Posts

New rules have just come into force in Czechia aiming to tackle the problem of light pollution. Their goal is to lower the negative impact on the health of people and wildlife by, for instance, setting a maximum level of illumination for street...

Hundreds of independent Russian journalists who fear being prosecuted by the Kremlin could benefit from a new project being set up by Czech Vice President of the European Commission Věra Jourová. Called “Radio Free Russia”, it would include...

This week saw the opening of the temporary Moravian Jewish Museum in Brno which offers an exhibition focused on the stories of local Moravian Jews through a variety of authentic objects. The site will operate until the new museum building...

Prague has changed enormously since 1990, but recently – with projects like the overhaul of the Masaryk Station area – it can feel like development is accelerating further. For an informed view, I spoke to the best possible guide to the city:...

A series of events, organised by the NGO People in Need, will take place in Prague this week to mark the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They will include a video mapping on the building of the Ministry of the Interior, as...

The Zaporizhzhia Regional Youth Centre in Ukraine is one of the largest youth centres in Europe and has served as a volunteer headquarters since the outbreak of the war. The centre also received support from the Czech NGO People in Need and was...

Naďa Urbánková, one of Czechia’s most famous pop and country signers, died this month at the age of 83. Aside from being a performer, she was also known for her roles in some of the country’s most iconic musicals such as the 1965 movie ‘If a...

The Czech government is facing a major battle in the lower house over a bill which would reduce the indexation of old-age pensions. While the cabinet argues the need to economize, the opposition says the government is hurting the most...

February is traditionally a time of pig slaughter feasts in Czechia, an event accompanied by eating, drinking and comradery. Kevin Loo shares his impressions of one such event in Prague. With apologies to any vegan or vegetarian readers out...

Orchids are in full bloom in the Liberec Botanical Garden. Source

Nusle Bridge, connecting Pankrác plain with Prague’s Karlov, is one of the key transport structures in the city. Over 160,000 cars cross it every day, while 750 metro trains pass through a tunnel inside it. The first idea to span the Nusle...

Twenty-five years ago today the Czech national hockey team won gold at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano Japan. We spoke with all-star goaltender Dominik Hašek who helped lead the Czech team to glory, about how he remembers the game against...

“Continued support for Ukraine for as long as the war lasts” was the main message to come out of the Munich security conference last weekend. However, the Czech president-elect Petr Pavel stressed that Russia’s defeat could happen under various...

Nearly two-fifths of people who identify as LGBTQ+ in Czechia have faced harassment or insults because of their orientation or identity over the past year. And seven out of ten people think insulting remarks from politicians are widespread...

The government should this week consider proposals from the Foreign Ministry to terminate treaties allowing Russia free rent of land on which Russian-owned buildings stand in Czechia. The Czech side are also seeking rents paid for the use of...

Czechia’s national men’s baseball team is on the road to the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo this March, but many may not be aware that this team is largely made up of professional baseball players, who also have full time careers outside...

In a forthright speech on Tuesday, the head of the Czech Army said that if there were a war between NATO and Russia, the Czechs would immediately become active participants. Karel Řehka told the country’s top brass that preparations must be...

Czechia’s annual Muriel Awards for best comic book of the year went to a comic diary by the respected Czech comic author Lucie Lomová. The book, called Každý den je nový or Every Day Starts Anew, also won the prize of the Czech Academy of...

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, together with the representative of the Ukrainian Embassy to the Czech Republic, Vitaly Usaty, unveiled an...

Czechia has many friends in Cambodia. And small wonder, hundreds of Cambodian graduates of Czech universities, including King Norodom Sihamoni himself, cherish fond memories of their stay in Czechia and still retain some of the Czech language...

The Czech Society for Ornithology has announced that the Bird of the Year for 2023 is the common pochard. A common type of duck in this part of the world, its population has dropped by a third over the past 30 years. The common pochard is the...

There’s no doubt that Czechs love their beer, but with inflation at an all time high, the prices of pints are going up by nearly five or ten crowns per half litre. But the rising cost has less to do with beer itself getting more expensive and...

Prague Zoo employees in cooperation with their Mongolian colleagues and partners have completed selection of the locality for the planned reintroduction of Przewalski’s horses to the east of Mongolia. After a long-lasting process, which...

February 13 is World Radio Day. Under the slogan “Radio and Peace”, this year the UN put the spotlight on the role of radio as an independent medium of peace making, Radio Prague International brings you this special broadcast in collaboration...

The band Vesna has been chosen to represent the Czech Republic at this year’s Eurovision Song contest. The all-female group won the national round with the song “My Sister’s Crown”, beating competitors such as Markéta Irglová...

Prague got a new lord mayor on Thursday, with Bohuslav Svoboda starting his second term as head of the city council. Critics question whether the Civic Democrat, who is 79, will be able to devote all his energies to the role, given his other...

More than 8,000 people have already signed a petition initiated by the NGO Konsent, calling for the improvement of sexual education in Czech schools. What do Czech children learn about sex? And is it really the school’s role to educate them on...

Karel Čapek’s play The Mother, about a woman who does her all to prevent her son dying in war, got its premiere in Prague 85 years ago, on 12 February 1938. The famous Czech writer’s final play, like the earlier The White Disease, came in...

Brno-based startup Mewery has recently had a big breakthrough – it created the first prototype of cultivated meat in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. The company says its prototype has nutritional benefits and that the method to...

Czechoslovak Radio saw some of the most intense violence when the USSR led an invasion of the country in August 1968. That traumatic moment and the preceding Prague Spring period are the setting for a new film, Vlny/Waves, now being made by...

After more than 80 years, the Czech state has returned art objects that belonged to the family of a wealthy Jewish businessman Johann Bloch, who lost his property during WWII. The four paintings and 10 liturgical vestments were returned to...

Czech footballer Jakub Jankto has made major international headlines by becoming the highest profile player currently in the men’s game to come out as homosexual. The 27-year-old’s move has won support from the soccer community around the world...

“After the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia we always rooted for the Czech hockey team” the Israeli ambassador to Czechia, Anna Azari, says in an interview for Radio Prague International. Azari is a seasoned diplomat with a special...

Flat prices went down for the first time since 2013 in Czechia in the last quarter of 2022, according to the index of Hypoteční banka, a daughter company of ČSOB bank. The index suggests that the cost of an average flat fell by 0.7 percent in...

Landscape protection, development of tourism and support of alternative social services – these are just a few examples of Czech development cooperation projects that are currently running in Georgia. The mountainous country located on the...

On Thursday morning I could see for the first time the newly born pangolin baby on the footage of the night camera. But I could hardly recognize only a part of the head and at a one point also the long curved claws of the left front leg...

In Czechia, ice hockey is one of the most popular and celebrated sports. But while men enjoy the privilege of being able to play in different leagues based on their age and skill level, women struggle to finance and find clubs to play in. While...

The Vietnamese community is the third largest ethnic minority group here in Czechia, but how much do Czechs and other foreigners living in the country know about their community and history? Walking through the streets of Prague, you might...

The earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria in the early hours of Monday morning has now claimed over 5000 lives, with the death toll still rising. Although the hopes of finding people alive buried underneath the rubble are decreasing now that...

Director Karel Kachyňa’s Ucho/The Ear is considered one of the greatest Czech films of all time. It centres on a Communist elite couple in the early 1950s who are gripped by panic that – with party purges taking place – the secret police will...

President-elect Petr Pavel made international news this week by phoning the president of Taiwan – and later saying Czechia would no longer act “like an ostrich” toward China. What is behind these moves? And what’s next for relations between...

The series of eight murders committed by Jaroslav and Dana Stodol in 2001 and 2002 are unprecedented in the history of Czech criminology. The case was exceptional not only because of the scale and cruelty of the crimes, but also because of...

While daily commuters in Prague want a comfortable and fast ride to work, veteran tram enthusiasts saviour the feeling of getting on one of the old open, wooden trams for a nostalgic ride through Prague. With that in mind, Prague City Transport...

Thirty years ago, a Czech unit serving in the UNPROFOR mission rescued over fifty French soldiers under siege in what was then still Yugoslavia. It was one of the greatest successes of the newly formed Czech army. The unit was led by Czechia’s...

Czech “Mardi Gras” celebrations have kicked off around the country. The Zubrnice Open-Air Museum in Ústí nad Labem organized the traditional carnival procession of masks in their locality. Source

Shelters and emergency housing facilities across Czechia have started filling up as the freezing weather drives homeless people off the streets. With nighttime lows likely to stay at around minus 12 degrees for the rest of the week, I spoke to...

Agriculture, water and education are three of the main areas where Czechia cooperates with Ethiopia on development. While just under a third of the country’s inhabitants live below the poverty line and more than half are illiterate, the...

The Interior Ministry’s latest report on the manifestations of extremism in Czechia warns of groups of people who have the potential to threaten the democratic foundations of the Czech Republic. According to the report, the potential is already...

Czech Radio is currently gearing up to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the station’s foundation in May. The public broadcaster, of which Radio Prague International is part, is running several projects and events in connection with the...

The Czech National Bank has issued a 1,000 crown banknote to commemorate the birth of an independent Czech currency after the split of Czechoslovakia. Thousands of people braved the freezing cold, queuing up outside the Prague branch of the...

Large-scale tapestries inspired by the artworks of Josef Čapek and several other Czech painters are currently on display at the Imperial Stables of Prague Castle. The stunning pieces were created by the Moravian Tapestry Manufactory in Valašské...

H.E. Mr. Egemen BAGIS, Ambassador of the Republic of Türkiye published the following statement on the Embassy's Instagram page regarding Türkiye earthquake, worst disaster in 84 years

Born just before 4 a.m., it weighs 135 grams and resembles a living spruce cone. The first pangolin pup that was born not just in the Prague Zoo, but also the first one ever in all of Europe. „We are incredibly happy, but at the same time we do...

Czechs assessed President Miloš Zeman’s ten-year performance in the country’s top post with an average 4 on a five point scale, the equivalent of a “D” in the Western school grading system, according to the results of a survey...

Retired army general Petr Pavel is set to become Czechia’s next president after winning a sweeping victory in the second round of presidential elections. He beat his contestant for the top post, former prime minister Andrej Babiš by the biggest...

The newly-elected Czech president Petr Pavel has promised sweeping changes at Prague Castle. He wants to open up the historic seat of Czech kings to the public and return to the tradition of employing a Prague Castle architect. Asked what he...

Steriani Elavsky is an associate professor at the University of Ostrava who has spent years researching the benefits that physical movement has on our mental and physical wellbeing. Steriani spent 17 years at the University of Illinois and...

The Brno Philharmonic is embarking on a ten-day tour of the United States. The orchestra, which last performed in North America nearly 50 years ago, will play seven concerts at seven different locations. The tour will kick off with a...

A captivating picture of Bezděz castle won the 2023 competition for the most beautiful Czech postcard. The photographer, Ladislav Renner, told Czech Radio how he managed to capture the arresting shot. A stunning medieval Gothic castle snaking...

Have you ever tried in vain to identify the pests that are eating your houseplants? A new technology, developed by a Czech start-up, could make it easier. It can classify over six thousand insects using Artificial Intelligence. All you need to...

Events marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism are being held around Czechia on Friday. A special commemorative event attended by foreign...

A meeting of lovers of PC, board, arcade and retro games, Pokemon, comics and cosplay took place in Plzeň at the weekend as part of the second year of the science fiction and fantasy festival Co.Con. Source

In the UK and US, people attempt a month without drinking alcohol under the banner of Dry January, but in Czechia, February is the nationally recognized month for abstaining. Suchej únor (Dry February) is now in its 11th year, and this time is...

The following post is an editorially edited press release by NGI. Multilayer Internet infrastructure is becoming crucial to the European economy. European businesses and citizens are starting to recognise the real benefits of an interconnected...

Václav Chochola, a native of Prague’s Libeň district, is often associated with snapshots of city suburbs. But he also photographed famous Czech and world personalities such as Jan Werich and Salvador Dali. Chochola’s famous series of portrait...

Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the six countries which the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently focussing on in its development cooperation programmes. Due to its linguistic and cultural proximity to the Balkan state, Czechia has...

Prague Zoo now has frilled lizards on display. This is the first time the zoo has kept these striking reptiles. Visitors can find the Australian lizards, which inspired the creators of Jurassic Park, in the Feline and Reptile Pavilion. “These...

Sixteen-year-old violinist Roman Červinka from České Budějovice won the most recent season of the popular classical music reality TV competition Virtuosos V4+. He beat thousands of other applicants to take the prize. See the rest here. Author:...

Prague, January 16, 2023 – The University of New York in Prague (UNYP) will be hosting a panel discussion on the practice of sports sponsorship on February 1st, at the O2 Universum. The panel will be discussing the best practices from the point...

A recent video by a pair of Prague theatre students has caught the attention of people on social media and sparked a debate about ‘trdelník’ – the sweet chimney or funnel cake which turns on a spit and has become ubiquitous in Prague’s city...

During the eleventh year of the international championship in historical skiing in Staré Hamry – Gruň in the Beskydy Mountains, a competitor skis the slope in telemark style. Source

Folk, rock, jazz, pop music – the musical tastes of Czechoslovak and later Czech presidents differed significantly. Václav Havel had the most friends among musicians, including world stars. “Ach synku, synku” (“Oh son, son”)...

Four Czech filmmakers will compete for an Oscar at the upcoming 95th Academy Awards. They have been shortlisted for Netflix’s World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front. The first-ever German-language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s...

There has only been one Czech Nobel Prize winner in a scientific field to date – Jaroslav Heyrovský, who won it in chemistry in 1959 for his invention of the polarographic method. But another one could have followed just a year later, if not...

It was her skill as an artist that saved Brno-born Dina Gottliebová-Babbittová from death in Auschwitz’s gas chamber. She was protected by the angel of death himself, SS doctor Josef Mengele. The Czech-American artist was born on January 21...

The Czech government’s humanitarian aid program MEDEVAC provides medical assistance to people in need the world over. In war-torn Ukraine it is literally helping to save lives. Last year, 16-month-old Yulia was close to death. With burns on 60...

Visitors to Prague’s Botanical Garden in Troja have a rare chance to see the world’s smallest water lily in bloom. The plant, called Nymphaea thermarum in Latin, isn’t just tiny; it is also one of the rarest plants in the world. Nymphaea...

Josef Lada is undoubtedly one of the best-loved Czech painters of all time. He is known for his illustrations of children’s books as well as for his landscape and village paintings, many of which have appeared on Czech Christmas cards. The self...

A special tram commemorating the 30 year anniversary of President Vaclav Havel’s election began making rounds across Prague this Thursday. Havel was elected as Czechia’s first president on January 26, 1993. The vehicle is operating on the route...

Cigarette butts, one of the most hated types of street debris, could actually be useful. A team of scientists from the Tomáš Baťa University in Zlín, say that they have developed a method of using cigarette butts to catch hormones in wastewater...

A proposal put forward by a group of five coalition MPs to make October 12 the official Day of Samizdat was approved by the government this week.

John F. Kotouc is the Co-CEO and Co-Chair of the American National Bank for the midwestern region of the United States.

The Benedictine Monastery was founded 1,030 years ago on January 14, in 993 by the Bishop of Prague, St. Vojtěch, and Prince Boleslav II. Pobožný. It is still in use today.

Dollar Prync is a Czech Roma rapper whose tracks have garnered millions of views on YouTube and TikTok over the past years. Laced with Roma slang, his lyrics tell many stories about the poor in Prague’s Smíchov district.

The theme of the 23rd annual ice sculpture festival at Pustevny in the Beskid Mountains is dinosaurs. In one tent there are 10 smaller statues, in another three large statues of prehistoric animals, including a statue of a nest with eggs.

Unlike the vast majority of the Westerners who moved to Prague in the “Wild East” days of the early 1990s, Paul Dubsky was still in his teens at the time.

On 16 January 1969, Czech student Jan Palach set himself on fire on Prague’s Wenceslas Square in protest against apathy in the wake of the Soviet occupation of his country.

Czech ice hockey forward David Krejčí reached a career milestone on Monday when he played his 1,000th NHL regular season game. And he celebrated in style, notching up three assists as his Boston Bruins beat Philadelphia Flyers 6:0.

The Bohemian Switzerland National Park was one of the most beautiful corners of the Czech Republic. Last summer, however, it was ravaged by a devastating wildfire.

A team of Czech scientists say that they have discovered a parasite with a uniquely chaotic gene structure unreadable to viruses. Their research has since been published in the prestigious science journal Nature. The team believes its findings...

Due to the huge amount of public interest, Prague Castle has extended the exhibition of the Bohemian crown jewels in St. Vitus Cathedral until next Tuesday. The exhibition, which opened to the public on Tuesday, was originally supposed to end...

Czech scientists have developed a unique inhalable drug, which could help patients with Covid. Until now, it has only been available in solid form and has been used to treat other diseases. The liquid form of the drug, which is administered...

Hannah Nepilová is a British classical music journalist with Czech roots who has written for Gramophone, The Times, and BBC Music Magazine, among many other well-known publications.

Prague’s recently opened Lumia Gallery offers the largest audio-visual light exhibition of its kind in Central Europe, featuring various installations such as a mirror labyrinth or a kaleidoscopic cinema.

The Czech journalist and manager Pavel Pecháček has died in the United States at the age of 82. He joined the Czechoslovak section of Radio Free Europe after emigrating in the wake of the Soviet-led invasion and – after a stint at Voice of...

The Bamberg Symphony, led by Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša, has received the International Classical Music Award for best symphonic music for their 2022 CD featuring compositions by Austrians Hans Rott, Gustav Mahler and Anton Bruckner.

Czechs are the world’s most prolific beer drinkers and their various brews are highly sought after in markets across the globe.

A wolf which was found lying in a ditch with serious injuries after being hit by a car in September spurred thousands of Czechs into action and started a crowdfunding effort to help save the animal’s life.

The Bohnice "fools’ graveyard" is one of the darkest and most haunting places in Czechia, with a charged atmosphere heightened by the rumours associated with it. We look at some of the unlikely events that took place there.

Ten years ago, Karel Poborský played a football match which none of its participants or spectators will ever forget. This match took place in the remote Cameroonian town of Somalomo; Karel played the first half for the Deux-Zéro Team and the...