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The closely-watched trial of former MP Dominik Feri, who was found guilty of two counts of rape and one attempted rape and sentenced to three years in jail, has sparked a public debate on sexual assault and victim treatment in Czechia. I spoke...

Thanks to the work of the Diplomatic Spouses Association and under the auspices of the First Lady Mrs. Eva Pavlova, the annual International Charity Festival will resume after 4 years on Sunday 12th November, from 10 a.m. to 04 p.m., at Hilton...

Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art is now celebrating 15 years of existence. The biggest independent institution of its kind in Czechia, it runs multiple exhibitions – and holds various events in a distinctive wooden structure resembling...

The biggest obstacle to sustainable travel for Czechs is the time requirement (58%), the insufficient infrastructure of the destination (57%), money (21%), personal comfort (15%), and customs in the locality (5%). This emerged from a survey...

The first ever flight of Czechoslovak air carrier ČSA took off on October 29, 1923. On board the first ever flight of Czechoslovak State Airlines – which was from Prague to Bratislava – were pilot Karel Brabenec and the editor of the Brno-based...

Tomorrow at the Prague Zoo, pumpkin feasts will begin for almost two dozen species of animals and will last until Sunday. On the national holiday of October 28, visitors can also look forward to a special feeding of lions – as animals...

In 1933, Czechoslovakia was rocked by a gruesome murder. Two suitcases were found on 2 September, independently of each other, in the Slovak cities of Bratislava and Košice. The suitcase that was found in Košice contained a woman’s torso, and...

On October 11, 2023, U.S. Embassy Prague U.S. Commercial Service organized its second U.S. Destination Showcase. Five U.S. travel destinations interested in attracting Czech tourists were introduced. The U.S. Embassy’s Commercial Service joined...

A ban on the sale of flavoured heated tobacco products came into force in Czechia this week, bringing it in line with an EU directive issued last year. I discussed the move with Dr Eva Králíková, who heads a stop smoking clinic at Prague’s...

When walking through the heart of Prague today, one might notice electric scooters that often litter the grounds of the city’s historic centre. Bolt and Lime scooters are used in many cities across Europe, although Paris has just recently...

The title by the Ambassador of Romania in Prague, H.E. Mrs. Antoaneta Barta, on the occasion of the unveiling of the commemorative plaque honoring the support of the Romanian people for the declaration of Czechoslovakia’s independence...

Gymnast Bedřich Šupčík became the first Czech to win a gold medal at the Olympics when he triumphed in rope climbing at the 1924 Paris Games. Šupčík was born in October 22, 1898 near Vienna but was raised by an aunt in Kroměříž, Moravia. In...

October 23, 2023 – Over 700 thousand crowns will go to psychological help for children from Ukraine. For this purpose, a public collection was announced at the beginning of this October in connection with the second annual Crimean Platform...

Hundreds of thousands of Czechs were among the many millions of people, many from Eastern Europe, used by the Nazis as forced labour during World War II. Among them was trained mechanic Miroslav Jeřábek. Many decades later, his UK-born great...

The Czech government has moved to address the shortage of qualified workers on the country’s labour market. Last Friday, it approved a proposal put forward by the Ministry of Industry and Trade to increase quotas for foreign workers from third...

The 27th edition of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival kicks off today, ushering in six days of documentary films by both seasoned and new filmmakers. To learn more about the history of the festival and this year’s edition, I...

The Indian writer, investigative journalist and translator Ashutosh Bhardwaj is known internationally for his work on the tribal people in Central India caught between Maoist insurgents and the police. But it was something very different that...

More than three dozen renowned Czech artists, enchanted by the magic of porcelain painting, created more than 300 pieces of large porcelain originals, including their own flower triptychs. Each of the authors individually conceived the subject...

The Foreign Ministry has handed out its annual Gratias Agit Awards to Czech expats and foreigners for promoting the good name of the Czech Republic abroad. Among this year’s recipients were eight personalities and one organization, including...

In 2023, the NATIONAL GALLERY PRAGUE celebrate one hundred years since the Czechoslovak state made a generous purchase of French art under the auspices of the President of the Republic Tomáš Garrigu Masaryk. It was the result of the Czech...

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala visited Israel on Wednesday to signal his country’s strong support for the Jewish state in its war against Hamas. Amid calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East, the Czech head of government said...

After a long hiatus, the Diplomatic Spouse Association is delighted to resume its annual Charity Festival. We cordially invite you to visit the festival with stends and shows for an enchanting journey to over 40 foreign communities and...

The Czech Tourism Office - CzechTourism is changing its management. From November 1, 2023, the current director of marketing and foreign offices, František Reismüller, will be the new director based on a selection process. This was announced by...

The second parliamentary summit of the Crimean Platform took place in Prague on October 24, 2023. It aims to raise awareness of the illegal Russian occupation of Crimea and its wider strategic consequences. The situation of Ukrainian children...

It is a kind of bitter déjà vu. As the war in Ukraine conflict heightened tensions between the West and Russia, Prague has become a focal point for intelligence and disinformation. There have been increasing intelligence reports over the years...

The film ‘Brothers’, based on the Cold War story of the controversial Mašín brothers who formed an armed resistance group and fought their way out of communist Czechoslovakia to freedom in the West, premiered in Prague on Wednesday night before...

In mid-August I wrote here about a young mountain bongo female from our zoo, who lost her mother but showed a tremendous will to live. Thanks to her connection with the herd, she began to drink from two other females, who were caring for their...

Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavský awarded eight Czechs with the prestigious Gratias Agit Award this week, honouring those individuals who have made their mark in areas of science, literature, and culture. Among the laureates was Josef...

In a country famed for its well-preserved medieval towns and beautiful historical architecture, Zlín stands out as something of an outlier in Czechia. You won’t find any Gothic cathedrals or Baroque chateaus in this Moravian city – but fans of...

The Prague Zoo is decked out in captivating October colors, and the prepared program is just as varied: this Sunday, October 22, the zoo will celebrate World Wombat Day, with two guided feedings of them. During the autumn holidays, visitors can...

The Visiongame archive contains over five thousand Czech and Slovak titles. “Computer games are like works of art. We need to archive them for future generations,” says Miroslav Žák, a collector of videogames. “For stronger growth...

A unique exhibit of Czech glass artworks called Bohemian Glass: The Great Masters, is on display now at the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy. The display features the art of six Czech glassmakers and the work of Czech...

When it comes to the fall of Communism in Czechia, most attention is concentrated on what happened in Prague. And understandably so, as it was the real center of the revolution. However, there were many dramatic moments in smaller cities in the...

In 1583, Rudolf II, head of the Holy Roman Empire and king of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, moved the seat of the Habsburg monarchy from Vienna to Prague turning the city into one of the leading centers of the arts and sciences on the Continent...

Anyone who has driven on Czech roads knows that tempers can flare high and considerate drivers are few and far between. Brake-checking has become a particularly popular way of expressing road rage of late, but as of next year drivers could pay...

The repatriation of Czechs from Israel was successfully concluded on Friday, with a total of 228 citizens returning to the country on six government planes. In addition, the Czech government met Israel’s request for it to fly home Israelis who...

One of the biggest providers of Czech humanitarian aid in Ukraine has been the NGO People in Need. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reached 600 days on Monday, I spoke to Petr Štefan, humanitarian aid coordinator in the country, and I first...

Czech singer-songwriter Jakub König came to attention with the DIY project Kittchen and as frontman of the large band Zvíře jménem Podzim. He has now released Hvězdy (Stars), his first LP under his own name. The relatively upbeat eight-track...

If you’re an Instagram user living in Prague, you may have scrolled past content by the account Just Czech Things, a profile with over 65k followers run by 32-year-old Arthur Kornienko. Originally from Russia, Kornienko is often mistaken as a...

Journalist Alsu Kurmasheva has been detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent. The Prague-based editor at Radio Free Europe’s Tatar-Bashkir service faces up to five years in jail if she is found guilty by the...

It is the people who live there who make it an authentic place, rich in culture and traditions, which are handed down from generation to generation. The project Nos Ladins – We Ladins aims to bring tourists closer to the local traditions...

Among those receiving an award at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday for promoting the good name of Czechia will be Holocaust survivor and writer Eva Erbenová. Aged 92, she arrived in the country last week on a government plane...

An exhibition on Czech humanitarian aid and development cooperation was unveiled on the Dvořák embankment in Prague on Tuesday. Organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it aims to raise awareness of the different ways in which Czechia is...

Halfway through its term in office the Fiala administration has pushed through a package of austerity measures aimed at reducing the steep deficit in public finances. In order to do so, it had to break its election promise not to raise taxes...

Czech Post recently released a special edition of stamps featuring illustrations from Božena Němcová’s novel The Grandmother (Babička) by the Czech-British artist Míla Furstová. The colourful etchings were originally created for the most recent...

Martin Dvořák started making his mark on public life during the Velvet Revolution of 1989. As a young, obscure economist at a meat processing plant in Eastern Bohemia, he played a pivotal role in establishing the local branch of the Civic...

The annual event Drumming for Bubny, commemorating the victims of the first Nazi transport of Jews from Prague on October 16, 1941, will take place at the site of the Bubny railway station on Monday evening. Organized by the Memorial of...

The ninth edition of the national beekeeping competition Best Honey of the Year took place at the Old Town Hall in Brno. Picture shows young girl tasting samples. Source:ČTK

The Fiala government has won approval for its austerity package in the Chamber of Deputies. The set of reforms, which aims to put a handbrake on the growing deficit in public finances, includes tax hikes, cuts in subsidies and lay-offs and will...

Professors and faculty members at universities across the country are taking part in a nationwide warning strike on Tuesday to protest against the underfunding of various faculties and the worsening conditions for academic staff. To learn more...

The female common Winkleigh wombat at the Prague Zoo is training for abdominal examination these days. Leaning on a special gate reveals sensitive parts and builds mutual trust with the breeder. When she’s pregnant or has a baby in her...

Visitors to the Prague Zoo can observe a female cheetah in the enclosure these days. Nine-year-old Femi is most active in the morning these days. After the current cold nights, she likes to bask on the raised platform in the middle of her...

On the 100th anniversary of the founding of what was originally a motorcycle club, the Central Moravian Automobile and Motorcycle Club organized a show of historic cars and motorcycles up to the year 1945 on the Olomouc square Horní náměstí at...

29 countries, 300 delegates, more than 40 buyers from all over the world. This is what the European Spa and Balneological Congress looked like. After more than 20 years, it was held in Karlovy Vary. Simultaneously with the congress, SPA-CE was...

The annual festival of digital and creative culture, also known as the Signal festival of light art will begin this Thursday across Prague, presenting four days of Czech and international artwork. To learn more about this year’s 11th edition, I...

Martin Řezníček is one of the anchors of the Czech Public Television flagship news program Události. He recently moderated a key debate in the Czech presidential election campaign. His firm and flawless performance angered one of the...

Petr Kratochvíl on a new paper he co-authored which says Russia’s war on Ukraine is novel in that it is also a fight against gender and sexual equalities, with Moscow presenting itself as a defender of traditional values against the...

A spectacular ceremony accompanied the consecration of the Basilica of St. Ludmila in Prague’s Vinohrady district 130 years ago. Over 300 maidens dressed in white, the Hlahol singing club and thousands of ordinary citizens took part in the six...

Roughly 150 musicians took part in a public concert at Prague’s Main Railway Station on Sunday evening to raise awareness about the underfunding of culture in Czechia. The campaign, titled Let’s Not Let Culture Go Silent, is backed by two dozen...

A recent report from the National Institute of Mental Health in Czechia indicated that children and adolescents are suffering from anxiety and depression at staggeringly high rates, with close to 40 percent of secondary school goers affected...

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský was the first foreign dignitary to visit Israel in the wake of Saturday’s attack on the country by the Palestinian group Hamas. He assured President Yitzhak Herzog and his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen of...

Russia’s war on Ukraine is novel in that it is also a fight against gender and sexual equalities. That is the central thesis of a recent paper by Petr Kratochvíl and Míla O’Sullivan from Prague’s Institute of International Relations, who say...

Senior officials in Prague have strongly condemned the Hamas attack on Israel that began on Saturday. President Petr Pavel called it a reprehensible terrorist act, while Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Czechia had always stood and will stand...

Following the Hamas attack on Israel, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala says moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is now a “desirable step”. This would break with previous policy of following the EU line – and Foreign Minister...

Soprano Patricia Burda Janečková was one of the bright lights of the opera world. Her young life and promising career were tragically cut short by cancer to which she succumbed at the age of 25. She died on October 1, 2023. Born in Germany to...

A new fundraiser for psychological aid to Ukrainian children was announced in connection with the second annual Crimean Platform Parliamentary Summit. It will be hosted by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, in...

The Frankfurt Book Fair, one of the world’s most prestigious literary events, has announced Czechia as its honorary guest for the 2026 edition. How important will its participation be for the country’s literature and publishing houses? I...

On October 12, 2023, an architectural exhibition entitled Czech Pavilion EXPO 2025: Competition Proposals started in the National Museum. It is organized by the Office of the General Commissioner for EXPO 2025 in cooperation with the National...

In the Pardubice region, they are betting on technology. After the train museum or the exhibition of old machines, people can experience the (old) new Automatic Gočár mills 234,000 people came to hotels, boarding houses and apartments in the...

The parliamentary summit of the Crimean Platform will take place in Prague from October 23 to 24. It aims to raise awareness of the illegal Russian occupation of Crimea and its wider consequences. Over 40 representatives of legislative bodies...

Learning difficulties, traumas and domestic violence –those are just some of the underlying causes of behavioral problems among schoolchildren. According to the Czech School Inspectorate, the number of children with behavioral problems has...

Academic articles are usually only read by a vanishingly small number of people, but a paper published in mid-May of this year in the journal Heritage Science has already become one of the world’s most-read scientific papers, with 36,000...

Czechia, Poland, Austria and Slovakia have announced they are extending the spot border checks introduced on October 4, by another 20 days. The measure, intended to curb the flow of illegal migrants along the Western Balkans route, has proved...

Czechs know how to make good beer and enjoy it – consuming, on average, over 160 liters per person each year. And they have become increasingly fond of good wine, a fondness that is also driven by the fact that there is no excise tax on still...

The name ‘Zlín’ has been inextricably linked with businessman Tomáš Baťa ever since the beginning of the twentieth century – so much so that, despite the word bearing no resemblance to his name, the town was renamed in 1949 by the communist...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several of his ministers are due to attend a meeting with the Czech government in Prague on Monday morning.

President Petr Pavel, in a speech before members of the European Parliament on October 4, 2023, supported the expansion of the European Union to include the countries of the Western Balkans or the so-called Associated Trio (Ukraine, Moldova...

Exactly four months ago, two scaly turtle hatchlings hatched in the Prague Zoo. These mushroom-eating reptiles were bred by the Prague Zoo as the first zoo in Europe. Both delicate cubs thrive and transform significantly.

Column written by Miroslav Bobek, Director of Prague Zoo.

The President of the Republic, Petr Pavel, received the credentials of the new ambassadors to the Czech Republic on Thursday, October 5, 2023 at Prague Castle

A region of enterprising people. This is where the Bata company was founded and today its shoes are famous the world over. It boasts the town of Kroměříž, with the most beautiful castle gardens in Czechia, and the pilgrimage site Velehrad. See...

Today Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is the region’s premier cinema showcase. But practically half of its long history took place under communism – and the event in that period is the subject of a new book, Proplétání světů...

New data from the Czech Statistics Office show that one fifth of students on Czech campuses are internationals, and nearly half of those foreigners wish to stay on in Czechia after completing their studies. To understand these numbers and the...

The Thália Awards are an annual ceremony that honours artists in the performing arts in Czechia. Awards are presented to both men and women in four categories – drama, opera, dance, and musical and operetta. This year, American-born performer...

The cult of St Wenceslas is ever-present in Czechia, not least in the field of music. The best example of this is the St. Wenceslas Chorale. The Saint Wenceslas Chorale is a church hymn and one of the oldest known Czech songs, which is part of...

September 28 is St. Wenceslas Day, a state holiday marking the death of the nation’s patron saint. Many of the masses celebrated in his memory will take place in churches dedicated to St. Wenceslas. Wenceslas was born near Prague in 907...

Exactly 150 years ago, Prague Archbishop Bedřich Schwarzenberg laid the foundation stone for the completion of Prague’s famous St. Vitus Cathedral in neo-Gothic style. The Cathedral of St. Vitus, Wenceslas and Vojtech at Prague Castle, a...

Škoda has unveiled its next generation SUV Kodiaq. At its world premiere in Berlin on Wednesday evening, the car manufacturer presented the new car’s design and technological enhancements in a never-used subway tunnel under Potsdam Square. The...

President Petr Pavel, in a speech before members of the European Parliament on October 4, 2023, supported the expansion of the European Union to include the countries of the Western Balkans or the so-called Associated Trio (Ukraine, Moldova...

September seems to have unofficially been sustainability month in Czechia, with Zero Waste Week, European Sustainable Development Week and Czech Radio’s “Don’t Bin it! 7 Days for the Planet” all taking place within that period. While many of...

What could be more Czech than drinking beer on an old tram? At Prague’s Bistro Točna, owner Jan Řídký and his business partner have turned a historical tram stop into a thriving business frequented by locals and tourists alike. I spoke with him...

The 50th Czech Ploughing Championship was held in Chrudim at the weekend. Pictured is a participant in the horse-drawn ploughing category. Source:ČTK

Pardubice’s Automatic Mills (Automatické mlýny) building – one of the most famous works by the pioneering Czech architect and designer Josef Gočár – has just been reopened as a multifunctional public space following a CZK 900 million renovation...

Just one month after private firms such as Vodafone and Skoda wrote an open letter to Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala calling for marriage equality, Czech theatres across the country followed suit. The Goose on a String theatre in Brno, is one...

Lasvit, Czechia’s leading exporter of luxury glass and light installations, is one of three prominent design entities currently being showcased at Sketch, a high-end dining establishment in West London. Michelin-starred Sketch in London’s posh...

The Koněprusy Caves, the largest known cave system in Bohemia, are the first in Europe to have a digital map. It was created by a team of scientists using 3D scanning. A special camera allowed them to access places that have never been mapped...

On his way to the European Political Community summit in Granada on Thursday, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said bolder steps were needed to resolve the growing problem of illegal migration in Europe. Czechia, Austria, Poland and Slovakia...

In today’s edition of Sunday Music Show we‘ll be listening to a new CD created jointly by opera singer Adam Plachetka and jazz and swing musician Ondřej Havelka and his band Melody Makers. Called Nebe na Zemi, or Heaven on Earth, it mainly...

Heathens, a new Czech film set for release next week, centres on the play of the same name by Hanna Yablonska. She was a young Ukraine-born playwright who was killed in a suicide bombing at a Moscow airport. The black and white movie Heathens...

A temporary gallery has opened in Brussels to celebrate architect and designer Josef Hoffmann, who was born in Moravia and rose to fame in Vienna. Over the next six weeks, visitors to Café Hoffmann can sit on chairs based on his designs and...