Josef Dobrovský Monument - U Sovových mlýnů 506

Beautiful sculpture His design is the simple sad type I like

The statue commemorates the stay of Josef Dobrovský in the adjacent house, which is today known as the Werich Villa, formerly called Dobrovský House. Josef Dobrovský was a tutor of Nostic's children, and when he became ill, Nostic lent him a Baroque villa on Kampa for housing.

The monument in honor of the scientist, the main figure of Czech educational historiography, Josef Dobrovsky (1753-1829), was moved from the gardens of Jaroslav Vrchlicki to the park of the Kampa island. Dobrovsky rented an apartment for 5 years in a house opposite the Liechtenstein Palace. He came to research in history from philology. Dobrovsky studied all the available manuscripts in the depositories of the Czech Republic, Moravia, Vienna, Dresden, Leipzig, in the Italian and Swedish archives (libraries), etc. When studying historical sources, he evaluated them critically, deepened the use of criticism of historical material. He was distrustful of descriptive and documentary sources, since they were created by people with their own views, and most of the originals have not survived. Applying a critical method, he came to the conclusion that the ancient letter - the privilege of Boleslav II about the establishment of the Brzhevnovsky monastery - was fake, he exposed the cult of Jan Nepomuk, condemned the laws of Pope Gregory VII on the celibacy of the clergy and stood up for the free choice of priests, etc. And the tasks of historical works of that time were to glorify the church , the activities of kings, while keeping silent about the progressive traditions of Czech history. It is not surprising that the scientist was not only displeased by his opponents. It even got to the point that his criticism was regarded as delusions of a mentally ill person. It must be admitted that Dobrovsky was not always right in his hypercriticism. But, according to the Czech historian V. Voytishk, Dobrovsky's ideas, which were the result of reflections, made one think.

The marble monument is the work of Tomáš Seidan (bust) and Václav Žďárský from 1902 and was originally located in the Vrchlický Park (by Prague's main train station). During the air raid in 1945 the statue was damaged, after repair in 1947 it was transferred in front of the nostic garden house - Josef Dobrovský's residence after his retirement. The marble monument is the work of Tomáš Seidan (bust) and Václav Žďárský from 1902 and was originally located in the Vrchlický Park. During the air raid in 1945 the statue was damaged, after repair in 1947 it was transferred in front of the nostic garden house - Josef Dobrovský's residence after his retirement.