It is easy and at the same time difficult for me to write a review about the Holy Trinity column in Olomouc. Others have already described the monument in detail, and I am not the first and only one who thinks that Olomouc is beautiful town. Actually, it is the second biggest and valuable Czech historical town after Prague.

So, I will try putting the site into the context:

It happened in 15th Century that most of the Bohemia and Moravia was of non-catholic faith. Actually, Czechia was the first country of Christendom, which had two faiths officially approved: catholic and utraquist (it was however closer to catholic than to later protestant churches). It became even more complicated after a massive spreading of the protestant faith in 16th Century. After the defeat of non-Catholics in Czechia in 17th Century, tough anti-reformation program took place. As the result of this process, Czechia turned into baroque cultural landscape full of small churches, castle gardens etc.

During this program, numerous Virgin Mary and Holy Trinity columns have been erected in almost all towns or even bigger villages. The reason for construction of many of them was also the overcoming of plague outbursts. Thus, they are sometimes called as the plague columns. The oldest Virgin Mary column was erected in Prague on the Old Town Square around 1650 as thanksgiving for saving Old Town from the attack of protestant Swedish army. It was pulled down as the symbol of catholic Hapsburgs after establishing of Czechoslovakia Republic in 1918. After long-lasting discussion and controversies, it was newly reconstructed in 2020!

However, Olomouc was the exception from what I briefly described in previous two paragraphs… As the seat of the powerful bishopric/archbishopric see, it was always a stronghold of Catholic Church even if almost entire Bohemia and most of bigger towns in Moravia were non-catholic. The importance of the catholic Olomouc was even more significant, during the Sede Vacante in the Prague archbishopric see for more than 100 years in 15-16th Centuries.

Thus, it is not surprising, why such giant construction has been erected in the very center of Olomouc and why it was supported not only by the government but also by common people. It is also interesting to analyze why Holy Trinity column is much bigger than Virgin Mary column in Olomouc, even if Virgin Mary was more popular in Czechia during anti-reformation. Holy Trinity was the symbol of Austrian monarchy after the defeat of Turkish army near Vienna. This pro-Austrian line of Olomouc is clearly visible in archbishopric palaces in both Olomouc and Kroměříž...

To return to 21th Century: In summer time, the steps around the column are decorated by flowers, which make the site even more beautiful!