The new Prague municipal waterworks at Letná, 1888
The new Prague municipal waterworks at Letná, 1888Drawing: Jan Mulač (1845–1905), 1888 · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

The Letná Plain (Letenská pláň) is a large open space on the Letná hill in the Prague 7 borough.[3][9] The slopes below the plain towards the Vltava are occupied by the Letná Gardens.[1] Because of its position above the city, the plain and the surrounding slopes have long served as a place where armies assembled and camped.[1][2] Since 1989 it has been the scene of large protest gatherings.[7]*

Before the 19th century

In 1261 celebrations of the coronation of Ottokar II were held on Letná. From the 13th century the Letná slope was covered with vineyards, and quarries were opened there.[1] According to the chronicler Lawrence of Březová, King Sigismund of Luxembourg watched his unsuccessful battle on Vítkov from here in 1420.[9] The plain itself was never permanently settled, probably because of a lack of water.[9] On the edge of the eastern plateau František Valdštejn built the Belvedere summer house in 1715; it was destroyed in 1742 by the retreating French army.[1][8] In the last quarter of the 18th century masonry fortifications with bastions, ditches and ramparts were built on Letná; the last fortification work took place in 1813, and the bastions on the western edge survive.[1] The Austrian army had an artillery range here, and a cannon shot from the Letná bastion announced noon to the people of Prague until 1911.[2]

View from Letná Plain across the Vltava to the Old Town
View from Letná Plain across the Vltava to the Old TownPhoto: Warren LeMay, 2019 · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Unbuilt projects

In the early 20th century the first flights of aviation pioneers took place on the plain.[9] Under the First Republic the plain was intended for the seat of parliament and other state buildings. Of these plans only the Ministry of the Interior building designed by Kamil Roškot was realised, and the buildings of the technical and agricultural museums were completed in the early 1940s.[8] Architectural competitions for the plain continued after the war; the last was held in 1964.[9]

Stalin Monument and parades

In May 1955 a monument to J. V. Stalin was unveiled in the Letná Gardens above the Vltava.[4][8] It required a monumental staircase and a pedestal with interior spaces on the axis of Pařížská Street and the Čech Bridge.[1] Demolition of the sculpture began in autumn 1962: first the heads and hands of the figures were removed, the torso was blown up on 19 October and the remainder on 6 November 1962.[4] A metronome was erected on the vacant platform in 1991.[1] The communist regime used the plain for military parades marking the anniversary of the end of the war, held from 1951 usually every five years and for the last time in May 1985, and for May Day processions.[3]

November 1989

On 25 November 1989, eight days after the crackdown on students on Národní Street, Civic Forum called a demonstration on the Letná Plain.[3] Estimates of attendance range from 750,000 to more than 800,000 people.[7][10][3] Speakers addressed the crowd from the outer stand of the Sparta stadium; they included Václav Havel, Miloš Zeman and others, Marta Kubišová sang Prayer for Marta, and Jaroslav Hutka, who had returned from exile that day, sang Náměšť.[3] Czechoslovak Television broadcast the event, which its strike committee had forced on the management.[10] Another demonstration followed on 26 November; the federal prime minister Ladislav Adamec accepted an invitation to it.[3]

After 1989

On 21 April 1990 Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass on Letná and in his homily apologised for the inadequate judgement of Jan Hus as a heretic.[5] On 23 June 2019 the plain was filled by a demonstration of the Million Moments for Democracy association against Andrej Babiš's government; the organisers reported more than a quarter of a million participants, the police about 200,000.[6] The association held another large rally here on 21 March 2026. Citing aerial photographs, the organisers spoke of at least 250,000 people; the police did not confirm the estimate, as they do not publish attendance figures for such events.[7]

Surroundings

Most buildings around the plain stand along its perimeter. On the north side is the residential block known as Molochov, on the east the Ministry of the Interior building, the National Technical Museum and the National Museum of Agriculture.[9] The gardens contain the Hanavský Pavilion from the Jubilee Exhibition of 1891, a neo-Renaissance restaurant from 1863, a carousel from the second half of the 19th century and the restaurant from the EXPO 58 exhibition in Brussels.[1]

Pages linking here

Sources

  1. Magistrát hl. m. Prahy, portál Pražská příroda — 10 November 2025
  2. ČT24
  3. Městská část Praha 7 —
  4. ČT24 —
  5. ČT24 — 21 April 2020
  6. E15 — 23 June 2019
  7. ČT24 — 21 March 2026
  8. Městská část Praha 7
  9. Pražský deník — 9 April 2007
  10. ČT24 — 25 November 2019