Jan Palach & Jan Zajíc Memorial - Wenceslas Square (Prague)
N 50° 04.767 E 014° 25.825
33U E 459247 N 5547619
In the natural centre of Prague, Wenceslas Square, you can find depicted Jan Palach & Jan Zajíc Memorial. It is just past the statue of St. Wenceslas, near the Museum metro station, directly under the Nation Museum building.
Waymark Code: WMAK25
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 01/23/2011
Views: 184
In the natural centre of Prague, Wenceslas Square, you can find depicted Jan Palach & Jan Zajíc Memorial. It is just past the statue of St. Wenceslas, near the Museum metro station, directly under the Nation Museum building. Sometimes it will be garlanded with flowers and candles, especially around the January 16 anniversary of his death.
At the top of Wenceslas Square lies a bronze cross memorializing Jan Palach, a Czech student who, in 1969, lighted himself on fire to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia that had occurred the year before (August 21st, 1968). Several students were part of a suicide pact with Palach but as he awaited his own death in excruciating pain, he pleaded publicly for them to avoid the same fate. About a month later, however, a student named Jan Zajíc added strength to Palach's protest when he, too, set himself alight in the square. The monument memorializes more than just these two students, though. It has come to represent all of those who fell in the fight against the unwanted occupation.
More details you can find here.