Stonemasonry Monuments in Bohemia from the 11th to the 19th Century

The exhibition is CLOSED until further notice.

The exhibition of the National Museum's Lapidary, titled "Stonemasonry Monuments in Bohemia from the 11th to the 19th Century", introduces visitors in the opening showcases to the methods of quarrying, the use and processing of rocks used for stonemasonry work, and the care of damaged stone artifacts.

In other halls, it chronologically presents monuments from the end of the 11th to the end of the 19th century, crafted by ordinary and outstanding stonemasons and average and best sculptors. Here we find simple and elaborately decorated architectural elements, such as columns, windows, portals, keystones, bosses, gargoyles, finials, consoles, canopies, as well as engraved and relief gravestones, water reservoirs and fountains, memorial plaques, reliefs, garden vases and sculptures, sculptural groups, and monuments, etc.

Among the exhibits are many works that are among the highest quality artistic expressions in the history of Czech fine art. Let us name at least the most famous of them: the tympanum from Oldříš, the oldest monumental relief in the Czech lands (cat. no. 51), the beautiful and historically valuable children's tombstone of Premyslid Guta II. (75), the so-called Kouřim Ivies, the oldest preserved spatial sculpture from the Czech territory (76), a set of engraved tombstones from Ostrov u Davle (95-103), outstanding sculptures from the workshop of Petr Parléř, originally adorning the Old Town Bridge Tower (179-186), the torso of the popular Bruncvík from Charles Bridge (215), parts of the Renaissance Krocín Fountain from Old Town Square (251), remnants of the oldest Marian column in Bohemia, created by Jan Jiří Bendl in 1650 for Old Town Square (276-288), the equestrian monument of St. Wenceslas by the same author, intended for Prague's Horse Market, today's Wenceslas Square (295), several sculptural groups originally adorning Charles Bridge, created by Ottavio Mosto, Jan Brokoff, Matěj Václav Jäckel, Ferdinand Maxmilián Brokoff, and Matyáš Bernard Braun (301, 314, 315, 319-321).

Other outstanding works include the gilded statue of the Virgin Mary from the Marian column on Hradčany Square by F. M. Brokoff (334), Brüderle's figural fountain from Loreto (354), Ignác František Platzer's classicist sculptures from Prague's Goltz-Kinsky Palace (377-380), the Empire fountain from Uhelný trh in Prague by František Xaver Lederer (383), the so-called Podomek by Josef Malínský (388), or figural tombstones by Václav Prachner (390-391). Also noteworthy are two of the oldest Prague bronze monuments, celebrating Emperor Francis I and Marshal Radetzky, works by the Max brothers (399 and 404).

The monuments gathered in the National Museum's Lapidary mostly come from buildings demolished during the great sanitation wave that affected Prague at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Many pieces are from churches undergoing repair, some were removed from their original locations because they lost their original function (fountains, monuments), many were damaged by natural disasters or simply aged and were replaced by copies due to their poor condition.

Significant collections were acquired through archaeological research conducted by the museum (Ostrov u Davle, Vyšehrad), some pieces also come from accidental finds in the field. Currently, as stone monuments are deteriorating at an increasingly rapid rate due to worsening climate, threatened originals are primarily being brought to the Lapidary, where they are replaced by copies. In 1997, the Lapidary was ranked among the 10 most beautiful museum exhibitions in Europe in an international competition.

The exhibition is professionally managed by the Department of Older Czech History of the National Museum's Historical Museum.