What's in a Prague street name

Originally published on Twitter on 26 June 2022.

Olgy Havlové was built in 2012.

I normally try to get a photo where you can actually read the street sign, but isn’t this one awesome despite completely failing on that count?

Olga Šplíchalová was born in Žižkov (specifically Vackov) in 1933.

In the early 1950s, she joined an amateur theatre group, and, when at Cafe Slavia, met Václav Havel (photo from the Blesk archive).

They married at Žižkov Town Hall in 1964. In the mid-1960s, they both worked at Divadlo Na zábradlí (https://nazabradli.cz/en/homepage/).

We all know about Havel’s work as a dissident, but Olga was also a formidable figure. While he was in prison, she took over his samizdat responsibilities. She also participated in and organised Charter 77 activities and meetings (she signed in 1982).

Havel’s letters to Olga, written when he was in prison from May 1979 to March 1983, are collected in ‘Letters to Olga’.

In 1987, she co-founded Originální Videojournal, a video news magazine documenting dissident activities in Czechoslovakia.

Here’s the episode documenting the protests on Škroupovo náměstí in December 1988.

As First Lady from 1990, she focused on charitable activities, setting up the Olga Havel Foundation in 1992. You can find out about their work on https://vdv.cz/en/.

She died of cancer in January 1996, with an outpouring of grief from the nation.

She is buried in the Havel family tomb in Vinohrady Cemetery.

A 2014 documentary, titled ‘Olga’, can be viewed on https://aerovod.cz/katalog/olga (in Czech; payment required, but this Aero-Světozor-Bio-Oko website is making me want to not go out for a few months).

Elsewhere, there is a memorial plaque to her on Senovážné náměstí and a grammar school named after her in Ostrava-Poruba.

A forest park bearing her name is currently being built in Prague 10: http://atelierprojektor.cz/lesopark-olgy-havlove/