In Pilsen, maps of small sacred buildings and the art of normalization were published

Karel Malich, Okluzní fronta

Plzeň - Two maps have been published in Plzeň that capture small sacred buildings and normalization art in the city. In the project Crosses and Invaders, a group of volunteers and enthusiasts is dedicated to mapping small monuments and artworks in public space. The overall database contains about 1450 items. It also includes memorial plaques, portals, monuments, sundials, and cornerstones, said Aleš Hejna, a member of the project, to ČTK.

The map Plzeňian Invaders II captures small art from the normalization era, such as sculptures, busts, or mosaics in the city. "It is an overview of Plzeň creations of artistic objects that were made from the 1960s to the 1980s - the so-called invaders. It shows the best and most interesting things that can be seen in Plzeň from this period," Hejna said. The catalog maintained online records 377 existing invaders in Plzeň. Most of them are sculptural works, with over eighty. The list also includes 48 reliefs, 18 stained glass windows, or 14 mosaics. The map also includes invaders that were removed after 1989. According to Hejna, many works were created during normalization after being approved by ideological commissions, among which are pearls that are now forgotten but deserve attention.

All Saints of Plzeň ​is a map that presents outdoor small sacred monuments - crosses, chapels, or shrines, and also addresses pilgrimage sites. The database contains 253 items, around 50 monuments are lost. According to Hejna, there are the most crosses in Plzeň, around 60. "Usually, it is an iron cross on a stone base; this form constitutes about 60 percent of the crosses in Plzeň, stone ones are 30 percent, and wooden ones ten percent," he summarized. There are also 50 chapels in Plzeň. The map also indicates their names, if it was possible to trace to whom the chapel was consecrated. One of the oldest small sacred monuments is the Gryspek Shrine from 1606.

Not all found works made it onto the maps, while others are given more detailed attention. Special focus is given to the works that were rediscovered last year. These include a piece worth several million by Karel Malich titled Okluzní fronta and the sculpture by Rudolf Svoboda titled Return from Cosmos, which still lies in a container at Aleja Svobody.