Operation Anthropoid Memorial

On 14 April 2008 the Prague 8 city district announced its intention to hold a one-round competition, open to the public, for the design of a memorial to Operation Anthropoid and to Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík.

The authors of the winning proposal were artists David Moješčík and Michal Šmeral, and architects Miroslava Tůmová and Jiří Gulbis.

This early conception then went through various iterations, in which the block was first divided into the three geometrical shapes composing the Czech flag, and was then, in a subsequent design, merged with the shape of a "Czech hedgehog" - an anti-tank obstacle most familiar to English-speakers from its use by the Germans on the beaches of Normandy but invented in Czechoslovakia and used throughout Europe in World War II.

It was incorporated into the design of the central column, which, being triangular in cross-section, corresponds to the equilateral triangle in the Czech flag.

The central column was clad in corten, a form of weathered steel, symbolizing the destruction of Czech statehood and the subjugation of the entire nation.

The area surrounding the base of the sculpture has been designed so that the memorial integrates with the existing features of the parterre in a very natural manner.

[citation needed] Streets immediately to the west of the memorial site are now named after Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, who carried out the ambush, and Josef Valčík, who acted as lookout and died alongside them in Saints Cyril and Methodius Cathedral.