The Ládví Frog Comes Back as a Replica Cast From the Sculptor's Own Model, This Time Under Cameras

The water feature by the Ládví swimming pool on the Ďáblice estate was load-tested on 8 October, with the new plant and the seating of the bronze frog on the rebuilt basin both checked on site. Prague 8 published the result the following day. After decades of decay and disuse, the district says, water runs under the Žabák again.

The basin itself was rebuilt with its limestone blocks refurbished rather than replaced, which is the detail that distinguishes a restoration from a new fountain on an old spot. The sculpture is a different matter: what goes back is a faithful replica, cast with the close cooperation of the sculptor's family, who supplied a surviving model for the mould.

What happened to the original

Vincenc Vingler's bronze stood on the estate from the 1970s. In 2007 vandals tore it off and threw it into the bushes; it was repaired and put back. In 2008 it was stolen a second time and never recovered. Prague 8's own headline dates the return at twenty years, though the account underneath it puts the final theft in 2008.

That history is why the installation is not finished. After the successful technical trial the frog goes back into storage at the Prague 8 town hall for a few more days, because the last step before the piece is completed is mounting the cameras of a security system and other anti-theft and anti-vandalism equipment.

The corner, not just the fountain

The ground around the water has been rebuilt as a place to sit rather than a surround for a basin. There is solid concrete seating, play equipment for children, and a timber deck prepared to take a further perch. Freshly sown grass and perennial beds are to follow, a drinking fountain is to be installed in the coming days, and the final cleaning and making-good is still to be done. The district gives no opening date for the rest area.

Caring for our estates, respect for their history and the steady cultivation of public space — that is something I see enormous significance and purpose in. The Ďáblice estate is an architectural unique, and restoring this corner repays a debt to local residents. I am delighted that we managed to breathe new life into this almost forgotten place and give it back its original charm.

— Tomáš Hřebík, deputy mayor of Prague 8

The return of Vincenc Vingler's sculpture is a great benefit for the cultural map of Prague 8. Art clearly belongs in public space, and here you can see how well it works when the restoration of an artwork is joined to a sensitive revitalisation of everything around it.

— Jana Solomonová, Prague 8 councillor for culture

Both quotations are translated from the district's Czech release.

A footnote the district put in itself

The announcement ends with a detail worth repeating because it is the sort of thing a council release usually leaves out: pelican tracks have appeared immediately beside the fountain. The district explains them as a visit from the pelican that presides over a nearby pond on the same estate, linking the two water features. It is a staged joke in cast metal, and it is also a claim about the estate — that these pieces were always one set, and that fixing one of them is a reason to mention the other.

The choice the release implies is worth naming. The replica could have gone somewhere easier to guard; instead it returns to the basin it was made for, on a spot that has twice proved indefensible, and the fountain has been rebuilt around it out of its own refurbished stone. Hřebík's phrase for the estate — an architectural unique — is the argument for doing it that way, and the cameras are what it costs. That reading is ours; the release states the decision and not the reasoning behind it.