Karel Kryl (1944–1994), a well-known Czech dissident, singer-songwriter, and poet, also known as "the poet with a guitar", was the leading figure of the Czechoslovak anti-communist protest song movement. Several of his songs, for which he composed both the music and lyrics, became popular and were symbols of the struggle against totalitarian power and the occupiers of the time. A collaborator with, and later employee (editor) of, the broadcast Radio Free Europe / Rádio Slobodná Európa, he lived as an immigrant in the then Federal Republic of Germany from 1969 until returning in 1989 to Czechoslovakia, although he did not there remain permanently. 

The monument stands in an elevated green space in Freedom Square northwest of the Družba fountain, and is the work of the artist, publicist, and civil engineer František (nicknamed Fero) Guldan, who set it there in 1997. Into one of the roughly hewn surfaces of a large granite block, he carved a horizontal band with a brief inscription in bold capital letters: 

TO KAREL KRYL. 

Installation of the work was reportedly carried out "on his own initiative", and Guldan completed the relevant administrative matters only afterwards. 

This is the sole monument to Karel Kryl in Slovakia, and used to be more slanted; its angle was probably adjusted between 2012 and 2013. 

From an urban and art-historical perspective, it is noteworthy that a few meters to the east stands a similarly designed monument to Gizela Fleischmann (1892–1944), a Jewish activist, an official of several Slovak Jewish organisations, and a member of the illegal "Working Group" formed to rescue Jews from Nazi persecution and death in concentration camps during the Second World War. The Hungarian artist Szabolcs KissPál created this work, which, as part of the Point 0 event in 2015, originated from remnants of a removed monument to Klement Gottwald. 

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Research status as of 22. 12. 2023.