A special sound installation has been set up at the lower end of Wenceslas Square: the Poesiomat. At the touch of a button, the tube-shaped device plays poems, historical speeches, and songs associated with the location. Since 2015, the ‘Piána na ulici’ association has been bringing Poesiomats to public spaces—now also to one of the most significant sites in Czech history.
The structure resembles a ship’s vent or an underground railway exhaust pipe. It has a crank, and when turned, it sings and tells a story about the place where it stands. The Poesiomat was inaugurated at the lower end of Wenceslas Square on Tuesday. The sound device offers listeners twenty authentic recordings, including poems by Karel Šiktanc and Vítězslav Nezval, as well as archival recordings of key 20th-century events that took place on Wenceslas Square.
Since 2015, the ‘Piána na ulici’ association, founded by Ondřej Kobza, has been placing Poesiomats across the Czech Republic. ‘While the first Poesiomat on the Square of Peace Processes was mainly a jukebox for poetry, today it offers a wide range of audio experiences—from poems and songs to archival recordings and testimonies from contemporary witnesses, as well as authentic soundscapes,’ explained Ondřej Kobza. According to Kobza, Wenceslas Square in Prague was one of the first locations he wanted to equip with a Poesiomat. “It has taken years of work, so I’m really pleased that our already legendary tube is finally here, providing a small counterpoint to Myslbek’s monumental memorial. We hope that people will gather here in a similar way to how they meet at the equestrian statue (U koně), but perhaps now also at the Poesiomat,” he added with a smile.
The Poesiomat tells the story of one of the most important places in Czech history through excerpts from narratives, historical reports, songs, and poems. Among other things, it offers listeners the speech proclaiming the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic on Wenceslas Square in 1918, an authentic recording of Klement Gottwald’s speech beginning with the words ‘I have just come from the castle’ in February 1948, the last words of Jan Palach, as well as recordings of Václav Havel’s speeches and Marta Kubišová’s first public performance after a 20-year ban in November 1989.
Beyond Prague, Poesiomats can be found in numerous other cities in the Czech Republic and abroad. Similar devices can be found on the streets of Paris, Dublin, Heidelberg, and Buffalo in the United States, offering passers-by the chance to listen to poetry and songs.
