Monuments and Collective Memory
I’ve long appreciated the First World War memorials to which the Czechs have added the names of Second World War dead, victims of fascism and communism, and in one case, the dead from UN service. Makes good use of existing monuments. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument in front of the old Kane County Courthouse in …
Continue reading “Kane County, Illinois’ Multipurpose War Memorial”
I’m not a big fan of cannons or mortars–I mean how interesting can they be and no they aren’t the same thing–but I am a fan of reading historic markers. That’s how I learned that these round mortar shells, which were what originally attracted my attention at Battery Park in Charleston, were for thirteen-inch mortars. …
When I went to Charleston for the first time late last year, I had no real visual idea of the city. I did expect to find Civil War memorials of some kind, even if they were only the ghosts of standing confederate soldiers or a Confederate general atop his stallion that had recently been removed. …
And in the First District at that? Why would I want it as part of my view when I’m having a Melange or a Kaiserspritzer, depending on the time of day, at Cafe Prückel on the Ring? Seems unfair to me to have to look at the anti-Semitic founder of the Christian Social Party and …
Continue reading “Why Does Karl Lueger Still Have a Platz in Vienna?”
I visited the Soviet War Memorial (Heldendenkmal der Roten Armee) on Schwarzenbergplatz (during much of the postwar occupation, Stalinplatz) again recently. It seems fair enough that the colors of the Ukrainian flag now appear as a backdrop to the columns of the colonade that partially surrounds the monument. After all, (Soviet) Ukrainian troops did help …
Continue reading “After All, the Ukrainians Did Help Liberate Vienna in April 1945”
Many monuments help their viewers remember. Plenty of monuments remember war. IMO, one of things war criminals do is try to destroy memory of all kinds. In this case, cultural. For shame.
Last autumn, Chad Bryant, my friend and colleague who teaches at UNC, asked me if I’d zoom with some of his students about a monument, a street sign, or some other part of the built environment that tells us something about a moment in time in Prague’s history. And so I did. No surprise that …
Continue reading “Postscript to My Favorite Statue in Prague — Podcast Is Linked Below!”
More than sixty years ago, late in the afternoon of January 16, 1969, university student Jan Palach appeared on upper Wenceslas Square in the center of Prague. Standing on the ramp before the National Museum, he doused himself with kerocene, and lit himself on fire to protest the Soviet occupation of the country and the …
Continue reading “A Small Memorial to Jan Palach on Wenceslas Square”
I’ve long been fascinated by the baroque Plague Columns (Pestsaule/Morový sloup/Kolumna dżumy) that dot Habsburg Central Europe, many of which are at the same time either Marian Columns or Holy Trinity Columns. They often incorporate various plague saints, among them Saints Roch, Rosalie, and Sebastian. These columns are my absolute favorite form of baroque art. …
Continue reading “What will Our Twenty-First Century Plague Columns Look like?”
I’ve never much liked Andrew Jackson (Old Hickory), dating back to when I spent time reading my parents’ copy of an illustrated lives of presidents. You know, I was at that age when you memorize all the presidents’ names in order of when they served. I’m not even sure what it was I didn’t like. …
Of Monuments and Memory