Stalin Monument - Prague, Czech Republic
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ToRo61
N 50° 05.672 E 014° 24.860
33U E 458108 N 5549305
A former Stalin Monument in Prague
Waymark Code: WMXAJ2
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 12/17/2017
Views: 16
Stalin's Monument was a massive granite statue honoring Joseph Stalin that was unveiled on 1 May 1955 after more than 5½ years of work in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It was the world's largest representation of Stalin. It was destroyed in 1962.
The monument was located on a huge concrete pedestal, which can still be visited in Letná Park. It was the largest group statue in Europe, measuring 15.5 m (51 ft) high and 22 m (72 ft) long. The sculptor was Otakar Švec, who killed himself the day before the unveiling.
The process of de-Stalinization began shortly after the unveiling of the monument. The monument, therefore, became an increasing source of embarrassment to the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, and was taken down with 800 kilograms (1,800 lb) of explosives.
In 1990, pirate radio station Radio Stalin operated from a bomb shelter beneath the statue's plinth. The same shelter was also the home of Prague's first rock club in the early 1990s. Since 1991 the marble pedestal has been used as the base of a giant kinetic sculpture of a metronome. In 1996 the pedestal was briefly used as a base for a 35-foot-tall (11 m) statue of Michael Jackson as a promotional stunt for the start of his HIStory World Tour. A billboard promoting Civic Democratic Party leader Václav Klaus was erected on the site during the Czech parliamentary elections of 1998 but was removed soon after due to high winds.
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