(CNN) -- Admirers of the late Czech President Vaclav Havel lined Prague's famous Charles Bridge Wednesday as his coffin was moved to Prague Castle ahead of his state funeral Friday. Havel, who helped bring down communism in Czechoslovakia's 1989 Velvet Revolution, died Sunday, aged 75. A fiercely independent thinker with a wry, playful sense of humor, Havel became president of Czechoslovakia after the fall of the Moscow-backed regime, and the first president of the Czech Republic when it split peacefully from Slovakia three years later. The long-time chain smoker, whose health was permanently damaged by time in prison under the Communists, died peacefully in his sleep Sunday, his spokeswoman Sabina Tancevova said.
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Admirers line Charles Bridge as the late dissident's body is moved
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Havel died Sunday at the age of 75
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His writing and activism helped overthrow Communism in Czechoslovakia
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He will be buried in a state funeral Friday
Havel was unanimously elected president by the last Communist-run parliament of @placeholder 22 years ago this month.