Two words are legible on the granite from the pavement: SVATÝ VÁCLAVE. Saint Wenceslas, vocative case, the form you use when you are speaking to someone. The rest of the inscription runs around the pedestal and finishes as a request. Duke of the Czech land, our prince, do not let us perish, nor those who come after us. The line comes from a hymn that was already old in the fourteenth century, and it is carved on a monument finished in 1924, which tells you most of what you need to know about how Czechs have used this saint.