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The authorities in Prague 6 have closed a competition to design a monument to a fictional character created by the playwright, dissident and former president Václav Havel. Protagonist Ferdinand Vaněk, who appeared in four Havel plays, is being honoured in this way as part of events marking what would have been the 80th anniversary of his creator’s death. Twenty-three designs for a “Vaněk bench” were submitted and councillors are due to pick a winner on Thursday.

The relatively rapid and bloodless Velvet Revolution that swept the communists from power in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and replaced them with a set of civic activists, mostly with little past experience of power, lived on in the memory of many.

Stripped of her citizenship by Czechoslovakia’s Communist authorities after 1968, architect Eva Jiřičná, then in her late 20s, remained in London. In the UK her sleek interiors were a major success and she soon developed an international reputation. It was not until the 1990s that Jiřičná was able to return to her native land. However, she wasn’t long in making up for lost time, designing a number of buildings that made their mark on Prague and Zlín, the town of her birth. In the second half of a two-part interview, I asked the architect about her

A visit by the Tibet’s Dalai Lama to Prague to attend the 20th annual Forum 2000, has revealed fault lines between some members of the government and Prague Castle. The president’s spokesman lashed out at the culture minister for meeting with spiritual leader.

A large concert event paying tribute to Václav Havel will take place at Prague’s Lucerna Palace on Saturday night, 10 days after what would have been the late playwright and president’s 80th birthday. Eighty figures from public life and the arts world are set to appear on four stages at Lucerna, which was built by Havel’s grandfather and hosted a similar event on the evening of his funeral in 2011. The event begins with the launch of an exhibition entitled Hey, it’s Havel! comprising amateur photos of him taken by members of the public.

Students and professors have unveiled a new Havel’s Place at the University of J.E. Purkyně, to inspire dialogue and the exchange of ideas, named after the late president Václav Havel. Designed by Mr Havel’s friend and architect Bořek Šípek, who died earlier this year, the design features two chairs connected by a table and Linden tree. The first Havel's Place was installed in the grounds of Georgetown University in Washington D.C. in 2013. Many other places around the world have since introduced the design on sites of their own.

A commemorative plaque in honour of the late Czech president, dissident and playwright Václav Havel was installed on the wall of the Plzeň-Bory prison building on Wednesday on what would have been his 80th birthday. The plaque says that Havel was imprisoned there between 1981 and 1983. It also features a red heart, Havel used to attach that symbol to his signatures. Havel was several times imprisoned for his dissident activity under the Communist regime, most recently in May 1989.

President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz paid homage to the late president Vaclav Havel on what would have been his 80th birthday. In a short speech at the start of Wednesday’s parliament session, Mr Schulz highlighted the importance of Václav Havel’s legacy describing him as a strong personality, who devoted his life to the fight against dictatorship. Not only did he free Czechoslovakia from Communist rule, but he also led the Czech Republic on its way to democracy and EU membership.

The late Czech president, Václav Havel, who died five years ago, would have turned 80 on Wednesday, October 5. Celebrations of his life and legacy are taking place at home and abroad. In this special program on Radio Prague we recall the heady days of the Velvet Revolution that swept the dissident playwright from jail to Prague Castle.

Events are being held in the Czech Republic to mark what would have been the 80th birthday of the late dissident, playwright and president Václav Havel. A gathering in his honour is due to take place on Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Wednesday evening, while a concert is being held at the city’s Rudolfinum venue. The town hall in Prague 6, where Mr. Havel lived toward the end of his life, has prepared a series of events and several theatres are also paying tribute to him. On Tuesday a plaza beside the National Theatre was renamed Václav Havel Square. Mr. Havel, who was born on October 5, 1936, led the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and was president of Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic for nearly 13 years. He died in December 2011.