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If you need to get from Prague’s district of Žizkov to neighbouring Karlín, there is no faster way than to walk, or cycle, through the Žižkov Tunnel. The 303-metre pedestrian shortcut, which also houses a nuclear shelter, was fully completed...

The game design programme at Prague’s Film and TV School (FAMU) has only been around for two years, making it one of Europe’s oldest film school’s newest Master’s degrees. Before the game design degree was launched at FAMU, there was no...

One of the many Czech Christmas traditions is the burning of incense cones, known as Františeks, which originated in the Ore Mountains on the Czech-German border more than 300 years ago. A small workshop in Roztoky u Křivoklátu has been...

Artists in Czechoslovakia produced a number of objects made from polyester fiberglass between the 1950s and 1980s. While many of these artworks have survived to this day, they are in urgent need of repair. Experts from the Czech Technical...

Drones have become a weapon of key importance in the war in Ukraine. Russia has clearly understood this and is reportedly ramping up its wartime production by converting prisons and schools into drone factories. In order to help the Ukrainian...

Czechs have become accustomed to shopping online, chatting online, choosing their holidays online and increasingly also self-diagnosing online. The number of people googling health related issues has risen steeply since the Covid pandemic and...

Ten years ago, Petr Soukal set out to open a business selling speciality food items imported from Italy. After the success of the store in his hometown of Plzeň, Soukal decided to open the first location of Da Pietro, a pizzeria specializing in...

Radio Prague International has prepared a selection of articles on Christmas traditions for you. See them here.

Hall 17 at Prague’s Holešovická tržnice will be home to a Ukrainian-Czech themed Christmas market this Sunday, aiming to promote collaboration between the two cultures, and support artisans from both countries. To learn more about the event, I...

Czechia’s second-largest city, Brno, has been announced the winner of the European Capital of Christmas 2024 award. All cities and towns in the 27 EU member states are eligible to participate in the competition, as well as Andorra, Iceland...

The freshly released Czech documentary Body-Soul-Patient maps new teaching methods at the 2nd Faculty of Medicine at Charles University aimed at improving medical students’ communication with patients. But are Czech doctors really lacking when...

As at this time every year, stands have appeared around Czechia selling live carp, the traditional Christmas dinner staple. Though some Czechs keep a fish in the bath to kill themselves, officials say it is best to leave that task to the...

A baby Palawan porcupine was born at the Prague Zoo. Visitors can comfortably observe the two-week-old addition and both of its parents in the warmth of the Indonesian Jungle Pavilion. The young is valuable for breeding – this endemic of...

A church that opened in Prague’s Žižkov district in the 1920s is about to get a whole new purpose. Now called Žižkostel, from January it will serve as a community centre, creating a new hub where people from various backgrounds can gather...

One Life, a biopic that shows how Sir Nicholas Winton saved 669 mainly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II, recently received its UK premiere. Meanwhile, some of the now elderly people that the Englishman rescued...

Czechia has another entry on the prestigious UNESCO World Intangible Cultural Heritage list, having succeeded with the nomination for its handmade glass production. The nomination was submitted together with France, Finland, Germany, Hungary...

Some 77 Tatra trucks gathered in Ostrava at the weekend, setting a new Czech record. The greatest rarities among the Tatras assembled, including some from Slovakia and Poland, were a 1971 Tatra 138 and an orange Tatra 148. Source: ČTK

The official funeral mass for Karel Schwarzenberg took place with state honours in St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle on Saturday afternoon. The roughly two-hour ceremony, which began at noon, was attended by hundreds of guests from the...

Exhibitions and permanent expositions of Prague Castle will be half price for visitors during the Christmas holidays. People can use the 50 percent discount from December 22, 2023 to January 1, 2024. This applies to the entrance to the tour...

Ostrava has – or at least it did until pretty recently – a reputation for being ugly and polluted. Formerly known as the “steel heart” of the Czech Republic, it was a centre of mining and heavy industry for two centuries. After its...

The traditional watch seller Hodinářství Bechyně is one of the long-term supporters of the National Gallery Prague. One of the rarest paintings in the gallery’s collections, the Feast of the Rosary by Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer...

The President of the Republic, Petr Pavel, received the credentials of the new ambassadors to the Czech Republic on Friday, December 8, 2023 at Prague Castle: H.E. Mr. Claudio Javier Rozencwaig, the new Ambassador Extraordinary and...

It will have been 30 years next fall since Czech rock band Lucie released their now-iconic album Černý kočky mokrý žáby (Black cats, wet frogs). To celebrate the anniversary, the popular 90s band played three exclusive concerts this autumn in...

The Czech Republic has links with India going back to long before both countries won independence. In this programme, in our occasional series In Their Own Words, we draw from our archives to look at Czech-Indian connections – through music...

Studio Hangar 13, formerly Illusion Softworks, is behind the successful Mafia saga in which players become power-hungry gangsters. The developers take inspiration from period images of cities or cars, but never copy their exact appearance. The...

Text : M. Zisso  picture – Vaclav Pavlas Germany has long held the 1st place in the number of foreign tourists visiting the Czech Republic. “A total of 178,891 Germans arrived at domestic hotels in August this year, which was 9% more than last...

Ahead of next year’s European elections, mayors from over 200 large cities are calling with one voice for a new alliance to bring Europe into the urban century. In a manifesto launched today, mayors in the Eurocities network cite recent...

This weekend will mark 130 years since Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s famous “New World Symphony” premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The symphony was written during Dvořák’s time as director of the National Conservatory of America...

There are many reasons why people travel. One of them is important personalities and works related to them. In the Czech Republic, among other things, classical music has a long and rich tradition. It transcends the borders of the country and...

Delegates from around 200 countries gathered in Dubai over the last two weeks for the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, this time billed as COP28. As the end of the conference approached, countries struggled to find an agreement...

Czech archaeologists have announced a unique discovery. A team of experts from Brno have unearthed a bronze belt buckle from the early Middle Ages, depicting a snake devouring a frog-like creature. The find could shed more light on people’s...

Thirty five years ago, then French president Francois Mitterrand met with a group of Czech dissidents, led by Václav Havel. Mitterrand was the first French president to visit Prague since the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He set down...

The travelling ‘Bond in Motion’ exhibition, which features original items from the sets of James Bond movies going all the way back to the 1960s, has come to Prague from Brussels, where it was a huge success, receiving over 100,000 visitors...

The Czech Society for Ornithology has announced that the Bird of the Year for 2024 is the black redstart. Although the small sooty-coloured passerine bird is a common species in this part of the world, its migration behaviour has started to...

The main idea behind the minting of St. Wenceslas ducats (at the beginning of 1923) was to support the newly established Czechoslovak state and to offer citizens an opportunity to invest in their nation by purchasing a coin bearing the symbol...

A new Czech-language book maps multiple aspects of the sport of rugby, which has greatly gained in popularity in this country in recent years. Prague-resident Welsh writer and ex-player James Stafford is one of people behind the hefty tome...

On the surface it looks like a classic mobile game, but it is in fact an audio game made especially for the blind. Anyone can play it, but the players have to rely on their hearing. The main motivation for Jana Kuklova, co-founder of the Brno...

Czechast brings you the first part of the story, or rather stories, of several amazing Czech women who help Czech communities abroad keep their language and cultural heritage alive. Klára Moldová has been teaching at the T. G. Masaryk Czech...

Antonín Panenka, one of the greatest names in the history of Czech football, turns 75 on Saturday. With a famous cheeky penalty kick in 1976 he created a new soccer term – “the panenka” – that is still used all around the world to this day. In...

Tomáš Duchek’s elaborate digital paintings have won him big-name clients such as Star Wars, Magic the Gathering and Disney. He has also worked for Warhorse Studios, which made one of Czechia’s most internationally popular video games, Kingdom...

A unique performance, produced by the National Theatre Ballet and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, is set to have its world premiere on Friday night. Called Holo Harmonies, the project will be held simultaneously in Prague and in Baden-Baden...

This is the second of two special programmes in our series In Their Own Words, bringing the dramatic events of 1968 and 1969 in Czechoslovakia to life through the radio archives. Last week we ended a few days just after the Soviet-led invasion...

The small South Bohemian hamlet of Holašovice has arguably become the most well-known Czech village, even beyond the country’s borders, since it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List 25 years ago. But the inscription radically changed...

This year’s Czech Nightingales saw Ewa Farna win her second Golden Nightingale for best female singer. She was also voted the overall Czech Nightingale winner of 2023. The best male signer award went to Marek Ztracený and the rock band Kabát...

The Czech Centres, which promote Czech culture around the globe, have a new director general. Jitka Pánek Jurková, who for some years headed the Czech Centre in Brussels, says her priorities will include using the arts to promote values and...

As the country struggled to deal with icy conditions and heavy snow at the weekend, several hundred Czech men and women stripped down to their swimsuits in the freezing cold to set a new Czech record and help a good cause. The event was...

After retiring from the NHL in August of this year, it was apparent that Czech professional ice hockey player David Krejčí still had plans to play the game, despite leaving the Boston Bruins after 16 seasons.

Czechs marked the First Sunday of Advent, with the traditional Christmas tree lighting ceremonies taking place in many towns and cities across the country. In the North Bohemian town of Jičín, three angels on stilts came to perform Christmas...

People in Need’s ‘Real Gift’ program is back this holiday season, giving Czechs the ability to support various causes around the world from stocking classrooms in Ethiopia, to providing safe births to mothers in Cambodia.

From the New Year, 17-year-olds in Czechia will be able to take a driving test and obtain a license – but until their 18th birthday, they will only be allowed to drive under the supervision of a more experienced mentor.

Unique interior design pieces from the former Brutalist-style Czechoslovak Embassy in Stockholm are set to go on sale in Prague this Thursday.

Composer Leoš Janáček is one of the most famous sons of Moravia-Silesia. He had strong bonds to the region, its people and its music from which he drew inspiration for many of his famous works.

The high price of foodstuffs has been a major woe for Czech consumers in the past two years. And there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel.

The Czech Academy of Sciences has launched a campaign using bold comic-book style graphics under the heading “Become a superdialectologist!” to try to get young people involved in a new project.

Czech glass has confirmed its world level and reputation. Just now ( December 2023), the domestic hand-made production of glass was added to the list of UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage.

One of the popular forms of travel is visiting places associated with important personalities. These include architects, musicians, painters, and other artists. That is, people who created a unique work, attract tourists from different corners...

Prague Zoo reveals its animal orphans this year during the Advent season. The traditional campaign Adopt Me! looking for patrons for unjustly neglected animals.

On December 1, 2023 – The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová received the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Legislative Assembly Sahiba Gafarová. The two officials discussed the deepening of mutual relations in key areas of...

On December 4, 2023 – President of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil and Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová visited Israel.

On Sunday, December 3, the Prague Zoo will light its Christmas tree on the Veselovského meadow. Visitors can look forward to a parade, nativity scene, Christmas carols performed by a children’s choir, as well as special guests –...

Some 135 years ago, on November 28, 1888, the 22-metre skeleton of a fin whale went on show in Prague, the first chance the city’s citizens had to experience such a sight. In 1885 natural scientist Antonín Frič, the head of the zoological and...

Jazz pianist and composer Emil Viklický, who has just turned 75, has led his own groups as well working with some major domestic and international names in the genre: Ema Olmerová, Iva Bittová, Bill Frisell, Miroslav Vitouš and many more. He...

It might be a mutually beneficial arrangement: installing solar panels in fields where agricultural production takes place could help both the crops and electricity production. A team from Mendel University is testing out the idea in a vineyard...

The Salvation Army in Czechia operates year round, providing various services to those experiencing homelessness in the country. Since the colder temperatures have started this week, the organization is expecting an increase in demand from its...

Prague’s Main Train Station is in for a quite stunning transformation. A Danish studio has just won the competition to overhaul it, with a design that includes a huge wooden, canopy-like structure at the front of the check-in building. At...

The English-language Metro Comedy Club in Prague’s Žižkov neighbourhood has become a haven for expats and Czechs in the city who want to stop by for a laugh. I caught up with its leading artist Kristýna Haklová to talk about the club, and her...

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala received his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico on Friday. Mr. Fico, who is in Prague for his first official foreign visit since his election, told reporters that the two countries have similar views on most issues...

Over 200 elderly people volunteer in 130 kindergartens around Czechia in an NGO programme that aims to bridge the generation gap by having the old read to the young. And it appears to be mutually beneficial for young and old alike. Bringing...

November 25, 2023 – Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová and President of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil visited Ukraine. Together with high-ranking representatives of other European parliaments, at the invitation of the...

On November 28, 2023 – The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, spoke at the influential Berlin international conference on foreign policy, the Berlin Foreign Policy Forum. In her contribution, she focused on the...

Czech President Petr Pavel is among the 28 most influential people who will co-determine the character of Europe in 2024, according to the Brussels-based website Politico, which describes him as a hawk on Russia and China, a supporter of...

When one thinks of art, the first place the brain goes is not typically finance, specifically NFTs, or blockchains. But a new exhibit called Urban Structures, featuring the work of Czech artist Vratislav Pecka, also known as PosterLad, is...

Prague’s Motol hospital, the largest healthcare facility in the country, is working on introducing a voicebot to assists patients with their phone inquiries and even manage their medical schedules. The voicebot, which will speak in 60...

A region that got rich on coal and steel and nowadays attracts visitors to its industrial monuments and mountains. It is also the birthplace of Sigmund Freud and Leoš Janáček. See the rest here. Author: Vít Pohanka

He started his career working for the Czech News Agency, or ČTK, as we Czechs call it, first as a regional correspondent in Central Bohemia, later in the central newsroom. In the early 1990s, after the Velvet Revolution that saw the fall of...

The Queen’s Court and Green Mountain Manuscripts, discovered in the early 19th century, were considered seminal texts during the Czech National Revival. Thought to provide evidence of the earliest medieval writing in the Czech language...

A green jacket worn by Václav Havel during key moments of the Velvet Revolution sold at auction in Prague at the weekend for CZK 2.76 million. The starting price for the garment, which for instance he had on during a mass demonstration at Letná...

With over five million copies sold worldwide, Kingdom Come: Deliverance has a fan base literally all over the globe. Many of its fans come to Czechia to seek out landmarks they know from the game. For Warhorse, the most important thing is the...

A recent survey by the Kantar.cz agency indicates that Czechs’ support for Ukraine in the war with Russia is slowly waning. According to the results, 51 percent of Czechs are no longer in favour of continued military support for the country, up...

Petr Čech, the 41 year old former goalkeeper for Chelsea and Arsenal, had his debut Sunday night with the ice hockey club the Belfast Giants. Čech had more than 600 appearances in Premier League football before changing sports to ice hockey and...

The Czech Radio sound archives are among the richest in the world and through them we can travel in time to many moments in Czech and Czechoslovak history. This is the first of two special programmes in our series In Their Own Words that take...

In the Prague Zoo, the rarely bred Bates dogs can now be seen. These snakes, emerald green on top and lemon yellow on the bottom, inhabited the Terrarium pavilion. A delicate species native to the Amazonian lowlands, it boasts the...

The renowned Czech jazz pianist and composer Emil Viklický turns 75 on November 23. In connection with that milestone, a folk-based LP he brought out in the early 1990s is being re-released. After earning a degree in maths in Czechoslovakia...

How should you teach children about the tumultuous events of 1989 in a way that conveys the enormous gravity of what happened without being too heavy-handed? And how much do kids nowadays actually know about it? Is it even still relevant? To...

Prague hosted a summit of the presidents of the countries within the Czech presidency of the Visegrad Group countries. In addition to President Petr Pavel, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová attended the meeting, Hungarian President Katalin...

After freezing Russian state-owned property on Czech territory, Czechia is now pushing for restrictions on movement for Russian diplomats within the Schengen space. Prague argues that Russian agents working undercover as diplomats greatly...

New research from the HateFree Culture group indicates that over the last ten years, Czech attitudes towards minorities living in the country have improved, especially towards Roma people. But while many Czechs are now ready to accept Romanies...

Prague’s D21 theatre will be hosting a special event on Wednesday night: three original radio plays, performed live on stage with actors accompanied by music and sound effects. One of the people behind the project, produced by Dark Bark Drama...

EU countries will have to implement a directive that requires firms to disclose the salaries of employees by 2025. The move is intended to improve gender equality, and aims to eliminate gaps in wages between men and women. While some welcome...

The New Stage of the Czech National Theatre opened to the public on November 20, 1983 with a performance of Josef Kajetán Tyl’s The Strakonice Bagpiper. The Brutalist-style building was designed by architect Karel Prager, who is also...

A Christmas market has already started on the square Horní náměstí in the Moravian city of Olomouc. A 14-metre high tree towers above the stands and other attractions. Source: ČTK

The number of children who require mental health intervention is on the rise here in Czechia. Forty percent of ninth graders show moderate signs of depression, and last year data from the Institute of Health indicated that there were over 4,000...

Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová visited members of the human rights and educational organization Memorial. After their ban on activities in the Russian Federation, they found refuge in the Prague residence of the...

Scientists in Prague have been measuring the amount of dust that enters people’s lungs on a busy road in the city centre. To do that, they used a special mobile cell incubator with actual human lung cells. The results confirmed that traffic...

According to national statistics, as many as 14% of Czech children experience domestic violence directly or indirectly at some point in their lives and many are left permanently scarred. Shockingly, experts say it often takes up to six years...

Former dissident and Charter 77 signatory Jiří Gruntorád is on the fourth day of his hunger strike outside the seat of the Czech government in Prague. He is calling for the labour and social affairs minister, Marian Jurečka, to resign over his...

Czech-produced Hot Chip Challenge crisps are marketed as extremely hard to consume. Now domestic authorities have halted sales of the chili pepper-based product, following alarm bells in other EU states. Single Hot Chip Challenge crisps are...

Czechia is home to some of the best ice hockey players who have played the game. From Dominik Hašek to Jaromír Jágr, the legacy the country has with the sport is enduring, in fact a Czech player just broke the NHL record for the hardest slap...

“On the occasion of the 34th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution (17 November 1989) The Embassy’s staff of Georgia to the Czech Republic gathered together with the Ambassador of Georgia to the Czech Republic, H.E. Ms. Tea Maisuradze to honor...

Hangonit Studio is a one-man studio, founded by Vladimír Kudělka, who views his games as art. His two games Rememoried and Afterglitch are connected by the themes of parallel worlds, dreams, with the players floating through virtual...