RADEGAST

• He was a pagan god of the Slavs – the God of Sun, abundance, and harvest
• According to legend, a statue of Radegast once stood atop Mount Radhošť
• The statue was demolished by Thessalonian missionaries Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century
• The idol is now stored in the underground Radhošť chapel… try to find it 🙂
• Today’s Radegast statue stands 320 cm tall, weighs 1.4 tons, and is made of granite
• The statue was created by Frenštát native, Professor Albín Polášek from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts (14.2.1879 – 20.5.1965)
• The statue was funded by Czech expatriates in America and donated to their homeland
• The body is male, the face resembles a lion, and the head has a helmet shaped like a bull’s head with horns
• Did you know that Radegast holds a cornucopia in his right hand and an axe in his left?
• The statue was unveiled on July 5, 1931, during the Slavic pilgrimage of Cyril and Methodius
• In 1998, a replica was placed on the original site, while the original statue was moved to the town hall in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm
• The replica was carved from a 16.5-ton block of granite and cost 1 million crowns