Streets Around the World Continue to Honor Havel

Last summer, an area in the newly built neighborhood of Shimon Peres on Mount Carmel, in the city of Haifa, was named Václav Havel square after the first president of the Czech Republic who died in 2011.

Havel was also honored with a street in Jerusalem and a bench at the university of Tel Aviv to mark the 25th anniversary of the re-establishment of relations between the Czech Republic and Israel.

Elsewhere streets bearing the name of the famous dissident have been appointed in Gdansk, as well as the Polish town of Opole where an adjacent park is also named for Havel.

In Strasbourg, France, one of the buildings of the European Parliament was named for Havel and Paris, in November 2013, inaugurated the Václav Havel Library.

Havel benches—designed by the late Czech glass artist and close friend to Havel Bořek Šípek—have popped up in Dublin, Washington, Barcelona, Oregon, and Oxford.

And now one of the main thoroughfares in Kiev, still bearing the name of Soviet revolutionary Ivan Lepse, will likely be renamed for the Czech playwright despite strong opposition by internet trolls who, according to the Ukrainian independent media, are politically motivated.

In the Czech Republic, the most famous building named after Havel is the Prague international airport.