The Olga Havlova Library, or Hrobka

The folk self-help library Hrobka (the Tomb) was founded by Olga Havlová in the 1980s as a protest against official culture, influenced in part by her passion for so-called decadent trash culture. With the active support of fellow artists and intellectuals, including Olinka and Andrej Stankovič, Petruška Šustrová, Vratislav Brabenec and Zbyněk Benýšek, samizdat books began to proliferate and many banned authors who were not allowed to publish officially found refuge at Hrobka. During the desert that was normalisation, a distinctive cult began to spread among admirers of their unconventional work. Olga Havlová and her friends held stylish parties andcostume evenings and arranged live paintings, harvest festivals and “masopust” carnivals. The magazine Nový brak (New Pulp) began to circulate in the underground and independent intellectuals even made a horror movie, the black and white Lilian.