So they don't have to beg

At worst, the vast building of the Invalidovna in Karlin will become a ruin, a decaying gem of Baroque architecture, at best a luxury hotel, or at best a campus of the Faculty of Philosophy of Charles University. Either way, Invalidovna is facing an uncertain future in the near future and life may run out of it for good.

The author attempts to draw attention to this object in his comprehensive publication. So far there are only a few articles, mentions and short brochures about the history of the Invalides and the war invalids themselves. Compared to them, the book is based mainly on rich archival materials, which until now remained hidden and unprocessed in the bowels of the Military Historical Archive, which used Invalidovna for many years. The invalid room was first and foremost a place, where people used to come, so they don't have to beg or live, where they were born, they were dying, treated, taught, prayed, lived and worked, they were simply living their story or part of it.

The book does not omit important topics such as the story of the Strozzi Foundation, which lasted an impressive 294 years, or the actual construction of the building and the specific conditions of life there. However, they are trying to reach out to specific people who lived and perhaps even died in Invalidovna for many years. From the history of the 18th and 19th centuries, only fragments have survived, while in the 20th century it has been possible to piece together more complete stories and reconstruct a more detailed course of events. The coup d'état in Invalidovna at the end of October 1918, the figures of the individual commanders of the institute, the dispute over the premises in the early 1920s between the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of Social Welfare, the gradual marginalisation of the institute, the dwindling number of invalids and their relocation to the new asylum in Hořice. The text also attempts a more systematic description of the disabled officers' class, focusing on the interesting, strange and curious lives of some of them, or examining the life of an old traficant there.

Many questions remain open and unanswered. What remains are stories from the history of this special building in Karlin, set against the backdrop of a certain historical framework, stories that do not leave us indifferent...

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Mgr. Pavel Heřmánek, Th. D. (1980)

He graduated in history from the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague and the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague, where he also completed his doctorate in historical theology (dissertation: Kristina Poniatowska and Jan Amos Komenský. Visionary and educator during the Thirty Years' War). His studies focused mainly on the early modern period and the unexplored topic of Jan Amos Comenius' relationship to contemporary prophecies and visionaries (forthcoming publication, three studies have already been published in various professional periodicals). Currently, he is systematically dealing with the history of the Karlin Invalides and military invalids. He worked in the Department of Tourism at Prague Castle, where he also led a lecture series for the permanent exhibition The Story of Prague Castle, and worked as an external lecturer at the National Gallery (exhibition of Mannerism and Baroque in Schwarzenberg Palace). Since May 2009 he has been working as an archivist and historian at the Military Historical Archive in Karlin's Invalidovna. He is active in sports and art, and runs the Baribal puppet theatre.