New Mace and Ceremonial Gown of the Faculty of Social Sciences Exhibition












            ******************************************************************************************

            * New Mace and Ceremonial Gown of the Faculty of Social Sciences Exhibition
            ******************************************************************************************
            Charles University is an institution steeped in history; as the oldest University in Centr

            in 1348, its own past is closely interlinked with important historic shifts in the Czech R
            Europe.
            The New Mace and Ceremonial Gown exhibit held from the 19th January until 20th February 20

            Cloister of the Karolinum, the central point of Charles University nestled in the centre o
            showcased the Faculty of Social Sciences new ceremonial mace and gown. The ceremonial mace
            important role in the graduation and matriculation of Charles University students; student

            fingers on the mace to honour their commitment and loyalty to the University. The design o
            mace is symbolic of subject it represents; demonstrated through the Faculty of Arts mace c

            including an owl and the sun, representative of wisdom and truth respectively. Whilst the 
            Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, designed in 1979, consists of metal rods of geometric 
            orbiting planets in the centre, and in the crown, a Mobius strip to symbolise the never-en

            presented through Mathematics and Physics.
            The Faculty of Social Science is one of Charles University’s newer faculties, as it was fo
            and this new mace was sculpted by Otmar Oliva, whose previous work is exhibited for exampl

            Pope John Paul II Chapel in the Vatican. As with the maces of other faculties, the design 
            the feats and facets of the Social Sciences, the motif of an open hand is used to represen
            in the palm of the hand, with each finger representing the fields developed in the faculty

            Economics, Government, Culture and History). The mace is themed around ‘Society in the Pal
            concept penned by Prof. Martin Potůček, whilst the style of the design of the mace mirrors
            older designs from the 19th century. The exhibition contains a photo series taken by Sandr

            and Filip Lába, chronicling the step by step process by which the mace was manufactured. F
            of the process of design and creation can be found in the book ‘Přísahejme na vlastní’ (Le
            Own).

            The exhibition also showcases the uniquely designed ceremonial gown, its grandeur similar 
            the mace, with deep blue material, golden embroidery and buttons alongside a red over-robe
            designed by Charles University graduate Alena Zvolánková, who also studied at the Departme

            Technology at the Technical University of Liberec, and will like the mace be a part of fut
            and matriculation ceremonies for students of the Faculty of Social Sciences as it is worn 
            bedel.

            Below the Cloister is the permanent exhibition of the history of Charles University, held 
            atmospheric and cavernous below ground cellars of the Karolinum. The historical artefacts 
            displayed here act to further contextualise the importance of the new artefacts in the exh

            Cloister as extensions of Charles University’s past.
            The maces, for example, hark back to a time in Charles University’s past when the Universi
            into the German and Czech halves; this occurred in 1882. Both parts had their own maces, w

            the Czech side being older and grander, while the ones displayed and utilised in Charles U
            being those commissioned in the 1880s by the German University in Prague. Both sides of th
            enjoyed prolific alumni and teachers (Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein and Ernst Mach on the G

            and Czechoslovak first President Masaryk on the Czech or Czechoslovakian side), and growth
            and student enrolment. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War and the Nazi occupation o
            all Czech universities were shut down, and in 1945 following the war the German side of th

            was abolished due to the removal of Germans from Czechoslovakia. However, the older maces 
            University and the original charter of the founding of Charles University by Charles IV in
            by the Germans and never recovered, likely due to them either being lost or destroyed. Hen

            why the University only owns a copy of the manuscript of the original founding charter and
            maces are used ceremonially now at Charles University (next to those newer ones such as th
            of the Faculty of Social Sciences).

            The exhibition provides valuable insight into the way that past traditions heavily influen
            creation of new ceremonial items within the University today, as the new mace and gown aes
            symbolically reflect a homage and loyalty to the ritualised values of Charles University.
                                                                                                      
            Georgia Moss is an Erasmus student from the UK studying at the Faculty of Humanities. At h