The Queen and the Playwright

To mark 100 years since the birth of the late Queen Elizabeth II and 90 years since the birth of the first Czech President Václav Havel, the Czech Centre opens an outdoor exhibition on 21st April, the Queen‘s birthday, presenting a series of photographs from Her Majesty’s state visit to the Czech Republic. The exhibition portrays the importance of the event which brought together the British monarch and the Czech playwright and prisoner of conscience turn President. The exhibition was prepared in cooperation with the Václav Havel Library and supported by the Sekyra Foudation.

The Queen and the Playwright: A Royal Visit at the Prague Castle features a series of photographs by Czech photographer Alan Pajer. The outdoor exhibition, on show at the public space outside the Czech Embassy in London – just a stone’s throw away from Kensington Palace, looks back at the Queen’s visit to the Czech Republic in March 1996. Considered one of the most important state visits in the country’s modern history to this day, it marked a significant moment in the newly established Central-European country and was widely seen as one of the symbolic moments ending its communist past. 

Queen Elizabeth II visited the Czech Republic accompanied by her husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at the invitation of the county’s then president Václav Havel. HM Queen Elizabeth II was the first monarch to visit the young country which came into existence only three years earlier. During her three-day stay she famously displayed her well-known love for dogs when meeting Ďula, the four-legged member of the Havel family. Also importantly, the visit brought historic closure: the Queen set the tone for future British-Czech relations when she addressed the UK’s signing of the Munich Agreement (the 1938 document which surrendered large parts of Czechoslovakia to Hitler).

This exhibition is part of a series of commemorative events on the occasion of the 90^th anniversary of the birth of Václav Havel, organised by the Václav Havel Library in Prague. 

Where: Outdoor exhibition on the fence of the Czech Embassy, W8 4QY

When: 21 April until 12 June 2026

Further Information: Czech Centre London

Venue details