Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Steven..........  These are the opening words to the Christmas Carol sung in England and elsewhere.  The Good King referred to in the title is in fact, Vaclav the Duke of Bohemia who reigned from 921 to 935 until he was murdered with help from his brother.  Wenceslas is a latinized version of the traditional Czech Vaclav.

Wenceslas was made a saint immediately after his death due to the legend of his good works in helping the poor and his popularity with the Bohemian people.  Saint Wenceslas is considered the patron saint of the Czechs -- all of the region considered to be Bohemia is a part of the current Czech Republic.  

The Main Square of the New Town section of Prague is named for Wenceslas.  There is a large statue of him on a horse looking down the grand boulevard.  It was here in 1989 that the Velvet Revolution occurred, where hundreds of thousands of Czechs gathered to protest which brought an end to communist rule.  Although fairly commercial and without the same level of historic buildings as Old Town Prague, it still holds an indelible mark on the history of the Czech Republic.

Imagine hundreds of thousands of people in this square
bringing about the end of communism in the
Czech Republic.  The statue is at the far end.