Národní třída: The Hands of 17 November 1989
Why is it significant?
Step under the arcade of number 16 and look at the wall. A bronze plaque, and on it a cluster of raised hands, some making the V for victory, some simply open, with a date: 17 November 1989. There are usually candles on the ledge below, and on the anniversary the whole arcade glows.
Key Facts
| Place | Národní třída: The Hands of 17 November 1989 |
|---|---|
| Address | Národní 16, 110 00 Praha 1, Czechia |
| Geo Coordinates | 50.08220, 14.41920 |
| Part of Walk | Wenceslas Square to the Dancing House: Prague's Century of Revolutions, 1918–1989 |
| Generated | Generated |
Step under the arcade of number 16 and look at the wall. A bronze plaque, and on it a cluster of raised hands, some making the V for victory, some simply open, with a date: 17 November 1989. There are usually candles on the ledge below, and on the anniversary the whole arcade glows.
The date is a double one. On 17 November 1939, the Nazis closed all Czech universities after student protests, executed nine student leaders and sent well over a thousand students to concentration camps. Fifty years later, students organised an officially permitted march to remember it. It began at Albertov, wound up to the cemetery on Vyšehrad, and then, as darkness fell, thousands turned towards Wenceslas Square.
They never got there. Here on Národní třída, riot police closed the street from both ends. The students sat down, lit candles, held up flowers and their empty hands and chanted that they had no weapons. Then the police moved in with batons, forcing them through a corridor of beatings. Hundreds were injured. That night a rumour spread that a student had been killed. It was false, and how it started is argued about to this day... but it brought the actors, the students and then the whole country out on strike.
Just a few doors along, at number 22, is the Café Louvre, opened in 1902 and among the grand cafés of Austro-Hungarian Prague. It counts Franz Kafka's circle among its old regulars. The Communists closed it after 1948, and it reopened only after the revolution that began on this very pavement. Prague likes these coincidences, and its coffee.
Today, 17 November is a national holiday, the Day of Struggle for Freedom and Democracy, honouring both generations of students at once. Now carry on along Národní třída, all the way to the river, where a golden-roofed theatre faces a famous café across the street.