Defending their History

People keep pointing at them, staring at them, posing for photos with them, talking about them & taking them for granted. But, who are they & what’s their story?

Photo I:

Michal Zdansky (left), a 36 years old 1st lieutenant, who’s been in the castle service for 2 years was the first who spoke to us about his experience in this job. He gave us an insight of how things go in the castle with the guards; explaining to us that one guard has a 3 hours shift per day; 1 hour by each gate. And when asked about why he does what he’s doing, this is what he had to say “money & patriotism”.

His fellow colleague Lucas Osladil (right), is a 27 years old castle guard who’s been in this post for 7 years now; he does like his job; & when asked about it; he pointed at his chest; having Zdansky translating to us what he said: “heart”.


Photo II:

Number 54 (left): that was the name of the police man whom we’ve talked to in the castle yard, in front of the Presidential office, where he’s been working in for 5 years. When we asked for his name, he said it was a secret & that policemen were identified only by their badge numbers; his was 54.

On his left was Jiri (Czech name for George), a 41 years old castle guard who’s been working there for 6 years was the only one who told us he did this job for the money. He couldn’t tell us about how much that “money” was, but we were able to find out some further details later on.


Photos III, IV, & V:

Petr Syhora, the 23 years old student on the left side of the picture has been working in the army since he was 19. Besides that job, he studies at the Faculty of Physical Education.

His shift-partner (ride side guard) Tomas Kalliel is a 26 years old father of 2 children.
And both Petr & Tomas were finishing their 5-to-6pm shift by the moment.






Photo VI:

Milos Kafka, a 21 years old soldier was kind enough to portray for us an overall picture of how things work there. He told us the following:
The soldiers in the castle are the ‘elite’ part of the army; that’s why many of them chose that job over the military army. And he explained how the Ministry of Defense is divided into an Army department & the Castle Guard one.
On how long they work as castle guards; he said it’s around 10 years; after which they give up their military positions for civil ones. As former militaries, they receive a monthly salary of 4, 000 Kc.
As for why they quit after around 10 years, Milos said it’s mainly because of the knee problems they start suffering from because of the nature of their position. But what keeps them working as guards, according to Kafka is the prestige & the symbolic meaning of guarding the castle & the Czech history!
Besides the prestige, their working conditions are quite good, as they only work for 14 days/a month, with 14 days off, which allows them to have a family life, & to continue with their studies & other jobs.


Děkuji!