PORTALS OF CHEB
OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF CITY CHEB
TOURIST INFOCENTRE
HISTORICAL CHEB FOUNDATION
CULTURAL CENTER SVOBODA
WEST CZECH THEATER CHEB
CITY LIBRARY IN CHEB
SIGHTS
STATUES, MONUMENTS AND MEMORIAL POINTS
EMPEROR JOSEPH II MONUMENT
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Emperor Joseph II Monument
The monument no longer exists. The statue of Emperor Joseph II was relocated to Františkovy Lázně.
In 1887, a monument to Emperor Joseph II was erected on the site of a former fountain in the upper part of the town square. The statue created by local sculptor Karl Wilfert was cast in bronze by a Viennese firm. Originally intended as a token of liberal political traditions , the statue became the symbol of nationalist conflicts that presently spread outside the region in the early days of the first Czechoslovak Republic. In the night hours on 14 November 1920, Czech soldiers pulled the statue down from its pedestal and they took the broken-off right arm with them to the army barracks. Singing the “Guards on the Rhine” hymn, the inhabitants of Cheb placed the statue back on its pedestal, fastened it with iron rods, and decorated it – all during the same night. Afterwards, they headed to the local Czech school to plunder it. On 16 November 1920, the German Estates Theatre in Prague was seized in revenge of the events in Cheb. Pursuant to the Act on the Protection of the Republic, the statue was removed from the pedestal and taken to the Franciscan Monastery garden in May 1923. Disputes concerning the pedestal continued until 1925, and its removal was ultimately decided by the Supreme Administrative Court. In 2003, the statue was restored by the Rotary Club in Cheb and re-installed in Františkovy Lázně in a newly founded open-air museum displaying the statues of Habsburg monarchs.
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