The Václav Havel Bench Has Returned to Malá Strana
Representatives of Prague 1 and the Prague City Gallery unveiled the renovated Václav Havel bench on Maltézské náměstí in Lesser Town. “The tree, around which the bench table is placed, has become thicker, so we had to give it more space,” described the director of the Prague City Gallery Magdalena Juříková. According to her, the modifications were made with the consent of the copyright holders. The bench has not been on the square for about a year. The Václav Havel bench on Maltézské náměstí was the first one in the Czech Republic. It was placed there on 1 May 2014, on the tenth anniversary of the Czech Republic’s accession to the EU. Each of the benches, which can be found, for example, in Washington, Dublin, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, but also in Pilsen, České Budějovice, and Hradec Králové, are a memorial place dedicated to Václav Havel, Juříková said. It consists of two chairs connected by a round table with a tree growing through the center. The construction of the Václav Havel benches is a worldwide project initiated by Petr Gandalovič, former Czech ambassador to the USA, together with architect and designer Bořek Šípek. The intention of this project is to create...