jan Valerián Jirsík monument is a bronze figure of a bishop standing before St. Nicholas Cathedral, close to the Black Tower. The sculpture was cast to the design of Josef Václav Myslbek, one of his last works, and stands on a grey-blue granite pedestal cut from a boulder found near Tis u Blatna. The pedestal was designed by Antonín Balšánek and Bohumil Hübschmann, who also determined the form of the bronze lettering of the bishop's name.
A committee led by Antonín Effmert began a public collection in 1883, but the city refused a plot. After World War I, Josef Václav Myslbek accepted the commission, completing the model before his death in 1922. The bronze was cast in 1923, and the monument was unveiled on 28 September 1926 before St. Nicholas Cathedral. It was dismantled in 1939 and a copy was unveiled in 1993.
The monument stands before St. Nicholas Cathedral, not on the main square. Its bronze inscription reads Jan Valerián Jirsík, and the lettering was designed by architect Bohumil Hübschmann. The 1926 unveiling was preceded by a gala at the South Bohemian National Theatre, where a tableau showed Jirsík laying the foundation stone of the Czech gymnasium.
The monument stands directly in front of St. Nicholas Cathedral, a short distance from the Black Tower, not on Přemysl Otakar II Square. The granite base was cut from a boulder near Tis u Blatna and brought by rail; the main block alone weighs 10.4 tonnes. Approach on foot through the cathedral forecourt.
The grey-blue granite for the pedestal was cut from a large boulder in the forest near Tis u Blatna, worked in Plzeň and brought to the station in four wagons; the main block alone weighed 10.4 tonnes. The lettering of the inscription was designed by Bohumil Hübschmann, who finished the work after Balšánek's death.
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