In Brno today, a commemorative plaque was unveiled in memory of Queen Elizabeth II's visit.

Brno – Today, on the courtyard of the New Town Hall in Brno, the former mayor Dagmar Lastovecká (then ODS), current city representatives, and the creator of the monument Radek Talaš unveiled a memorial plaque featuring a red hat in remembrance of the visit of British Queen Elizabeth II exactly 30 years ago. This was the only visit by the queen to the Czech Republic, and it was thanks to both then-President Václav Havel and compatriots from Brno living in Great Britain who had contacts with the royal court that she visited not only Prague but also Brno.

Today, a British afternoon with a fashion show and dance demonstrations took place in the courtyard, and a period portrait of Elizabeth, which had then hung in many shop windows around the city, was displayed. "I wanted all the people of Brno to know when the queen would be here, so that the city would come alive with her visit. I contacted the advertising company SNIP&Co, and its director Jiří Morávek came up with the idea of having the portrait in the shop windows. Because of that, there were crowds of people from the airport, and it was impossible to walk through the city," Lastovecká recalled.

The new memorial was initiated by a civic initiative. "Two years ago, we received a proposal to commemorate not only the visit but also the 100th anniversary of Elizabeth's birth this year. We liked the idea, so we first looked for a location, and then the Department of Culture announced a competition for the artistic work. We received 11 very nice proposals," said councilor Kateřina Jarošová (independent, elected for ANO).

The queen greeted the people in Dominikánské náměstí from the balcony of the town hall. She stood there with Havel and Lastovecká. "The preparation for the visit took several weeks. Protocols came here from Hrad and Buckingham Palace. In the end, we received a brochure with an itinerary, where the program was divided by minutes. We knew where the queen would stop, where I could say something, when someone could take her picture. And she was accompanied by about 40 people, including ladies-in-waiting, which felt a bit like a fairy tale," reminisced 74-year-old Lastovecká.

At the town hall, she met with council members and also with living RAF veterans. "It was very touching. They were happy with how she greeted them," said Lastovecká. She mentioned how the city had a gift made for the queen – a jewelry set consisting of a tiara, a necklace, and a brooch made of Czech garnets set in gold. "I didn’t expect that she would ever wear it, but recently a friend pointed out to me that when I looked up the queen’s brooches on the Internet, ours is pinned on one of the first items, so she must have worn it at some point," said Lastovecká. She also recalled a lunch at the Besední dům, where the queen asked about ordinary things, such as whether women go to work, raise children, and whether food is cooked or reheated in microwaves like in the USA.

In the end, she reminisced about the visit to the Constitutional Court, where the delegation arrived late. "The guards stripped my coat off, but they let the queen go into the hall in her coat. When I asked the ambassador why they were there, as she must have been hot, he told me not to worry, that the queen is raised in such a way that she is never hot or cold anywhere," Lastovecká smiled.