Overview

The statue of Jan Palach stands in the long narrow square named after him in the Olympic village. Palach was the 21-year-old Czech philosophy student who set fire to himself in 1969 as a protest against the Soviet occupation of his country. The sculpture is the work of Vittorio di Colbertaldo and was completed in 1970. It is placed on a high base and made entirely from bronze. It shows the student wrapped completely in flames as he throws his arms to heaven in a sign of hope.