Václav Jan Frierenberger

Military career

Frierenberger's military path began in his youth, following his father Major Josef Frierenberger (1709–1773), who had earned the Military Order of Maria Theresa. By 1790, Jan Václav Josef was already listed as a captain, having fought in the Austro-Turkish wars. His own moment of highest recognition came after the Battle of Austerlitz: on 28 May 1806, he was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, the same order his father had received.

This award represented a claim to a lifetime peerage as Knight (Ritter), with the possibility of eventually claiming the hereditary title of free lord. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel the following year, then colonel in 1809, and finally major general on 27 April 1813. During the Battle of Dresden on 26 August 1813, he was severely wounded. Command of the artillery was taken over by General Friedrich Karl von Langenau.

In recognition of his service, Russian Tsar Alexander I awarded him the Russian Order of St. Anna. He retired in January 1820 and spent his last years in Kroměříž, where he died on 11 February 1823. He is buried in the old Kroměříž cemetery. In 1836, his widow had a monument built on his grave; in 1936 it was relocated to the current town cemetery entrance.

The Empire-style monument, protected as a cultural monument, shows a grieving woman leaning on a pedestal carrying a broken Doric column, with German inscriptions on all four sides of the pedestal shaft honoring the general. Additionally, on 2 December 1995, a stone monument near the old post office along the Olomouc road was unveiled by the Czechoslovak Napoleonic Society and the Austerlitz Battery, commemorating two Austrian artillery batteries under Major Václav Jan Frierenberger that covered the retreat of Russian General Pyotr Bagration's corps at the conclusion of the Battle of Austerlitz.