Anděl metro wall relief commemorating Czech-Soviet friendship to get explanatory sign

Prague city councillors decided on Monday to add an explanatory sign to the bronze wall sculpture with the inscription "Moscow-Prague" located in the Czech capital's Anděl metro station. The sign will state that the former Czechoslovakia was occupied by the Soviet Union at the time the sculpture was made and that the friendship between the two countries was only a propaganda claim. The city, along with the Prague public transport company DPP and the Prague City Gallery, will also open an art competition for a new design for the relief.

The sculpture pays tribute to the Soviet engineers who helped with the construction of the Prague metro and who played a significant role in the design of the station, which was formerly called "Moskevská" when it opened in 1985. It got its current name, Anděl, not long after the fall of the communist regime, in February 1990, but the sculpture remained even though the station has been reconstructed several times since.