Visiting Prague

Jan Palach memorial

Jan Palach – is a Czech student, who committed suicide in political protest. On the monument which is located on the eastern side of Jan Palach square, beside the entrance to the philosophy faculty of Charles University where Paalch was a student, we can see a bronze memorial plaque with a ghosty death mask and exact date of his death. Jan Palach set himself in fire in the center of Prague in Wenceslas Square. He performed this act in protest of the Soviet-led invasion to Czechoslovakia in August 1968. This invasion aimed to crush the liberalization reforms during so called “The Prague Spring” initiated by Alexander Dubček’s government. His body was initially interred in Olšany Cemetery, but after his gravesite was growing into a national shrine, countries secret police exhumed his remains. His cremated body was sent to his mother in Palach’s native town of Všetaty. The urn of Jan Palach was officially returned on October 25, 1990 to initial site.

Later on a square was named after him, and a bronze cross was embedded at the spot where he fell outside the National Museum. There are also several other memorials to Palach in cities throughout Europe.

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