Masaryk memorial

The Thomas Masaryk Memorial commemorates Czechoslovakia’s first president and former University of Chicago professor Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. The work personifies one of the legends of the Czech people. In the centre of the province of Bohemia is the Blanik Mountain, under which sleeps a heroic company of medieval knights. It is said that when their countrymen on earth are oppressed, the mountain will open and these ancient warriors will ride to the rescue. Legend has it that during World War I, the knights appeared in the persons of Masaryk and his legionnaires, founding a new, free country after 300 years of oppression.

The plaque reads …

Rising out of the fertile Bohemian soil, the Blanik Mountain stands eternally vigilant, its verdant slopes sheltering a wealth of age-old folklore. According to an old legend, slumbering within its cool mountainous depths, the Blanik Knights stand guard, ready to ride forth with Saint Wenceslaus to lead them in their nation’s hour of need ..

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Czechoslovakia’s first President symbolized in flesh this legendary vigilance, when in the fury of World War I. His Czechoslovak Legions fought to realize the the nation’s fondest dreams. Thus cast in bronze the Blanik Knight is but a monumental symbol of Thomas G. Masaryk’s eternally valid ideals of freedom, democracy and humanity …

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