University of Chicago [Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Memorial - by Albin Polasek]

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Memorial ..
Sculptor: Albin Polasek
Completed: 1949..
Location: East End of Midway Plisance, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois ..

Albin Polasek's bronze statue of a legendary knight of Bohemia's Blanik Mountains stands at the east end of the Midway. It memorializes Czechoslovakia's first president and former University of Chicago professor Tomás Garrigue Masaryk.



The plaque reads ...
1850-1937 ..
Rising out of the fertile Bohemian soil, the Blanik Mountain stands eternally vigilant, its verdant slopes sheltering a wealth of age-old folklore. According to an old legend, slumbering within its cool mountainous depths, the Blanik Knights stand guard, ready to ride forth with Saint Wenceslaus to lead them in their nation's hour of need ..

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Czechoslovakia's first President symbolized in flesh this legendary vigilance, when in the fury of World War I. His Czechoslovak Legions fought to realize the the nation's fondest dreams. Thus cast in bronze the Blanik Knight is but a monumental symbol of Thomas G. Masaryk's eternally valid ideals of freedom, democracy and humanity ...