Lamp

At a time when I was only taking day trips to Prague as a tourist, I never failed to visit the cubist column tucked away in Jungmann Square. I feel embarrassed by the lack of originality in this endeavor, as Jan Kaplický never misses the opportunity to emphasize his relationship with this column in any of his Czech lectures and to point out the lamentable state of this unique cubist monument. My alibi is the fact that my visits occurred during a time when the only solitary book I had in my library was by Rostislav Švácha, Viktor Kožený was the savior of the Czech economy, and the name Kaplický meant nothing to me.
As a layperson, I am satisfied with the quality of the reconstruction. The main surface damages have been repaired. The column no longer displays its brick insides under the crumbling plaster, and the layers of dirt have been washed away. I have a message for Mr. Architect Kaplický and other supporters of exclusively Czech architectural style - the lamp is in a better condition and shines hopefully at night.

Under Blech's supervision, another remarkable cubist work was created in 1912, the stone streetlight column in front of the rear facade of Kalous's pharmacy in the corner of Jungmann Square, whose design was long unjustly attributed to Vlastislav Hofman. As can be deduced from the preserved plan of the column, its true creator, Emil Králíček, was well aware of the diverse environment in which he was designing his creation.
Such a peculiar, complex, and contradictory phenomenon as cubist architecture must have encompassed many erroneous elements. However, if cubist architects were aware of and accepted all these objections, they would never have created cubist architecture - the only Czech contribution to the thousand-year history of architectural styles.