Who owns the Lennon Wall?
The grounds belong to the Knights of Malta, one of the largest and most powerful Christian orders of chivalry in the Middle Ages. Only the Knights Templar or the Teutonic Knights could match it. Members were called "Johannites", wearing a black cloak with a white cross. They were dedicated to the care of the sick, no matter what their nationality or faith. Gradually, the Johannites also became warriors. With the increasing danger from the Turks, it was necessary to protect pilgrims and Christian sites in Jerusalem.
Membership of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta cannot be applied for, you must be invited. The Order has approximately 13,000 members worldwide. The Order has been a sovereign state since 1309. It is the only sovereign state in the world that has no territory or population of its own. It issues its coins, postage stamps and has its own vehicle registration plates. In the Czech Republic, the Order now devotes itself to charitable activities.
Their role in the territory was mainly to protect the roads from robbers and thieves. The Order has been active in Prague since 1158, when the Czech King Vladislav I. gave them a plot of land in the Lesser Town after his return from the Crusade. According to tradition, among other activities, they were to defend the Judith Bridge, so they were given a residence not far from here by the king. Judith's Bridge was the predecessor of Charles Bridge, it was the oldest stone bridge in the Czech lands.
The Czech Grand Priory in the Czech Republic operates, among other things, the Higher Vocational School of Medicine in Prague's Ječná Street. This school was mentioned in the media in 2023 in connection with a presentation in a gynaecology course, when a professor lectured students that "homosexuality and lesbian love are sexual orientation disorders", on the same level as paedophilia or pathological sexual aggression.
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The Lennon Wall is part of the wall surrounding the Maltese Garden, which also belongs to the Grand Priory of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. This order also owns the nearby Church of Our Lady Under the Chain. The name of the church refers to the chain that once stretched across the Vltava River from the old Judith Bridge and served as a medieval toll gate to regulate shipping and collect taxes.
During the Hussite Wars in the 15th century, the original church and priory buildings were damaged, and the current Baroque alterations date from the 17th century. Lennon Wall itself, originally an inconspicuous boundary wall, became famous in the 1980s. At that time, young people began covering it with messages of peace and resistance to the communist regime. This created a globally recognized symbol of freedom.
Source: BLAŽEK, Petr; LAUBE, Roman; POSPÍŠIL, Filip. Lennonova zeď v Praze: Studie, rozhovory, dokumenty. Praha: Muzeum paměti XX. století, 2020. 536 s. ISBN 978-80-907989-0-8.
