The monument to Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884) is located in the lower part of Budoucnost Park, near the town walls. The half-length statue of the composer with his arms folded was carved from white marble by sculptor Julius Pelikán (1887–1969).

Bedřich Smetana is linked to Havlíčkův Brod, then known as Německý Brod, through his secondary school studies. He came here in 1836 at the age of twelve from secondary school in Jihlava and remained until 1839, when he and a number of his classmates transferred to the academic secondary school in Prague. In Brod, he studied together with his brother Antonín, but also with others such as Karel Havlíček Borovský. 

In 1924, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana, the Brod singing society Jasoň, founded in 1859, had a memorial plaque by sculptor and medallist Otakar Španiel placed on the corner of the former grammar school building on August 31. Ten years after its installation, in 1934, Brod hosted an exhibition featuring the sculptor Julius Pelikán and the painter Josef Jambor. Both artists hailed from the Vysočina region, and Julius Pelikán also had a direct connection to Brod through a brief internship with the local stonemason Ladislav Pokštefl. He later studied at the Academy of Fine Arts under Jan Štursa and, like Štursa, devoted his work to important Czech national figures.

The members of Jasoň were so impressed by Pelikán’s work at the exhibition that they decided to approach the sculptor with a view to creating a monument to Smetana. A half-length figure of Bedřich Smetana, which Pelikán had already created in plaster in 1926, was chosen for the project. Other versions of the monument were also considered, including an unrealized design depicting a full-length Bedřich Smetana with a score in his right hand, accompanied by a young girl as an allegory of music.

The unveiling of the memorial was originally planned for 1935, when the town was celebrating the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Brod grammar school and commemorating its famous graduates. However, Jasoň had difficulty raising the funds for the monument, as it was still paying off the Smetana memorial plaque from 1924. The women’s choir donated part of their fees and concert proceeds to Jasoň for the purchase of the memorial, and the men’s choir soon followed suit. Sufficient funds were finally raised in 1936. The monument was unveiled on 24 May 1936 as part of the nationwide National Song event. The ceremony was accompanied by a concert performed by Jasoň, and the keynote speaker was Vladimír Helfert, a  musicologist and dean of the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno. Smetana’s bust was mounted on a granite pedestal. The inscription, which was created for the monument by the State Industrial School in Hradec Králové at the request of the town, still refers to the sole investor in the work: CREATORS / OF CZECH MUSIC / JASOŇ.