Permanent art installation in the gardens of the CDN
“Havel's Place” is an artistic project that encourages dialogue and reflection. It is dedicated to Václav Havel – playwright, last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic. The installation is one of over 50 around the world, consisting of two chairs around a round table with a lime tree growing through its centre. The table is inscribed with Havel’s famous quote: “Truth and love must triumph over lies and hatred.”
Situated in the gardens of the CDN, Havel’s Place pays tribute to the friendship between Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Václav Havel. It was inaugurated on 22 November 2025 to mark the 35th anniversary of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s speech in support of Václav Havel, which he gave on 22 November 1990. The Havel’s Place memorial was created by the CDN in collaboration with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Switzerland and the Dagmar Václav Havel Foundation VIZE 97 in Prague.
Practical info:
“Havel's Place” is open to the public free of charge during the CDN opening hours, from Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm.
“Havel's Place” at the CDN. Photo: Swiss National Library, Simon Schmid
Inauguration of “Havel's Place” at the CDN. Photo: Swiss National Library, Simon Schmid
H.E. Andrea Elscheková Matisová, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Switzerland, and H.E. Tomáš Jan Podivínský, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Switzerland, at the inauguration of “Havel's Place” at the CDN. Photo: Swiss National Library, Simon Schmid
H.E. Michael Žantovský, former Ambassador, former advisor to Václav Havel and former director of the Václav Havel Library in Prague, and H.E. Tomáš Jan Podivínský, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Switzerland, at the inauguration of “Havel's Place” at the CDN. Photo: Swiss National Library, Simon Schmid
Damian Elsig, Director of the Swiss National Library, Julie Courcier Delafontaine, Neuchâtel Municipal Councillor, and Madeleine Betschart, Director of the CDN, at the inauguration of “Havel's Place” at the CDN. Photo: Swiss National Library, Simon Schmid
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990) and Václav Havel (1936–2011)
The two theatre greats had been friends for a long time and had a shared vision of the world, defending the values of social justice, human dignity and freedom of expression.
Friedrich Dürrenmatt is a universally significant Swiss figure and painter, and the most translated, read and performed Swiss writer in the world. Several of his works have been translated into Czech and Slovak, and his plays are regularly performed in Czechia and Slovakia to this day.
Both Dürrenmatt and Havel devoted a large part of their lives to the theatre, which they used as a vehicle for their non-conformist thinking. This led to censorship and imprisonment for Havel, whereas Dürrenmatt was able to continue to express himself freely in Switzerland.
When the Czechoslovakian people initiated the Prague Spring in March 1968, Dürrenmatt happened to be in the city presenting a play, “The Anabaptists”, which proved to be highly subversive. His plays were banned from that point until the end of the communist regime.
Dürrenmatt paid close attention to world affairs. He never got involved in politics, unlike Václav Havel, but he regularly took positions publicly. When Soviet tanks entered Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Dürrenmatt organised an event in Basel to protest against the crushing of the Prague Spring and to express his solidarity with his colleagues, friends and artists there. His speech ended with the words: “In Czechoslovakia, human freedom has lost a battle in its fight for a fairer world; one battle, but not the whole war.”
In 1977, Václav Havel was one of the co-founders of ‘Charter 77’, a vibrant advocacy group for human rights. Dürrenmatt was one of the very first to officially support this initiative in Switzerland.
Thirty-five years ago, on 22 November 1990s, Václav Havel – the ‘playwright president’ – received the prestigious Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize during his first official visit to Switzerland. It was on this occasion that Dürrenmatt gave his memorable speech in support of Václav Havel, in which he compared Switzerland to a prison where everyone is both prisoner and guard.
Madeleine Betschart, CDN director from 2015 to 2025 and initiator of the project, highlights the fact that Dürrenmatt wrote that historic speech in his office just a few steps away from the new Havel’s Place installation. That same office has played host to several performances of the speech, staged and delivered by Omar Porras, between 2021 and 2025.
In addition, the speech has taken on even greater resonance today as a sort of last will and testament, as Friedrich Dürrenmatt died a few weeks later, on 14 December 1990.