overview about the place The square is named after the Czech composer František Škroup, who scored the Czech national anthem. You might find it hard to believe, but this square measures 150 m (492 ft) in diameter. It entered the Prague history books as the site of the events of the first authorized dissident demonstration in December 1988. Václav Havel gave his first public political speech here, demanding the release of political prisoners. history This square recalls an important event from the late 1980s. On 10 December 1988, to mark the fortieth anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first officially permitted demonstration by opposition groups after the long period of Normalisation took place here. The communist regime permitted the opposition initiatives to hold the gathering thanks to French President François Mitterrand, who had made his visit to Prague conditional on the opposition not being persecuted during his stay. The gathering began at 3 p.m. with the Czechoslovak national anthem, after which Václav Havel and other speakers addressed the crowd. At around 4.30 p.m., the crowd of approximately 3,000 dispersed peacefully in the presence of officers from State Security, who carefully filmed the entire event. It is worth recalling Havel’s opening address: “Dear friends, three weeks ago, when I, like many of my friends, was in a cell at Ruzyně, I thought about various things, including whether I might remain there for good. If anyone there had told me that three weeks later I would have breakfast with the French president and, the following day, speak at a demonstration that had not been banned, I would have thought they were joking. Which, of course, does not mean at all that in a few hours I might not be right back in a cell at Ruzyně.”