Jan Hus - Horice, Czech Republic
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vraatja
N 50° 21.680 E 015° 37.913
33U E 544944 N 5578997
The monument with statue of the reformer Jan Hus (John Hus), one of the most important personalities in Czech history made by great Czech sculptor Ladislav Šaloun in 1914.
Waymark Code: WMFAXB
Location: Královéhradecký kraj, Czechia
Date Posted: 09/22/2012
Views: 49
Jan Hus (John Huss) was an imporatnt priest and preacher who was trying to reform the church all his life. In 1415 John Huss was sentenced and burnt as a heretic. His death became the beginning of the Hussite movement. In the middle of the 19th century the interest in John Huss was revived – he was considered to be the symbol of the Czech nation and patriotism. Just at the end of 19th and in beginning of 20th century a many monuments and statues dedicated to the man were erected around Bohemia. In 1903 decided citizens of Horice to build another one. It took the next decade to realize the wish. On July 5 1914 a big monument of Jan Hus was unveiled in front of a new building of Trade school - Commercial Academy, on square named just after Jan Hus. The monument was designed and sulpted by great Czech sculptor Ladislav Saloun, author of another and more famous Jan Hus Monument (1915) located in Prague's Old Town Square. The dimensions of the monument are quite impressive - 13 meters long, 9 meters high and 11 meters wide. The material used from the whole monument comes from local sandstone pits. Central, over life-size statue of Jan Hus wearing a typical Medieval, long sleeved priest's robe, is standing on the rock, symbolizing "the truth". The statue and the rock are monolitic, sulpted from one piece of stone and it should symbolize that also Jan Hus is "the truth". In his left hand he is holding a book, undoubtely the Bible. At one side of the monument are statues of "the lie and the false" running away from the truth, On the other, southern part are statues of two people, a man and a woman, looking up "towards the sun". Around the whole monuments is big pool, which unfortunately is not functional recently. The water running from the rock should symbolize, according to author Ladislav Saloun, "the word, which comes from the rock and joins with another springs to create the rivers."
Jan Hus
"Jan (John) Hus (born 1370, Husinec, Bohemia — died July 6, 1415, Konstanz, Switzerland)was a Bohemian religious reformer. He studied and taught at the University of Prague, where he was influenced by John Wycliffe. As rector of the university from 1402, he became leader of a reform movement that criticized the corruption of the Roman Catholic clergy. The movement was threatened when Wycliffe's teachings were condemned by the church, and Hus's position was further undermined by his stand in the power struggles among rival popes. He was excommunicated in 1411 but continued to preach. Renewed sale of indulgences by the antipope John XXIII earned Hus's criticism, which in turn led to a revival of the case of heresy against him. He was invited to the Council of Constance to explain his views; though promised safe conduct, he was arrested, tried for heresy, and burned at the stake. His writings were important in the development of the Czech language as well as in the theology of church reform, and his followers were called Hussites.
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