Venue: Old Town Square
Event type: State or civil events
Date: 21/04/1850 am
The local news section of Bohemia 23/4/1850, in a report signed ‘Δ’, described this civil festival event marking the consecration of the flag of the Seventh National Guard Battalion of Prague, which ‘took place the day before yesterday before an exceedingly numerous audience on the Old Town Square. Many houses in the Square were decked with white and red foulards and garlands, all windows as well as the galleries in the towers of the Týn Church were filled with onlookers, and the great balcony of the Old Town Hall was draped in white and red. The National Guard under the command of Major Uhlíř, the Sharpshooters, the Civil Infantry and the Civil Grenadiers formed a great Karré, in the middle of which was the mess tent and two spacious tents for the guests ... who included Count Rhevenhüller and the new State-commandant Fieldmarshal-Lieutenant von Schütte. The pontiff Mr Tomek opened the festival with a sermon in the Czech language and read a high mass, during which a choir sang from the balcony of the Old Town Hall three Czech songs; thereafter a cantata specially written and composed for the occasion was performed. ... [Afterward] Mr Tomek drove in the first nail [of the new flag], the second and third by Baron Mecs’ery and his wife. The Major of the Seventh Battalion delivered the new flag to his troop with a short and pithy speech in Czech. The highlight of the festival was marked by the Guards with a - for the greater part precise - firing of a battery. Four Guards-music ensembles and the band of the Infantry Regiment Wimpffen played. During the afternoon the Guard’s Battalion gave a little festival on the Shooters’ Island [Schützeninsel / Střelecký ostrov], at which the musical ensemble of the Imperial Infantry Regiment Wimpffen under Kapellmeister Whitt gave a most refined programme.’
No specific details of the compositions performed in this event or at the afternoon festival were given by the source.