Prague: Václav Havel & Velvet Revolution Small-Group Tour｜Czechia

Begin your tour at Divadlo Na zábradlí, where Václav Havel started as a stagehand and developed into a playwright. Learn about Havel not simply as a future president, but as a writer whose ideas about responsibility, truth, and individual freedom became increasingly political.

Continue towards the National Theatre and Café Slavia. Explore Prague’s cultural and intellectual environment, dissidents and artists, the surveillance of the communist State Security, Charter 77, samizdat publishing, and Havel’s idea of “living in truth.”

At Laterna Magika and Národní třída, learn how opposition moved from dissent to open political change. Národní třída was the site of the police crackdown on demonstrators on 17 November 1989, one of the key events that triggered the Velvet Revolution. Laterna Magika became an important headquarters during the revolution.

Continue through Lucerna Passage. Here, connect Václav Havel with his family history and the buildings associated with the Havel family, as well as the later artistic commentary represented by David Černý’s upside-down horse sculpture.

On Wenceslas Square, focus on the enormous demonstrations of November 1989 and the rapid collapse of communist political power. Finish at the former Melantrich balconies on Wenceslas Square. From these balconies, Václav Havel and Alexander Dubček addressed the crowds during the Velvet Revolution.