Czech architect Jakub Cigler last week won a competition aimed at transforming the avenue, celebrated for its superb Art-deco and Art nouveau facades as well as its seedy night life.

During the day, the heart of Prague's "new town" is invaded by cars, taxis, souvenir kiosks, hot-dog stands and small traders. At night, young prostitutes and drug dealers carry out their business.

In Prague, "the roads are like rivers with the flow of people" but also polluting cars, said Cigler, who has always been opposed to the idea of making a museum out of the historic city centre.

The simple winning concept of the 43-year-old architect is to "suppress traffic, widen the pavements and plant trees".

The plan involves moving a highway which breaks up the unity of the square. Tram routes will also be changed so they will once again climb and descend the sloping site, dominated by the famous equestrian statue of the Czech patron saint and former king, Wenceslas.

"My project is inspired by images of the square in the 19th century," said the architect, who has already undertaken other urban transformations in Prague.

The whole project, representing five or six years of work at a cost of more than 100 million koruna (about ?3-million), is in the process of being put together with a clear timetable still to be fixed.

Prague Mayor Pavel Bem says he is convinced that the changes will allow "this unique site to be cleaned up" and "support our initiative in the area of public safety, especially against petty crime".

"It is necessary to rid the square of any kind of criminality."

A sign of its degradation is the fact that a pedestrian street at the bottom of the square has become the favoured location for real estate investors rather than Wenceslas Square itself, formerly the place to be for banks, prestigious hotels and luxury shops.

At the start of November, Prague announced yet another plan to step up the police presence in the square. The initiative has left most locals sceptical.

"Crossing the square to take the metro is still as dangerous as ever," said Jan, a manager who works nearby and often finishes late at night.

"Vaclavski namesti" is for Prague inhabitants a highly symbolic site.

The student Jan Palace chose it for his self immolation on January 16, 1969, in protest at the Soviet occupation. It was also the site for the first anti-communist demonstrations at the end of the 1980'.

And the balcony of one of the buildings which line the square was chosen for the joint appearance of Vaclav Havel and former Czechoslovak prime minister and reformer Alexander Dubcek in November 1989.

For every event, sporting or political, the square is the location of choice for Czechs to show their joy or anger.