The end of an era: February 2nd is Vaclav Havel's final day as president of the Czech Republic

Sunday, February 2nd, is the last day in Vaclav Havel's final term as president of the Czech Republic, with Mr Havel stepping down after thirteen years. Earlier Sunday the President and the First Lady Dagmar Havlova laid a wreath at the statue of Czechoslovakia's founding president Tomas Garrigue Masaryk; the presidential couple also visited Prague's memorial commemorating victims of Communism as well as a cemetery for political prisoners. A final stop took place at the statue of St Wenceslas, on Prague's Wenceslas Square, an important symbolic site of events in recent Czech history. The site witnessed both the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, and mass demonstrations which led to the fall of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

Author: Jan Velinger