St. Adalbert´s Cross
St. Adalbert was the second bishop of Prague and, together with St. Wenceslas, is the patron saint of the Czech land. His original statue stood at this place and was probably the work of the famous Baroque sculptor Lazar Widemann, who worked on the Křimice estate around 1740 and is also the author of the decoration of the church in Vejprnice or the famous equestrian statue of St. George at the Křimice castle.
Only the statue’s pedestal has survived to this day. Unfortunately, the statue itself was destroyed in the late 1970s. Vochov citizens Václav Sládek and Václav Rada were responsible for preserving the pedestal. In April 2022, the pedestal was moved from the park in the centre of the village back to its original location by volunteers from the Okrašlovací spolek Vochov and used for a new installation.
The St. Adalbert’s cross was designed by Radek Popelka. The sculpture refers to the symbolism of St. Adalbert. The most famous iconographic attributes are carved into a simple shape resembling a pagan cross: Saint Adalbert, who is usually depicted as a bishop with a crutch. This is complemented in the lower part of the sculpture by the outline of an oar with which Adalbert was struck by a pagan Prussian. The double sculpture symbolizes the intertwining of the destinies of Saint Adalbert with his brother Saint Radim. Radim was Adalbert’s inseparable companion on his travels. He witnessed Adalbert’s martyrdom and was captured by the Prussians himself. The number on the pedestal commemorates the feast of St. Adalbert, i.e. the day of Adalbert’s death – April 23, 997, when Adalbert ended his life’s journey with a martyr’s death at the age of about forty-one.
In addition to the author, members of the Okrašlovací spolek Vochov, Jan Linhart, Jan Svejkovský, and Jan Altman participated in the technical solution. The final sculpture was made by RUML Industry. The statue was unveiled on April 23, 2022, on the feast of St. Adalbert. The restored statue was blessed by the priest Igor Bibko.
