Memorial Site. Inlaid among the cobblestones of Prague's Old Town Square are a pair of crossed swords wreathed with a crown of thorns, 27 individual crosses, and a dark date in Czech history. The mosaics mark the execution site of 27 Protestant leaders on June 21, 1621, for their role in the failed Bohemian Rebellion (also known as the Estates Rebellion, 1618 to 1620), against the ruling pro-Catholic Habsburg Monarchy. This was the first phase of what became the Thirty Years' War. Among the condemned were Jan Jessenius, former rector of Prague's Charles University and principal idealogue for the rebels, Count Jachym Slik, knights Kaspar Kaplir and Vaclav Budovec, and Krystof Harant, soldier, statesman, and man of the arts. Three commoners in the group were hanged while the rest, from the nobility and the Burgher class, were beheaded. Their heads were displayed on pikes along the Charles Bridge to warn against further challenges to Catholic authority. Bohemia would remain under Habsburg control until 1918. According to legend the ghosts of the executed noblemen revisit Old Town Square every June 21.
Memorial Site. Inlaid among the cobblestones of Prague's Old Town Square are a pair of crossed swords wreathed with a crown of thorns, 27 individual crosses, and a dark date in Czech history. The mosaics mark the execution site of 27 Protestant leaders on June 21, 1621, for their role in the failed Bohemian Rebellion (also known as the Estates Rebellion, 1618 to 1620), against the ruling pro-Catholic Habsburg Monarchy. This was the first phase of what became the Thirty Years' War. Among the condemned were Jan Jessenius, former rector of Prague's Charles University and principal idealogue for the rebels, Count Jachym Slik, knights Kaspar Kaplir and Vaclav Budovec, and Krystof Harant, soldier, statesman, and man of the arts. Three commoners in the group were hanged while the rest, from the nobility and the Burgher class, were beheaded. Their heads were displayed on pikes along the Charles Bridge to warn against further challenges to Catholic authority. Bohemia would remain under Habsburg control until 1918. According to legend the ghosts of the executed noblemen revisit Old Town Square every June 21.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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