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The funeral of Jan Palach in Olšany cemetery (Source: Security Services Archives)
Jan Palach’s grave at the end of the 1960s (Source: Security Services Archives)
Jan Palach’s grave at the end of the 1960s (Source: Jiří Palach’s archives)
Cover of the dossier of the secret police with photographs of the headstone on Jan Palach’s grave, 1970 (Source: Security Services Archives)
Photographs of the headstone on Jan Palach’s grave in the dossier of the secret police, 1970 (Source: Security Services Archives)
Photographs of the headstone on Jan Palach’s grave in the dossier of the secret police, 1970 (Source: Security Services Archives)
Photographs of the headstone on Jan Palach’s grave in the dossier of the secret police, 1970 (Source: Security Services Archives)
Urn with the ashes of Jan Palach in Všetaty, 1973 (Source: Jiří Palach’s archives)
An article on the restoration of Jan Palach’s grave was published in Občanský deník (“Citizen daily”) on 26 October 1990 (Source: Petr Blažek’s archives)
A table with the chronology of changes is now attached to Jan Palach’s grave in Olšany Cemetery (Source: Petr Blažek’s archives)

Jan Palach’s Grav

Prague, Olšany Cemetery

“Artistically, I first considered a vertical design, but after the cemetery caretaker limited the height to 160 cm, I abandoned the vertical design since a standing human figure is higher.”

From a police statement of Olbram Zoubek, 28 July 1970 (Source: Security Services Archives)

Already by the end of the 1960s, Jan Palach’s grave at Olšanské hřbitovy (Olšany cemetery) had become a place of pilgrimage, and many people had been coming there to pay tribute to Palach’s memory. This situation caught the attention of the secret police, who focused their efforts on trying to remove the grave.

First, in July 1973, a bronze headstone made by the sculptor Olbram Zoubek was removed (and subsequently melted down) shortly after it was installed. In October 1973, after prolonged pressure from the secret police, Libuše and Jindřich Palach agreed to the exhumation and cremation of Jan Palach’s remains.

The grave of Jan Palach had not been restored until 1990. Since then, annual commemorative gatherings are held in Olšany cemetery