Repair of the column at Hradčanské Square will cost up to 20 million

Prague - The repair of the column in Hradčanském square in Prague will cost 15 to 20 million crowns. Some sandstone statues will undergo restoration, while others will be replaced. ČTK found this out from the public procurement bulletin. The main work is expected to start next year, probably completed in 2016.
    The Gallery of the Capital City of Prague, as the investor, has set the price for the announced public contract at 15 to 20 million, intending to restore the architecture of the column and the sculptural decoration. At the same time, a copy will be made, as well as copies of the deteriorating architectural elements. The pavement around the column will also be relaid.
    Restorers already removed the statues from the plague column this January. After the statues were dismantled, the joints were temporarily sealed to prevent water from entering the monument. The statues will wait in storage for now. The column will be restored on-site, but work will only proceed outside of the winter months.
    Surveys have previously indicated that the column is in a state of emergency. Experts initially believed it would need to be disassembled and removed from the square. "After calculations, it appears that the column is ninety percent statically sound. We will know more only after the outer figurative decoration has been removed," previously stated curator Marie Foltýnová from the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague (GHMP) in response to ČTK's inquiry. The gallery is therefore preparing a project costing approximately 10 to 15 million crowns.
    The plague column stands in the middle of Hradčanském square at the site where open-air services were held during the great plague in 1713-1714. The author of the statue of the Virgin Mary and the figures of saints on the railing and on the pillars of the obelisk is Ferdinand Maximilian Brokoff. The statue of the Madonna was already replaced with a copy in the century before last, according to information available online.