AuthorMartin Hladík

Photo: Kateřina Šulová, ČTK

An international conference on Ukraine organised by Czech Radio on the occasion of its 100th anniversary took place in Prague on Thursday. The event, focusing on the role of public media in covering the events in Ukraine was attended by, among others, American academic Marci Shore and Russian opposition journalist Zhanna Nemtsova.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

If you’ve heard the roars of a crowd at Prague’s Viktoria Zizkov stadium, there’s a chance it’s been fans of the Prague Lions, the American football team who recently qualified for the European League of Football (ELF) this season. This past week, I sat down with head coach Zach Harrod and quarterback Shazzon Mumphrey to talk about what the process of stepping up into the ELF has meant for the team and for the sport here in Czechia.

Zach, you talk a lot about how much of a privilege it has been for you to grow American football over the past 20 years here in Czechia, tell me about that journey of developing the sport here.

“I think it’s important to give credit where credit’s due. In many ways, I’m standing on the shoulders of people who started growing the sport before me.

“The Lions started in 1991 when I was 11, and I came over ten years after that. But over the last 20 years it’s been an up and down, a rollercoaster in many ways.

“I came here in my mid 20’s wanting to coach and make a difference in lives through the sport, and realized that the game had far more potential.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

According to the Czech police, there has been a sharp increase in the number of young people taking steroids over the last few years. Experts say that social media and the pressure to achieve the “perfect body” play a significant role.

Police statistics show a marked increase in the number of intercepted postal items from abroad containing banned athletic performance-enhancing drugs in the last couple of years. While in 2020, the customs administration registered only one such case, in 2022, there were 41 cases and so far there have already been 36 this year.

The police are trying to target distributors. For example, they recently busted a criminal group that was importing anabolic steroids from China and selling them, says the director of the National Anti-Drug Division, Jakub Frydrych:

“The distribution was taking place mainly in Prague and the Central Bohemia region, but also via the Internet and mail order.”

Even though police officers investigate dozens of cases related to steroids every year, according to Frydrych, their actual use in the population is many times greater.

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Authors: Anna Fodor, Patrik Salát

Photo: Lukáš Milota, Czech Radio

This Tuesday, June 20, marks World Refugee Day, held to honour people around the world who have been forced to flee their homes in the face of conflict and persecution. In connection with the annual day, the Czech office of the UN Refugee Agency hosted a debate in Prague addressing the current situation of Ukrainian refugees in Czechia.

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Czechia has granted over 500,000 temporary protection visas to Ukrainian refugees, becoming their third most common European Union destination and the country with the highest number of Ukrainian refugees per 100 000 inhabitants.

While in the first months following the invasion, there were up to 3,000 Ukrainians arriving in Czechia on a daily basis, the influx of refugees has since slowed down considerably.

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Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Magdalena Hrozínková

Photo: Martin Vaniš, Radio Prague International

Pavlína Adam, a biologist and adventurer, recently became the first Czech woman to complete the Great Himalaya Trail, one of the world’s most difficult treks, stretching 1,700 kilometres across the Himalayas, with an approximately 240,000 metres of elevation gain. Pavlína and her US friend Sarah Kruger covered the trek in just 101 days, during the monsoon season, becoming the first female-only team to complete the challenge.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Zuzana Jarolímková, Czech Radio

Saturday marks Petr Pavel’s first 100 days as president of Czechia. What have been his biggest successes – and his biggest failures? I spoke to political scientist Jiří Pehe about how he would rate how the fledgling president is doing so far.

“I think that President Pavel is doing quite well, especially if we compare his performance with that of his predecessor, Miloš Zeman, who really wasn’t an active president during the last years of his presidency, and who also wasn’t really a very constructive politician, getting into a number of conflicts and clashes with other politicians and so on. Whereas it seems to me that Mr Pavel is trying very hard to find consensus on the Czech political scene, and his performance in foreign policy in particular is very impressive.”

Has he done the things he promised during his election campaign that he would do in his first 100 days?

“If we look at what he promised and what he has actually been doing, he has pretty much managed to stick to his intentions. Especially in foreign policy, he has been very active and he has tried very hard to find some consensus with other top politicians in the Czech Republic – the prime minister and the speakers of both houses of parliament. He has returned the Czech Republic firmly on a pro-Western path, and that is certainly an achievement.

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Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: Ondřej Tomšů, Radio Prague International

Ludwig Löwi Moser supplied the courts of emperors and monarchs such as Franz Joseph I, the Persian Shah and the British King Edward VII with his elegant creations.

The founder of the global brand Moser was not only a skilled craftsman, but also a clever businessman. He already had his own glassware shop by the age of 24. With time, he began to specialise in luxury, cut, and engraved decorative glass.

However, his real breakthrough came when he went to the Vienna World Fair, where his glass creations caught the eye of Emperor Franz Joseph I, who subsequently appointed him his official imperial court glass supplier.

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Photo: Michaela Danelová, Český rozhlas

Špejchar 1969–1991 I–II is the title of a compilation by the great Czech singer and guitar player Vladimír Mišík.

The double album, which has now been rereleased by the label Supraphon, contains many of the popular artist’s best-loved songs released over 22 years in the first half of his career. The now 76-year-old rocker recorded with several groups, including Flamengo, Blue Effect and Vladimír Mišík and Etc.

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Photo: Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary

The organisers of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival have just revealed that actress Robin Wright will appear this year. She joins other star names, including Russell Crowe, whose band will perform for the public on the opening night. But the festival will also have numerous other notable guests, as I found out from artistic director, Karel Och.

This year’s stars are Russell Crowe, Alicia Vikander, Ewan McGregor and you’ve just announced Robin Wright. Which of them will create the greatest excitement among the public in Karlovy Vary, do you think?

“It’s hard to know. But I’m sure Russell Crowe will cause amazing excitement.

“Not just because he’s an amazing actor, but because he’s a musician.

“I think if a famous actor plays music and sings, it’s that added value that is rather exotic for many people.

“It reminds me maybe of the visit of John Malkovich, when he presented his fashion show, or Tim Robbins, who also performed as a musician.

“So to be presented in a different light – that’s twice as exciting.

“But I wouldn’t like to underplay Ewan McGregor’s fame and importance, and of course Alicia Vikander.

“And Robin Wright, too – it’s quite an amazing year, I would say.”

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Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Metronome Festival

On Wednesday the sixth edition of the Metronome festival will kick off in Prague, ushering in four days of international musical programming and cultural events. I spoke with David Gaydečka, the founder of the festival, about the development of Metronome over the years, and the new elements being implemented this year.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Elena Horálková, Radio Prague International

Although perhaps not as well-known as the nearby Lucerna, the Koruna Palace is an architectural masterpiece. With its unique blend of function and style, the palace has been an important Prague feature for over a century.

The Koruna, or “Crown”, Palace is one of a handful of truly beautiful modernist buildings on Wenceslas Square. After it was built in 1912, the palace was important first and foremost because of the everyday services it provided for Prague citizens.

Architectural historian Radomíra Sedláková told Radio Prague that the palace was one of the first multifunctional buildings that began to appear in the city in that period.

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Author: Vojtěch Pohanka

In the latest in a series of moves by the city to rid itself of reminders of its decades of Soviet occupation and oppression, Prague City Hall voted on Monday to rename Koněvova Street, which is called after the controversial Soviet military commander Ivan Konev.

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Author: Anna Fodor

Czechoslovakia decriminalised homosexuality in 1961, earlier than many Western European countries. Why was it that the generally repressive Communist regime showed such tolerance? And what was like life for gay people under communism?

The Prague government was not a European champion in the legalization of homosexual relations. Countries such as France and Belgium preceded Czechoslovakia by a century.

Nevertheless, decriminalization in 1961 (it entered into force on January 1, 1962) came ahead of states like England, where gays could be sent to prison until 1967. West Germany introduced such legislation in 1968, Norway in 1972 and Scotland in 1981. It took Ireland and Russia until 1993 to do so.

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Author: Libor Kukal

Father’s Day is this Sunday, but are Czech dads actively involved in the day to day domestic duties of running a family amongst heterosexual couples, or are mothers still bearing the brunt of the workload? I asked Dr. Jana Klímová Chaloupková from the Institute of Sociology at the Czech Academy of Social Sciences about the current division of labour in the home.

“Significant changes have occurred in regards to the expectation of gender roles within the family. Today, there is an increased expectation for fathers to actively participate in child care, including the care of the youngest children.

“Many fathers aspire to be more than just breadwinners, and want to play an active role in raising their children.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Radio Prague International

On Tuesday evening at the Platforma 15 gallery in Prague, Czech artist Renata Machýčková will debut her first show in 10 years in her native country. The exhibition titled “Blades on Heels” showcases her paintings as well as paper carvings that she has used to capture the diversity of the female form.

Renata Machýčková, who is from Moravia, has been living and working in Bergamo, Italy for nearly a decade.

Her new exhibition of work will be her first show on Czech soil in 10 years, since she was a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, where she studied in the painting studios of Czech artists Vladimír Skrepl and Jiří Kovanda.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Dinner in the Sky / Facebook

Dinner in the Sky is a food concept taking place across the world highlighting the best chefs and faces in contemporary gastronomy. Since 2017 the event has also been held in Prague, presenting Czech chefs who serve guests – at an altitude of 50 metres.

Calling all adrenaline junkies and those who love delicious food. Dinner in the Sky is coming back to Prague, a dining experience where you can be served a multiple course meal by a top ranking Czech chef, all while being hoisted up on a platform above the city ¬– that’s if you have 4,000 crowns to spare on a meal.

Dinner in the Sky is a global food experience that has been operating across 60 different countries since 2006. From Paris to Sao Paolo, the experience showcases the most influential faces in gastronomy and food culture of participating cities. Joining the ranks of major foodie cities, Prague hosted its first Dinner in the Sky experience in 2017.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

František Bělský is largely unknown in his native country. However, the Czech, who was born in 1921, achieved great success in his adopted UK, becoming the only sculptor ever to create busts of four generations of the royal family. Bělský’s remarkable life and career are the subject of a new book by journalist Bohumil Vostal, who first reported on his legacy while serving as Czech Television’s London correspondent.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

In Darwin Crater we have recently introduced Winkleigh, the wombat female, to the public. Now we are expecting the arrival of the breeding group of Tasmanian devils. And between these two major events, one more has been squeezed in: We now have a contemporary of dinosaurs in this exhibit. It is Wollemi pine, whose unbelievable story began to unfold in front of the eyes of people all over the world less than thirty years ago.

In September 1994, David Noble with his two friends was exploring one of the countless canyons in the Wollemi National Park. Canyoning was a great hobby of his, and according to the blog he writes, it still is. At that time, when the group was having lunch after abseiling down to a stream, he noticed a group of strange trees. He did not know them; therefore, he took a small twig with him when leaving.

Probably no one would have expected that a ranger of the National Park Noble would make in the Blue Mountains (less than 200 km away from the four-million-town of Sydney) one of the greatest botanical discoveries of the 20th century. But that is exactly what has happened.

At the National Park administration Noble handed the twig to the botanist Wyn Jones. He put it aside, saying that he didn’t have time to examine it. Only after several days he asked Noble if he took it from some bush. When Noble told him that it comes from a tall tree, his interest has raised. But it still took a while before it came to light that it was something truly extraordinary.

Then a bomb exploded. All the world learned that Noble had come across a group of trees that were identical with fossils as old as 100 and 120 million years. Amateurs, and even more so experts, were astonished when they learned that in a small distant canyon, which protected them from fires and drought, the contemporaries of dinosaurs survived. A story like from The Lost Word of A. C. Doyle!

The trees “from the dinosaurs’ era”, discovered by Noble, were up to 40 metres high and their main trunks with bark resembling bubbling chocolate were almost one meter in diameter. However, the strangest thing was that the large, flat, and soft needles of these trees grew along the terminal twigs similarly to fern ribs. This placed them within the family of araucarians, a very old group of coniferous trees, whose representatives occur at the Southern Hemisphere. The botanists Jones, Hill and Allen then described them as Wollemia genus, according to the area of their present-day occurrence, and nobilis species, which means “noble”, but also refers to Noble.

The locality, where Wollemi pines were found, immediately became a subject of a strict secret and access to it was prohibited under a huge penalty. Even Noble himself visited it for the last time in 1995. The reason was not only the interest of various growers in these trees, but above all the fear of introducing various pathogens, which could liquidate Wollemi pines very quickly.

In addition to the group of Wollemi pines discovered by Noble, two more localities of their occurrence were successfully discovered in Blue Mountains. Even so, this living fossil is still extremely vulnerable. Therefore, cultivation of Wollemi pines has been initiated. First Australian botanical gardens received the trees created by cutting, and in 2006 – after the worries about introducing pathogens into the natural growth were confirmed – Wollemi pines were released for sale internationally with great media attention. Today, Wollemi pines are commonly seen in botanical gardens as well as private homes – and one beautiful specimen you can find also at the entrance to Darwin Crater.

Female Winkleigh, who is originally from Tasmania, is getting used to her new home at Prague Zoo. He explores the enclosure most often first thing in the morning and then in the early evening. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

After the wild pairing, the atmosphere in the common wombat exhibit is noticeably calmer. Biting, gnashing of teeth, and loud yelling have been replaced by regular meetings and obvious interest in each other. Visitors can get to know the first pair of these attractive marsupials in the Czech Republic – the male Cooper and the newly arrived female Winkleigh – on Sunday, June 11, during the Prague Zoo’s rich Wombat Day program.

“I would say that now they are in a phase of mutual tolerance, which is slowly approaching affection. Winkleigh is now allowing Cooper to share the burrow with her, which is a clear sign of sympathy in the wombat world,” breeder David Vala describes the situation.

Winkleigh was born in Tasmania and, like the male Cooper, belongs to the Tasmanian wombat subspecies. It is characterized by a smaller appearance and higher resistance to colder climates. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

Winkleigh, who arrived at the zoo in April and, after a mandatory month-long quarantine, inhabited the exhibit in the Darwin Crater in May, is also getting used to her new home well. “He’s been going to the paddock more and more often, although unlike the more relaxed Cooper, he’s a little sloppy. For example, she climbed into one of the flower pots, whose greenery she then devastated. Cooper has not thought of anything like that in the two and a half years he has been in Prague,” adds Vala. This also shows the high level of individuality of individuals.

Winkleigh and Cooper’s first introduction was wild and there was no shortage of bites and growls. They now share a den together and show more and more affection. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

People can catch wombats in the outdoor enclosure best right after the zoo opens or, conversely, in the early evening. But on Sunday at 2 p.m., their special commented feeding awaits visitors. This will be part of a colorful Wombat Day, which was inspired by Peter J. Nicholson’s ‘wombat boy’ research. As a fifteen-year-old in Australia in the 1960s, he gathered considerable knowledge about the life of these marsupials, and his student work laid the foundation for further scientific research.

Those interested can try out its activities on Sunday at the Veselovského meadow in the lower part of the area. Little explorers will record a whole range of themed activities including digging and measuring burrows, searching for treasures, wombat speech and an atypical way of defense in the Explorer’s Journal and receive small rewards for completing the tasks. Visitors can also enjoy guided tours of the Darwin Crater from 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. for free.

The explorer’s diary will be given to little explorers at the Prague Zoo this Sunday. A number of activities, tasks and puzzles await them as part of the Day with Wombats. Source: Prague Zoo

Photo: Tereza Cedidlová, Czech Radio

Several dozen people gathered in Prague’s Stromovka Park at sunrise on Friday morning to take part in the annual scythe mowing event, during which they cut down a wild flower meadow to the sound of folk music.

The traditional scythe mowing event in Prague’s biggest park, the Stromovka, has been taking place since 2014. This year’s edition attracted a record number of people and they only took about an hour to cut down the entire meadow.

They stayed afterwards to drink a cup of slivovitz and listen to the folk songs that were traditionally sung during haymaking.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, the largest festival of its kind in the world, gets underway in Prague on Thursday. Located in various venues around the capital, it will explore scenography in its broadest sense, from scenic art to street performances. I discussed the event with its artistic director, Markéta Fantová, and first asked her about its main theme, which is RARE:

“We chose this topic because it reflects the situation we are all in; the situation of our current world, considering the pandemic we just went through and the Russian aggression.

“The word “rare” seems to express it really well because it allows us to look at unique things in different countries and regions and areas and it also tells the story of what surrounds us. And it seems that countries and regions and their creative teems are reflecting it quite nicely.”

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

author: Zuzana Bönisch/KPR

The President of the Republic, Petr Pavel, was on a working visit to Slovakia on June 6 and 7. He attended the meeting of B9 presidents in Bratislava and visited the soldiers of the Czech contingent at the training center in Lešt.

The top politicians of the countries of the Eastern wing of NATO met at a joint meeting in Bratislava. The Czech Republic was represented at the meeting by President Petr Pavel. The main topic was the war in Ukraine. On the first day of his visit to Bratislava, the President met with Gitanas Nausėda, President of the Republic of Lithuania at a bilateral meeting and laid a wreath at the Tomb of General Milan Rastislav Štefánik.

On the second day, President Petr Pavel and the President of the Slovak Republic, Zuzana Čaputová, visited the Lešť training area and informally met with Czech soldiers who are part of the battalion of the multinational combat group in Slovakia, which was created in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

author: Zuzana Bönisch/KPR

Statement by the President of the Republic to the media after a two-day working trip to Slovakia

June 7, 2023

We are very happy that I had the opportunity to meet the presidents of nine countries in the region, in the case of Bulgaria, that is, the vice president, so we had the opportunity to discuss a common position at the NATO summit, because it is important if we can at least agree regionally in international institutions. As a small country, we don’t always have the opportunity to assert our opinion. If nine of us can agree, then it is a weight that must be heard after all. And that agreement was on all the basic things that will be discussed at the summit, that is, support for Ukraine, a long-term plan for it, the construction of a stronger advanced defense on the eastern flank of the alliance, some cooperative projects. I think we’ve really been able to agree on everything, and that’s a positive thing.

author: Zuzana Bönisch/KPR

The other side is the bilateral cooperation with Slovakia, which has been really good lately. And here in Leště, where the Czech Republic is the leading state of the multinational battalion group that was created after the annexation of Crimea and after the NATO countries decided to significantly strengthen their presence on the eastern flank, it is not only an expression of our allied responsibility. Although we are a landlocked country from NATO’s point of view, we perceive the threat of the eastern members of the alliance as our threat and we participate in making them feel safe, which I think is clearly the principle of why we are actually in the alliance.

author: Zuzana Bönisch/KPR

Photo: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Radio Prague International

At CAMP, the Centre for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning in downtown Prague, a new exhibit presents a mosaic of everyday life in the city through the eyes of Dutch photographer Iwaan Baan. The exhibit features thousands of images of Prague, shot on the ground level and from a birds eye view.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová held talks on 7.6.2023 with her Korean counterpart Kim Jin-pyo in Prague. The main topics were Czech-Korean cooperation in the political and economic fields. The President, who visited Korea in March this year, also invited her counterpart to the Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimean Platform. Its second year will take place in Prague this October.

The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, held talks with the Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, Kim Jin-pyo, in Prague.

“Our countries share the same democratic values. However, their preservation in the world is not automatically guaranteed. Last year he confirmed that this is not an empty phrase. Ukraine is at war with Russia because of its decision to embrace these values and build a democratic, prosperous country based on the rule of law and respect for basic human rights and freedoms. That is why I invited Mr. Chairman to Prague for the October session of the second annual Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimean Platform. I am sure that his experience and knowledge will be enriching for the participants in the meeting and that we will continue the broader discussion about the defense of our shared values,” said the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, immediately after the meeting.

The two officials also discussed Czech-Korean business cooperation. “The Republic of Korea is the third largest investor in the Czech Republic and the second most important trading partner of the Czech Republic in Asia. Mutual cooperation in the area of drug supplies is also progressing, which we already discussed during my first visit to Seoul in March. I am also glad that we managed to restore a direct flight between our capitals,” added the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová. As part of her trip in March, on which she was accompanied by a large business delegation, she visited, in addition to the capital Seoul, the important South Korean commercial city of Pusan.

June 6, 2023 – Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová, Speaker of the Austrian National Council Wolfgang Sobotka and Speaker of the Slovak National Council Boris Kollár jointly made a two-day working trip to Georgia. In the capital city of Tbilisi, they held talks with the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Shalva Papuashvili, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili and Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili. The purpose of the joint negotiations was to support Georgia’s pro-Western orientation and its territorial integrity.
The delegation also visited the border of the Russian-occupied territory of South Ossetia.

The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, took part in the meeting of the chairmen of the legislative assemblies of Georgia and the countries of the so-called Slavkov format (S3). In addition to the Czech Republic, it is also made up of Austria (represented at the meeting by the Chairman of the National Council Wolfgang Sobotka) and Slovakia (represented by the Chairman of the National Council Boris Kollár).

“I am glad that I was able to visit Georgia in the company of my colleagues from the Slavkov format. It is the very first joint trip abroad in this composition. Our three countries are undoubtedly among the best friends and supporters of Georgia in Europe. And this ancient country should have the ambition to belong to a united, safe, and prosperous Europe,” said the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová.

Monday’s program of the delegation in Tbilisi mainly included a working meeting with the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Shalva Papuashvili, a reception by the Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, and a meeting with Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

“Georgia’s representatives are facing a difficult task today. Successful integration into the structures of the European Union requires the implementation of a whole series of very demanding and not always popular reforms. However, they need to be implemented not only for the sake of the EU but above all for the sake of the Georgians themselves. Georgia still has all this ahead of it. The Czech Republic has already gone through this process and, together with Austria and Slovakia, is ready to provide our Georgian friends with their experience and support them in every possible way on the way to our common European goal. During our conversations, we did not avoid controversial topics, such as problems with freedom of speech, recent controversial statements by Georgian politicians, or political polarization. However, constructive criticism is desirable between partners,” said Speaker of the Chamber Markéta Pekarová Adamová.

On Tuesday, as part of their work program in Tbilisi, the heads of Central European parliaments set aside time for an informal discussion meeting with representatives of local civil society. The whole delegation then visited the village of Odzisi, located near the border of the Russian-occupied territory of South Ossetia.

“We want to send a clear and strong signal to Russia here. Disregarding the territorial integrity of Georgia is absolutely unacceptable! The occupation of large parts of the country and the creation of puppet “states” by Russia is a clear violation of international law. Unfortunately, we are also witnessing this in Moldova or Ukraine,” added the speaker of the House of Representatives, Markéta Pekarová Adamová.

At the end of the trip, the members of the delegation completed a presentation of the project “Sustainable development of the PLA Aragvi and local communities”, which is being implemented with the financial support of the S3 countries. “Georgia has long been one of the priority targets of Czech development and transformation cooperation programs. The meaningful, balanced and sustainable development of Georgia goes hand in hand with the hope for a better future not only for the Georgians themselves but for the entire family of European democracies,” concluded President Markéta Pekarová Adamová.

Photo: Miloš Turek, Radio Prague International

More than 1,800 churches, temples and religious sites will open their doors to the public within the 15th annual Night of Open Churches on Friday, June 2. The event includes concerts, exhibitions, and access to houses of prayer otherwise closed to the public. I spoke with Stanislav Zeman from the Prague Archbishopric and asked him how this increasingly popular tradition started.

“It started in Germany actually, in the year 2003, namely in Frankfurt and Hannover. They say it started by coincidence, by a church accidentally being left open in the evening. People were interested and sneaked in. And the clergy realized that people were interested and would welcome the chance to visit churches even in the night hours and so that is how it begun. Slowly, it spread all over Europe. For example, two years after, in 2005, Vienna joined massively, the year after that Brno – the Moravian Diocese – joined in and in the following year it went nationwide.”

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Photo: Adam Trachtman/Nomad Jawn Press

Immersion, translated into Czech as ‘do hloubky’, is the new and cool-looking graphic novel by Adam Trachtman that details his adventures – linguistic, itinerant, and sexual – as he joins the hordes of young Westerners heading east in the early 90s to experience the brave new world of post-Communist Europe. What they find is, in Adam’s words, “a not-so-brave visa-free world where conversational English teachers make more than doctors, beer is cheaper than water, and law enforcement is entrepreneurial.” I spoke to Adam in our studio about how he used AI to help him with the novel, what brought a poor kid from Philadelphia to Czechia, and what kept him here for 29 years. But first, I wanted to know a bit more about the plot of the book…

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Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: Martin Vaniš, Radio Prague International

A replica of a Marian column torn down in 1918 was erected on Prague’s Old Town Square three years ago, in June 2020, after years of often turbulent debate.

A group called the Society for the Restoration of the Marian Column lobbied for the return of the column, which was torn down in November 1918.

They said it was a symbolic commemoration of the defenders of Prague during the Thirty Years’ War, though opponents saw it – as had its original removers – as a symbol of Habsburg domination and oppression of the nation.

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Photo: Elena Horálková, Radio Prague International

Located just off Wenceslas Square, the Lucerna Palace is an iconic building. Its rooftop terraces and passages are unique even for the historic centre of Prague. Interestingly, the palace was originally planned to be one storey higher and have an ice rink instead of its main concert hall.

The spiritual father of the Lucerna Palace was engineer, architect, and builder Vácslav Havel, grandfather of the late Czech president Václav Havel. Lucerna means lantern in Czech, and it is not known for certain why Havel chose it as the name for his project. Many locals believe that it comes from the glass façade of a nearby building on the corner of Wenceslas Square. However, that building is not part of Lucerna Palace, explains Petr Hájek, an architect who worked on the reconstruction of Lucerna’s terraces.

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Authors: Vojtěch Pohanka, Zdeňka Kuchyňová

Photo: Miloš Turek, Radio Prague International

If you ask a Czech for a good summer getaway, it is quite likely they will mention the Lipno reservoir. Built during the 1950s it is not only the largest reservoir in Czechia, but it also borders the beautiful Šumava Natural Park.

Despite being a popular destination during the holiday season, there are several spots around Lipno that remain quite serene and full of hidden secrets. Take the town of Horní Planá for example, whose central square is quite reminiscent of a park and lies just around a kilometre away from the recently built Dobrá voda lookout tower that offers lovely views over the surrounding area.

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Authors: Miloš Turek, Thomas McEnchroe

There were no goods in shops. You weren’t allowed to travel. Rock stars didn’t come to the country to perform. So how else were Czechs supposed to entertain themselves?

“Sex was one of the few pleasures that were available back then at the same standard of quality as today. The bread rolls tasted bad. You don’t even want to know what kind of meat was sold in shops. And pears, for example, you couldn’t get those anywhere. But sex wasn’t any worse than it is today, and so people actively made use of it. A typical snapshot of life under Czechoslovak socialism was the sexual act on the office desk.”

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Author: Libor Kukal

Photo: AP Photo/Libkos

In the wake of the Kakhovka dam flooding, the Czech government and NGOs have joined the humanitarian aid effort. The Czech Defense Ministry is preparing a consignment of tankers for the distribution of drinking water, life vests and water pumps and the Foreign Ministry has earmarked 10 million crowns to assist the humanitarian effort. NGOs are also pitching in. I spoke to Petr Štefan from the largest Czech charity organization People in Need about its response to the crisis.

“We responded immediately to the needs of the people in the villages which were flooded. Even as we speak we are distributing drinking water in two villages on the right bank of the Dnipro River. In the coming days we want to deliver emergency water storage tanks and we are planning to distribute 1,000 hygiene kits among the people affected. This is based on the needs articulated yesterday by the Ukrainian authorities.”

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Photo: Jiří Šeda, ČRo

To mark the centenary of Czech Radio, the public broadcaster’s jazz station prepared a special project called 100 Years of Jazz/100 Years of Radio. Within the project, contemporary composers were asked to create new arrangements of traditional jazz compositions, which are connected in one way or another to the history of Czech Radio. To mark the anniversary, Czech Radio also commissioned a brand new composition called Swinging on the Radio Waves. The songs were performed by the Gustav Brom Radio Big Band at a concert earlier this year and you can listen to some of them now, in this edition of Sunday Music Show.

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Ukrainian Ice Hockey Federation/Facebook

The legendary Czech goalie Dominik Hašek (nicknamed The Dominator) paid a visit to the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday to express support for the country, which has been successfully resisting Russian military aggression since February of last year.

In a video posted on Facebook, Hašek expressed his support for Ukrainian hockey players, Ukrainian children and the brave people of Ukraine. In the video, The Domintor is seen posing with members of the Ukrainian Hockey Federation.

“It was with great pleasure that I came to Kharkiv to tell everyone that I support Ukraine, Ukrainian sport, its youth and children. I want your children to be able to play hockey and go to school again,” Hašek says in the video. “Good luck Ukraine, good luck Kharkiv!” he concludes with a broad smile and a thumbs up.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Czechia has a rich history of cinema and that heritage is carefully administered by the National Film Archive in Prague, which is currently celebrating 80 years of existence. I discussed the archive’s establishment during the Nazi occupation, the recent tradition of restoring classic Czech movies, how NFA archivists defied the authorities to save treasures and much more with its director, Michal Bregant.

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Radio Prague International

On the outskirts of the city centre in Prague 3, a delicious Italian bakery serves up traditional Tuscan and Italian fare, and has become a social hub for both Italian expats in the neighbourhood and local Czechs.

In the heart of downtown Žižkov, a bakery by the name of Il Pane Italská Pekárna owned by husband and wife duo Roberto Setti and Deborah Giorgi serves up beautifully baked Italian breads and traditional Tuscan schiacciata. Originally from Florence, the couple came to Prague on their honeymoon years ago, and Roberto fell in love with the city. In September 2020, the doors of the bakery opened to the neighbourhood of Žižkov, where it has received a warm reception from the community for the delicious food and warm social atmosphere.

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Art & Activism

This Friday, June 9th will be the opening night of the first annual Prague Art and Activism exhibition. A night showcasing the talent of artists whose thought-provoking work crosses boundaries between advocacy and multi-medium beauty.

Nicholas Dungey, an American professor living in Prague, is the founder of Reluvotion, an app that connects not-for profits and NGO’s with volunteers across the world, he has coordinated the exhibition alongside local artists and activists.

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Jeff Couloute and Phillip Schniedermeier, Photo: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Radio Prague International

Best friends Phillip Schniedermeier and Jeff Couloute who together make up the duo behind the American restaurant Philly & Co’s in lower Žižkov have turned their passion for cooking up American and their native Chicago style food into a hub for local Czechs and expats alike. Amelia Mola Schmidt went to check it out.

Deep dish pizza, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, and chicken wings – those aren’t exactly foods native to Czechia’s cuisine. But two expats from Chicago have turned traditional American and Chicago style fare into a successful business in lower Žižkov. Philip Schniedermeier and Jeff Couloute opened Philly & Co in the summer of 2020, and together have created a thriving business that welcomes everyone – from expats to local Czechs. The two met when they were teenagers playing basketball together, and moved to Prague originally to teach English, as Jeff explains.

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Jolana Nováková, Czech Radio

The Toy Museum Prague offers a fascinating collection of toys spanning three centuries. The Golden Age of Toys was put together and is curated by Ivan Steiger, a prominent Czech filmmaker, illustrator and cartoonist, who has lived and worked in Germany since 1969.

Ivan Steiger studied at the Prague Film Faculty, where he trained under the well-known Czech writer Milan Kundera. He graduated as film and TV scriptwriter and director in 1967 and even as a student published cartoons in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Tribune and the Daily Mirror. Following a number of successful projects in Czechoslovakia, he started exhibiting abroad and emigrated in 1968, settling in Munich.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Photo: Anna Fodor, Radio Prague International

Susan Loy is an American artist who had a successful business selling her paintings in the US, but left it all behind a few years ago to move to Prague, when she was already in her 70s. Like Charlotte Garrigue Masaryk, the American wife of Czechoslovakia’s first president, Susan is a Unitarian, and moved to the Czech Republic with Unitarian sponsorship. She is also the curator of an international art exhibition which is on display right now at the Unitarian Church in Prague, so I started by asking her what prompted her to organise it.

See the rest here.

Author: Anna Fodor

Brno, Prague, Warsaw, Budapest, and Calgary – these are some of the cities where an ingenious invention by two Moravian dog owners has spread. Their patented dog urinal prevents unsightly stains and nasty odours from sullying public spaces.

Ten years ago, a group of dog owners in Brno were out walking their canine companions when the subject of the tell-tale stains left on the facades of houses and the unmistakable stench of dog urine came up. They discussed the fact that it has become standard practice to pick up your dog’s excrement, but there still wasn’t any hygienic solution for dealing with pee.

One member of the group, František Tomeček, had an idea after noticing that his dog wouldn’t urinate in the same spot after it had rained and the smell was gone. His colleague, graphic designer Šárka Fialová, explains what happened next.

See the rest here.

Author: Anna Fodor

Cigarettes are getting increasingly more expensive in Czechia, but recent data suggests that as much as a quarter of people over the age of 15 are smokers. On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, we spoke to Dr Eva Králíková, who heads a stop smoking clinic at Prague’s General Faculty Hospital, asking her how big of an issue smoking is in Czechia when compared with other addictions.

“It definitely is a big issue. Smoking kills about 16,000 to 18,000 people annually in Czechia, compared to alcohol that kills around 5,000 to 7,000 and drugs that, at most, kill around 500 people a year. These other addictions are also a problem of course, but smoking is definitely the biggest problem.”

See the rest here.

Author: Thomas McEnchroe

Photo: The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren

The country’s largest Protestant denomination, the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren, announced over the weekend that it will officially allow pastors to bless same-sex unions. I spoke to Filip Milde of the organisation Jsme Fér, which campaigns for marriage equality in Czechia, to find out what he thought the significance of this move is.

“We believe it has huge significance, although the church is actually the second in the Czech Republic to allow the blessing of same-sex couples. Last year, the Old Catholic Church of the Czech Republic was already the first church to allow it.

“But it sends a very strong message that, even though we are the most atheistic country in the world, the people of faith really support equality, and we are on the right path towards marriage equality.”

See the rest here.

Author: Anna Fodor

The President of the Republic Petr Pavel and Eva Pavlova started their visit to Austria in the early evening of May 31 with a meeting with their compatriots. They met the students of the Comenius School, listened to the school’s children’s choir, and debated with representatives of compatriot associations.

On the second day (June 1), they were received by the President of the Republic of Austria Alexander Van der Bellen, and Mrs. Doris Schmidauer after a walk through the historic part of the city with military honors.

The official part of the program continued with the meeting of the President of the Republic with Wolfgang Sobotka, Chairman of the National Council of Austria. In the building of the Defense Academy, the president held talks with Klaudia Tanner, the Federal Minister of Defence, and then at 4:30 p.m. he will deliver a speech on the topic of Our Freedom and Security in a Globalized World.

(author: Tomáš Fongus/KPR, Source)

Photo: Vít Pohanka, Czech Radio

This weekend the Moravian village of Vlčnov celebrated its most cherished festival of the year: the traditional “Ride of the Kings” which is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The traditional Ride of Kings is by no means a quiet event. The central figure of the procession riding a horse down the main street is a young boy. He is the son of a respected local family, must be under the age of 15, and is dressed as a young woman in traditional folk costume and a red, flower-adorned hat, to conceal his identity. He carries a rose in his mouth, so as to remain silent and not give himself away.

See the rest here.

Author: Vít Pohanka

I am pleased to learn that the Senate today overwhelmingly supported the first three candidates for constitutional judges. We thus managed to fulfill the first part of our common constitutional responsibility – to ensure the full functioning of the Constitutional Court. I also appreciate the public discussion that took place around the individual nominations, the diversity of opinions is a sign of a functioning democracy. My goal was to make the process of selecting constitutional judges transparent and based on the assessment of professional criteria, not political pressures. I am convinced that Daniela Zemanová, Jan Wintr and Josef Baxa are a guarantee that the Constitutional Court will be composed of diverse personalities with high moral integrity, competence and the ability to withstand all possible pressures.

The President of the Republic, Petr Pavel, appointed new constitutional judges on Monday, June 5 2023.

Photos: Tomáš Fongus

President of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová, Prime Minister Petr Fiala, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavský met today at Prague Castle with President Petr Pavel. The reason for the meeting was a return to trying to coordinate foreign policy at the highest level. A joint meeting of the highest constitutional officials on this topic took place after more than three years. The participants of the meeting talked about relations with neighboring states, coordination of foreign trips, preparations for the NATO summit in Vilnius, as well as assistance to Ukraine, and relations with China.

“We agreed not only on the fact that we want to coordinate foreign policy but also on a number of practical steps on how to do it. So that we maximize the effect for the Czech Republic. We have agreed that these meetings will be held approximately once every six months, but in the meantime, we will meet again on the topic of the longer-term direction of the Czech Republic’s foreign policy,” said President Petr Pavel after the meeting.

“For the first time in the time that I have held the position of President of the Senate, I felt that in the field of foreign policy, we agree with both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as the President and the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. I see this as a great opportunity for us to work together for the benefit of the Czech Republic and our priorities, which is the defense of the values on which the existence and functioning of the Czech Republic are built, as well as its prosperity in terms of economic development,” said the President of the Senate, Miloš Vystrčil .

According to the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, we have such a degree of agreement in foreign policy that we are clearly better able to promote the interests of the Czech Republic and its citizens. “I think this is the best possible news for all citizens. It was not always obvious, but now we are getting into a situation where it is, and we should try to make the most of it,” she said after the meeting.

The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, emphasized the importance of foreign policy coordination. “It is necessary for the key representatives of the state to speak with one voice as much as possible because this is the only way foreign policy is credible and also effective. It thus brings the necessary effects for our citizens, for our business, and for our security,” he added.

“Our presidency of the European Union has shown that the Czech voice is heard and that it is respected, and we want to build on that further. We have a strong political consensus, and this is also a signal for our institutions. We are breaking down the walls between these institutions and creating a truly common foreign policy,” added Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský.

Pictures : Tomáš Fongus

The 2023 edition of the multi-genre Prague Sounds music festival will feature the likes of Benjamin Clementine, Alva Noto & Ensemble Modern and jazz great Ron Carter. Though the event is not until November, the organisers unveiled the line-up this week – and I spoke to programmer Guy Borg.

“We tend to try to look beyond strict genre categories, although it’s fair to say that in our programme you will find things like hip hop, electronic music, contemporary classical music and jazz and so on.

“But each of the artists in those categories, we feel, kind of go beyond those genres in various ways.

“Those are the kind of artists we look for and that’s the kind of programme we try to put together.

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Filip Jandourek, Czech Radio

This week the Prague authorities approved studies to revitalise the through-road cutting across the centre of the city. The plans – which still need permits – would make the unpopular “magistrála” more attractive for pedestrians and cyclists. But could the communist-era road ever be removed? I discussed the matter with leading Prague architect Jakub Cigler.

“I am excited that the magistrála will around the Main Railway Station have two times two lanes only.

“Because the magistrála is a kind of magnet that concentrates more and more cars; if there were more lanes, there would be more cars.

“And this way is not sustainable. It is not the way forward.

“It’s not the right thing to drive through Prague, it’s better to around.

“We don’t have a périphérique, like Paris has, for example.

“But transportation design should change in the centre in such a way that there is a diminished amount of cars on the streets.

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Miloš Turek, Radio Prague International

One of the most popular lookout spots on the River Vltava is in the hills of the Central Bohemian Upland, about an hour’s drive south of Prague.

In the southwestern part of the Drbákov-Albertovy skály nature reserve there are up to 1,000 red yew trees.

The most interesting parts of the reserve feature a 7.4 km circular nature trail, which starts at the U Křížku car park. Occasionally the river’s surface flashes through the trees before finally the view of the Vltava opens up to its full extent and walkers come out at the Tis (Yew) lookout spot.

See the rest here.

Photo: Archive of Magdalena Kracík Štorkánová, Art and Craft Mozaika z.s.

One of Prague’s iconic Brutalist structures, the Central Telecommunications Building in the district of Žižkov, is gradually being demolished. However, some valuable art pieces from its interior have been saved, including a large-scale mosaic created by Italian artist Sauro Ballardini out of hundreds of pieces of glass.

The Central Telecommunications building with its unmistakable tower is known among Praguers as Mordor, a reference to Lord of the Rings. It was built between 1972 and 1979 and at the time, it was the tallest building in Czechoslovakia and the tallest telecom building in Europe.

The communist planners commissioned a number of art pieces for the then state-of the-art building, including a huge mosaic made by Sauro Ballardini, who also did the mural at Florenc metro station.

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Czech National Bank

70 years ago, on June 1, 1953, the ruling Communist regime announced a major monetary reform which significantly cut the value of the money in circulation. Many people lost most of their savings and became virtually penniless.

1953 was not a great time to be alive in Czechoslovakia. Show trials, inspired by those in the Soviet Union, had been going on for years and were just culminating in the prosecution of 14 high ranking Communist Party officials that had fallen out of favour. Among them was the former general secretary of the party, Rudolf Slánský. He would soon hang after a confession forced out of him through repeated torture sessions.

The country, which had been ruled by the Communists since 1948, was heavily in debt after five years of economic mismanagement and people were still reliant on a state rationing system that had been originally put in place during the Second World War.

See the rest here.

Photo: Petr Veber, Czech Radio

Czech-born mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená (born on May 26, 1973) is one of the bright lights of world opera. Although based in Britain, she returns regularly to Czechia to perform and was one of the biggest attractions of this year’s Prague Spring Festival together with the award-winning Japanese pianist Mitsuko Uchida.

Magdalena Kožená studied at the Brno Conservatory and Bratislava’s Academy of Performing Arts winning several major prizes at home and abroad, the most significant of which was the Sixth International Mozart Competition in Salzburg.

On the opera stage, she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2002 as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and first appeared at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2003 as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, where she has been a regular guest since.

See the rest here.

Photo: Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary

The organisers of the Karlovy Vary film festival have just unveiled its two competitions, a month before the 57th edition starts. The main Crystal Globe competition will have one fewer entry than usual, after the Chinese authorities intervened. But local cinema fans will be excited to hear there are two Czech films in the running, We Have Never Been Modern and A Sensitive Person. I asked Karlovy Vary’s artistic director Karel Och about them.

“We Have Never Been Modern is the English title of the second feature film by Matěj Chlupáček, who is an extremely young but already established filmmaker; he’s not even 30 yet.

“He is the author of this very self-assured period drama set in 1937.

“It is a, let’s say, detective drama. There’s a very strong suspense moment in the movie, which is gorgeously shot.

“The main character is a woman who is about to give birth to a child. She’s the wife of the director of the factory where a stillborn child is found.

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Bohemian Identity

A largescale project is currently in the works that seeks to present the history and current forms of Czech graphic design to both the domestic and international audience. Bohemian Identity, as it is called, will trace the story of how various designs, ranging from banknotes, state symbols, brands, metro signs and more, helped shape the country’s national identity. To find out more about what’s in store I spoke to one of the founders of the project, Michal Gregorini.

“The idea originally started in 2018 in light of the celebrations of the 100 year anniversary of the birth of the independent Czechoslovak state. Filip Blažek and Linda Kudrnovská, the angels behind this project, came up with the idea to cover this 100 year history through the story of Czech and Czechoslovak design because it is very unique and has a special history of its own.”

See the rest here.

Author: Thomas McEnchroe

The tragic earthquake that recently hit Turkey and Syria served as another reminder of the catastrophic damage earthquakes can cause, especially in countries that can’t afford expensive early warning systems. But a new cheap sensor that is being tested by Czech scientists in Nepal could be the solution and provide the valuable seconds needed to save lives.

See the rest here.

Authors: Thomas McEnchroe, Martin Srb

The Covid pandemic placed a lot of restrictions on the society and resulted in a large number of court cases in which people sought compensation. A father who was banned from seeing his child born has now won an important battle over his rights.

Ondřej Pecák’s daughter was born in April 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the strict measures in place he was not allowed to be present at the birth as planned.

“I spent the day in the parking lot desperately trying to negotiate with the hospital staff for them to let me be with my wife and see my child born. All my arguments were futile. I felt totally powerless.”

Ondřej was not the only father who missed one of the most important moments of his life. Hundreds of others around the country were in a similar plight. Citing the state of emergency in place hospitals mercilessly closed their doors to all.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Photo: Tadeusz Boruta, Archive of GASK

An exhibition presenting an overview of independent Polish art of the 1980s got underway in Gallery of the Central Bohemian Region this week. Called Uncensored, it presents the Polish equivalent of the post-1968 Czech underground art scene. I discussed the exhibition with one of its curators, Richard Drury:

“The exhibition showcases work done by young artists and independent artists during the 1980s who protested against the repressive regime that followed from 1981 with the declaration of martial law in Poland. These artists refused to work with the regime and found alternative ways of working and showing their art.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

I had to get up very early in the morning, but I did not regret. The scope owl was very near the place, for which I got the tip. In the morning gloom, before the sunrise, it could be barely seen in the opening of the tree cavity – but it was there! A scope owl just a short way from Prague… I would have never expected that.

Eurasian scope owl (Otus scops), which resembles a miniature eagle owl, occurs in Europe mostly in the Mediterranean, but a gradual northward expansion has been evident for decades. In Slovakia it nested for the first time in 1950s and in Moravia shortly before the turn of the new century; the year before last and last year an absolute sensation was caused by the discovery that it nested right in Olomouc. In Bohemia scope owls appear more and more often, but no nesting has taken place yet.

It seems that scope owls are spreading to Slovakia from Hungary. They live there often in and near human settlements, and they keep this habit also in their new home. The scope owls in Olomouc have the same preference. One of the reasons for this synanthropization could be that they are insect eating owls, which, paradoxically, find more food in towns and villages that in agricultural landscape. But perhaps also a better offer of nesting cavities plays a role; after all, also woodpeckers, which excavate them, particularly European green woodpecker, have adapted to life near humans.

The scope owl, which I observed near Prague, was near a built-up area, but not directly in it. As the sun was rising and I could see it a bit better, I was thinking about when we will see the nesting of this beautiful little owl in Bohemia. Couldn’t it be already this year just at this place, a stone’s throw from Prague? Wishful thinking… But sooner or later it will surely happen. And maybe directly in the capital city.

After the sunrise, when I was ready to leave, a nuthatch started hanging around the cavity, occupied by the scope owl. The owl stuck his head out of the hole and then my moment came. I quickly took the photo, in which you can clearly see not only the scope owl, but also the nuthatch above the cavity. And if you look at the photo carefully, you can see, how small the scope owl is.

The statues of three of the apostles gracing Prague’s famous Old Town Clock, which were damaged by vandals last June, are being dismantled and taken away for restoration. The clock dating back to 1410, which is admired by millions of tourists every year, will remain in operation despite the absence of three key figures.

It is a sight that tourists in Prague crowd to see. On the hour, every hour, the clock strikes the time and a parade of twelve apostles is set in motion. Simultaneously, some of the surrounding sculptures also start moving. There is a figure representing Vanity, a Miser holding a bag of gold coins and a Turk representing Lust and Earthy pleasures. Across from them stands Death, tolling its bell to show the figures that their time is up. The Astronomer, the Philosopher, and the Chronicler, appear to be motionless.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Photo: Martin Micka, Galerie Artwall

If you regularly take the Prague tram between Čechův Most and Nábřeží Kapitána Jaroše, you may have noticed the giant pieces of artwork on display in the niches of the wall that runs parallel to the Vltava river below Letná. Until June 6, those spaces are being occupied by Markéta Garai’s exhibition With(out) Care, a commentary on the stigmatisation of sex workers and the ecological impact of the global flower trade.

Sex work operates in a legal grey zone in Czechia, with the provision of erotic services neither prohibited nor permitted by law. In practice, this means that those employed in the industry are not protected under the law financially or from workplace harassment or abuse.

See the rest here.

Authors: Anna Fodor, Anaïs Chesnel

23/05/2023

On 23.5.2023 President Petr Pavel met for the first time with a group of his foreign policy advisers. Its members are Petr Kolář, Karel Schwarzenberg, Michael Žantovský, Jiří Pehe, Tomáš Petříček and Jan Macháček. The group is coordinated by Jaroslav Zajíček, director of the foreign department of KPR. Advisors will meet as needed and on current topics, their activity in the group is informal and unpaid.

“I expect openness from my advisers, not only in their opinions and attitudes, but also in feedback and criticism of my steps, if they do not agree with them,” says President Pavel. The topics of the first meeting were the Czech Republic’s relationship with Russia and China, the coordination of the president’s foreign policy with the government and with foreign partners, or the role of the president in strengthening the position of the Czech Republic in the world.

“President Pavel wants to meet with personalities from different ends of the opinion spectrum on the topic of foreign policy, so that he has the opportunity to form a comprehensive view of current topics affecting Czech foreign policy,” explains presidential spokesperson Markéta Řeháková. Therefore, according to her, an informal group of recognized experts who have long-term experience in this area was created.

According to Jaroslav Zajíček, director of the KPR’s foreign department, the group is intended to be used for consultations on current and conceptual issues, for example, which parts of the world the president should visit at a given time and what risks or benefits are associated with it. “The insight and experience of the group of experts will help the foreign department gain a broader perspective,” he adds.

Kisumu arrived at Prague Zoo last September. This week he entered the outdoor enclosure of the Reserve Dja for the very first time. Photo by Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

For the group of gorillas in the Dja Reserve, the outdoor enclosure has reopened after the winter break.
The Kisumu male and the daughter of the famous Prague gorilla Moji Duni, whose pregnancy was confirmed last week, took a look at the outdoor part of the exhibition for the first time.
“The Dja reservation, which was opened last September, is entering its first main season, and the gorillas can finally go outside after the cold spring,” says the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek. “There is a completely different view of gorillas grazing on fresh grass. Along the paddock, which is over 2,500 square meters, there is an equally generous auditorium. I know of visitors who spend almost the whole day there watching the gorillas,” he adds, adding that the African atmosphere there is also enhanced by the giraffes, zebras and antelopes that are within sight. And what did the gorillas’ first steps out of the pavilion look like? Gorillas are conservative primates, so it is not surprising that the three females Kamba, Shinda and Kijivu, who are already familiar with the enclosure from last summer, were the first to confidently enter the enclosure. Seven year old Ajabu didn’t hold back either as he kept checking on Kisuma and Duni who were noticeably more reserved.

Shinda is a great lover of food, which makes her very popular with visitors. Seven-year-old Ajabu is her only son and is currently a Benjamin in the gorilla group. Photo by Oliver Le Que, Prague Zoo

“After her mother, Moje, Duni is very intelligent and inquisitive, so she showed more courage than Kisumu even when entering the large paddock. He first looked at everything from the door and returned to the indoor exhibit several times before making up his mind completely,” explains head primate keeper Martin Vojáček. “I’m sure he’ll get used to it soon. Perhaps even for the giraffes, who are watching the events in the enclosure through the fence.”

Kisumu got up the courage after about half an hour and explored the outdoor enclosure with the others. In the coming days, he will still get used to the generous exposure.

The breeding group of lowland gorillas in the Dja Reserve consists of the dominant male Kisumu and the female Duni – the daughter of the famous Prague gorilla Moji, who was the first cub of this species born in Czech and Slovak zoos. Then two half-sisters: female Shinda with her son Ajabu and female Kijivu – My mother and Duna’s grandmother. The nester of the group is the more than fifty-year-old Kamba, who is the only one who comes from the wild, as she was deprived of the group in her youth by poachers.

Photo by Oliver Le Que, Prague Zoo

Earlier this week, Czechia and the United States signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement in Washington. The treaty creates a legal framework for the possible deployment of US soldiers on Czech territory, though officials on both sides insist it does not pave the way for a permanent American base. The American ambassador to Prague, Bijan Sabet, who arrived in the city early this year, discussed the DCA – and more – with Czech Radio journalist Jan Bumba.

If I may start with the Defence Cooperation Agreement that was signed at the Pentagon by the ministers of defence and the USA and the Czech Republic, it’s described as a very important step by the politicians. How important is it, in your opinion?

“It is a symbol of our cooperation and joint defence.

“We’re pleased to have this agreement signed and of course the next step is ratification by the Czech Parliament.

“So it’s a very important milestone for our two countries.”

See the rest here.

Authors: Jan Bumba, Ian Willoughby

Machine translation experts from Charles University have developed a new system that can translate between 43 languages in real time. Intended for international conferences, Elitr shows words said by a speaker on a screen within milliseconds, and in all languages at once.

Elitr is unique in that it not only accurately transcribes what the speaker is saying using speech-to-text technology, but at the same time can show it in up to 42 other languages, depending on what the user selects. And this all happens in real time. Ondřej Bojar leads the Czech team that developed it.

“We created the system in such a way that it would follow what the speaker is saying and as a backup, it takes what the human interpreters, who are physically present at the conference, are saying. And from these multiple sources, we can show the translation of the spoken words in real time.”

See the rest here.

Authors: Anna Fodor, Eva Kézrová

Photo: Miloš Turek, Radio Prague International

The next stop on our Vltava tour takes us to a valley near the small village of Teletín, offering some of the most beautiful views you can find of the Vltava River.

At first glance, Teletín, with a population of less than 100 people and few sights to boast of, may not seem like a must-go destination. But it serves as the starting point for a series of lookout points offering some of the most beautiful views you can find of the Vltava River. These viewpoints have a series of names beginning with M – Myšák, Mařenka, Máj. The most famous of them is Máj above the Štěchovice Reservoir, with its view of a horseshoe bend in the river.

See the rest here.

Author: Miloš Turek

Photo: Tatra Trucks

The NW Präsident set off with a crew on a 328-kilometre-long journey to Vienna on 21 May 1898. They arrived a day later. The car’s average speed was 22.62 km/h.

The history of the Tatra car company goes back to 1850, when Ignaz Schustala, with the help of two journeymen, started producing carriages and, thanks to his high-quality products and business skills, was able to build his small business into one of the most successful companies in Europe.

In 1897, the company started making a car with an internal combustion engine, the very first one not only in Austria-Hungary, but in the whole of central Europe. The NW Präsident car, built by Leopold Sviták, who was assisted by the future famous designer Hans Ledwinka, came out in the spring of 1898.

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Photo: Archive of magazine Forum/www.cuni.cz

Czechia possesses several leading institutions of higher learning that have produced internationally renowned scientists, businesspeople and academics. No wonder then that the number of foreigners studying in the country has been growing. We asked some of them what they like about the country and the student lifestyle it offers.

Few European cities can rival Prague’s architecture, culture, nightlife and beer. Little wonder therefore that it is not just a popular destination for tourists, but students as well, as 24-year-old Taine Rose from New Zealand, a student at the Czech University of Life Sciences (CZU), confirms.

“Prague is really cool, it’s super close to everything, not as cheap as I originally thought, but it’s still relatively affordable. As a student here, I can teach English or work at a bar and make enough money to get by and still go on weekend trips to Germany and Austria. I really enjoy living in Czechia.”

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Authors: Thomas McEnchroe, Amelia Mola Schmidt

Prince Edward in the village of Vestec near Prague, Photo: Michaela Říhová, ČTK

Less than three weeks after the coronation of Charles III, Czechia has received its first visitor from the British royal family, H.R.H. Prince Edward. The prince, who drank a pint with Czechia’s President Petr Pavel on Tuesday, is in Prague to present the Duke of Edinburgh award to young people who have successfully completed the programme in Czechia.

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Author: Thomas McEnchroe

Many of Prague’s architectural gems will open to the public for free this weekend within the Open House Prague festival, which is now in its ninth year. Visitors can admire the interiors of more than 100 buildings as well as spaces that are usually inaccessible to the public, including the brutalist Hotel Intercontinental, which is currently under reconstruction.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Argo

When Time Stopped is the title of Ariana Neumann’s first book, about the history of her Jewish family in Prague during the war. Before he emigrated to Venezuela in 1949, her father Hans (or Hanuš) Neumann survived the Holocaust thanks to false papers and the audacity that allowed him to find work in… Berlin. The book is filled with extraordinary personal documents and letters preserved in a few boxes found by the author in Caracas, Prague but also Libčice or Teplice.

Journalist and writer Ariana Neumann answered RPI’s questions from London, where she is now based, after growing up in Caracas.

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Author: Alexis Rosenzweig

Photo: Khalil Baalbaki, Czech Radio

The Czech government announced on Wednesday that Czechia would abstain from a vote on the EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention on combatting violence against women. Two of the ruling parties are reluctant to support it and the cabinet is yet to decide whether to put the convention to a vote in the Czech parliament.

Czechia is one of the last six Council of Europe countries that have not yet ratified the convention on a national level. Similarly as in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, some political parties in this country are holding out against it for fear that it would “interfere with the legal order and put traditions and values at risk.”

The need to move ahead and ratify the document has become the first point of contention between the country’s recently inaugurated president, Petr Pavel, and the Fiala administration. The head of state sees no reason to delay the document’s ratification while the cabinet remains divided on the matter.

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Author: Daniela Lazarová

In the early 2000s, native Scot Steve Gove decided to resurrect the intimate feel of the original Edinburgh Fringe festival, before it became the gargantuan beast it is today, and bring it to Prague. Now in its 22nd year, the Prague Fringe is running from 22 – 27 May at venues dotted around Malá Strana. I spoke to him as the festival got underway and started by asking him to summarise what the Fringe is all about, for people who have never heard of it.

“The Prague Fringe is the Czech Republic’s English-language theatre festival. This is our 22nd season and it’s a festival that we ask our public to embrace. Come and see not just one show, but two or three shows!

“The shows last about 45 minutes to an hour each and tickets are cheap. If you jump in at the deep end you’re sure to have a good experience!

“In essence, it’s a festival of English-language theatre, although we have a bit of comedy around the edges. There are a couple of shows that are not in English, but they come with subtitles. So that’s Fringe in a nutshell here in Prague.”

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Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: National Museum in Prague

A new exhibition showcasing the fashion style of Czechoslovak and Czech first ladies is currently on display at the National Museum in Prague. Visitors can see dozens of items from the first ladies’ wardrobes, including a blouse and skirt that belonged to Charlotte Garrigue Masaryk and the inaugural dress of the current first lady, Eva Pavlová.

The National Museum in Prague boasts a unique collection of fashion items that used to belong to the wives of Czech and Czechoslovak presidents, including dresses, suits, hats and other accessories worn on various occasions. Some of them are now on display at an exhibition called First Ladies – Fashion and Style at the museum’s new building.

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Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Michaela Vetešková

Russian Embassy in Prague, Photo: Google Maps

The Czech government has decided to scrap several Communist-era decrees that allowed Russia to use land in Czechia rent-free for diplomatic purposes. The decision has elicited an angry reaction from Moscow, which is threatening to retaliate.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced the decision at a press briefing in Prague, saying that it was a move aimed at putting bilateral relations between the two countries on a more equal footing.

“We are finally, after several decades, getting to a normal, standard state of affairs. In other words, we are now going to request rent from Russia for this land, at a rate that corresponds to the cost of rent for other similar plots of land in the given locality.”

In its report, the foreign ministry also referenced the unequal state of affairs between Russia and Czechia, citing that Russia uses 87,863 m2 of state land in Czechia for free, while Czechia in turn has access to only 26,875 m2 in Russia, which the report describes as “far from respecting the principle of reciprocity”.

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Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: Moravská zemská knihovna Brno

Two valuable documentary collections from Czechia have been inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register: the Antonín Dvořák Archive, which contains most of the great Czech composer’s manuscripts and the Moll Map Collection, a set of ancient maps dating from the late 16th century to the 1860s.

Among the 64 new entries on the UNESCO list of world documentary treasures approved by the organisation’s executive board is the Archive of Antonín Dvořák.

The valuable collection contains not only the manuscripts of the greatest of Czech composers, his best known works, but also his personal items, such as his letters and books, explains Veronika Vejvodová from the Dvořák Museum in Prague, which is in charge of the items:

“The core of the archive are Dvořák’s manuscripts, but we also have his correspondence and personal documents, the composer’s personal library and photographs, as well as printed documentation, such as programmes and posters.

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Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Tomáš Kremr

Photo: Ondřej Deml, ČTK

Many thousands of people helped Czech Radio celebrate its centenary this week at a special free concert at the Prague park Riegrovy sady. The line-up for the marathon event included a whole host of popular Czech names, including Aneta Langerova, K.M. Tichá and Bandjeez, Zdeněk Sverák, Lenka Filipová and Michael Kocáb.

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The east Bohemian city of Pardubice is gearing up for its annual aviation fair this weekend. Highlights this year include air shows by Lukasz Czepiela, who successfully landed a plane on top of a skyscraper in Dubai in March, and Felix Baumgartner, the man who parachuted to Earth from the stratosphere.

Held at the airport in Pardubice since 1991, the Pardubice Aviation Fair is, together with the Czech International Air Fest in Hradec Králové, the biggest showcase of aviation and aerobatics in Czechia. And this year, it promises a programme truly packed with stars from the aviation world.

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Author: Anna Fodor

Adolf Loos’ last house, Photo: ČVUT

The foundation stone of Adolf Loos’ last house, which was designed in 1932 but never came to fruition, will be symbolically laid on Tuesday outside the National Technical Museum in Prague.

Originally commissioned by the influential Czech businessman František Müller for his daughter Eva, the house was conceived as a low-cost accommodation suitable both for working-class families and management.

The all-wooden, cube-shaped structure painted in a bright green colour is based on the landmark principle of Loos’s architecture known as Raumplan, the concept of seamlessly linking spaces of different heights.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, ended her five days working trip to the United States of America in the Georgian capital, Atlanta. Here she met with the influential Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as well as leading Georgia legislators.,high-ranking state representatives, supported our entrepreneurs at the Czech-American business forum, and discussed strengthening the transport connection between the Czech Republic and the USA with representatives of the important airline company Delta Airlines.

“Atlanta is a very dynamically growing metropolis that, thanks to its strategic location and openness, offers a diverse range of unique business opportunities for Czech companies doing business in sectors such as IT, the automotive industry and aviation. Thanks to one of the busiest airports in the world, it also represents an absolutely ideal destination for the further expansion of Czech business activities in the entire South-East of the USA,” said the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, after a series of meetings.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation Helena Langšádlová in Atlanta convened a meeting with the Georgia Institute of Technology (GeorgiaTech) and representatives of the Czech University of Technology (ČVUT) and the Cyber Security Hub (a joint project in the field of cyber security of Masaryk University, CTU and the Czech University of Technology Brno). The minister and professors from CTU initiated the first steps leading to the conclusion of a memorandum of understanding with GeorgiaTech. “This memorandum will connect top Czech science with capacities in Atlanta. So far, we have discussed areas such as quantum technology, nuclear energy and semiconductors. GeorgiaTech is an exceptional institution not only in terms of excellent results in the theoretical field, but also excellently manages the transfer of knowledge from research into practice. They have created a robust start-up ecosystem and can be proud of 100 companies growing under the university. We will be happy to be inspired by them,” added Minister Helena Langšádlová.

After that, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, attended the official closing of the Czech-American business forum organized by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. At the very end of the trip, the parliamentary delegation held talks with representatives of one of the oldest airlines in the world, Delta Airlines.

“Strengthening direct air connections between the USA and the Czech Republic would help bring our citizens closer together and connect our businessmen more easily with their transoceanic business partners, which would at the same time strengthen the mutual positive trade balance,” added the speaker of the House of Representatives, Markéta Pekarová Adamová.

Photo: Magdalena Hrozínková, Radio Prague International

Until recently, it was thought that the oldest full-length radio play preserved in the Czech Radio archives was from after the Second World War. But that changed thanks to a chance discovery of a Czech adaptation for radio of Jack London’s 1906 novel White Fang, which though in a very poor condition, was restored and digitised.

The recordings of the play were discovered in the radio archives around 12 years ago by Miloslav Turek, and at first they appeared unusable. They were bent out of shape from years of being stored incorrectly, as Turek explains.

“I found them in a box, but they were in so bad a state that it wasn’t possible to play the whole thing from beginning to end. You could only play parts of it. So I unpacked them from their original packaging, put them on a hard surface, and weighed them down with the heaviest boxes I could find.”

And almost miraculously – and as if just in time for the centenary of Czech Radio – they evened out over time, allowing the recording to be played once again.

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Authors: Anna Fodor, Magdalena Hrozínková

The 78th edition of the Prague Spring music festival gets underway on Friday night at Prague’s Municipal House. The country’s top classical event will traditionally open with Bedřich Smetana’s Má vlast or My Country, this time performed by the Welsh National Opera Orchestra, led by Czech conductor Tomáš Hanus. I discussed the opening concert as well as some other festival highlights with its programme director Josef Třeštík:

“The Welsh National Opera Orchestra, as the name suggests, is principally an opera orchestra. However, they also perform a lot of orchestra music. They have their own programme of orchestra music in Cardiff and they travel extensively within the UK as well as abroad.

“As for Tomáš Hanus, he is really a well-established international conductor, mostly in the opera world. This season highlights include his debut in La Scala in Milan, in Staatsoper in Munich.

Paradoxically, however, he is not so well-known in the Czech Republic, so this will be a big night for him as a conductor but also for the festival audiences, who will get to know him.”

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Podbrdsko Encyclopedia

One of the last battles to take place in World War Two Europe occurred south-west of Prague around the town of Milín, several days after Germany had officially capitulated. It was unique in that the combat saw units of the Wehrmacht, SS, Soviet Union, United States and Czech partisans all take part in the fighting. A newly opened exhibition documents the events that took place there and the deaths that may have been avoided had the allies taken a different approach.

South-west of Prague, on the left bank of the Vltava River, lies the small town of Milín. It was around here, specifically in the area of Slivice, that one of the last battles to take place in Europe between Nazi Germany and the Allies was fought from May 11-12.

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Author: Thomas McEnchroe

Photo: Marek Štefek, Czech Surfing Association

For the first time in the country’s history, Czechia is sending its own team to the ISA World Surfing Games – the sport’s world championships. Six contestants are traveling to the upcoming event, which is set to take place in in El Salvador, Central America. For many it is the culmination of a long road towards getting surfing established in the landlocked country.

Prague’s Štvanice Island turned into a mini-California beach earlier this week, as a group of cheerful, fit and remarkably tanned individuals took questions from the media surrounded by surfboards.

A special news conference was held to announce that, for the first time ever, Czechia will be sending its own team to the planet’s premier surfing event – the World Surfing Games.

Organised by the International Surfing Association (ISA), the annual competition brings together the best surfers from around the globe and, for those who are successful, offers the chance to qualify for the Olympic Games, where the sport made its debut just two years ago.

Seven Czechs are travelling to the sandy beaches of Surf City in El Salvador, three women and four men, with one of the latter acting as a reserve in case his teammates get injured.

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Author: Thomas McEnchroe

Photo: Tereza Kunderová, Czech Radio

Czech Radio’s youth and alternative station Radio Wave lost its FM frequency not long after its launch. But that didn’t stop the channel finding sustained success online, thanks to clever marketing and pioneering use of podcasts.

The Czech Radio youth and alternative station Radio Wave was launched to some fanfare in 2006.

However, only a year later the fledging channel lost its FM frequency.

Though that may have seemed like quite a setback at the time, the station’s operators quickly switched to becoming an online only broadcaster – and have tried to stay ahead of the game ever since.

This includes being a pioneer of podcasting and on-demand in Czechia.

Barbora Šichanová is the head of the station.

“For Radio Wave it demands a lot of effort to figure out new ways of distribution, smarter strategies, promotion using new tools and so on. So I wouldn’t say I see linear broadcasting as a limitation. For me it’s more crucial to be able to recognise and follow upcoming trends and also new habits of young people. We need to be creative and think outside of the box of traditional radio.”

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Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Khalil Baalbaki, Czech Radio

A radio receiver used by the first Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk or the microphone into which the very first radio announcer spoke. These are just some of the rare exhibits that are currently on display at the National Technical Museum in Prague as part of an exhibition marking the centenary of Czech Radio.

The exhibition, entitled One Hundred Years is Just the Beginning, got underway in the National Technical Museum on Prague’s Letná on Wednesday, on the eve of Czech Radio’s 100th birthday.

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Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Josef Kaňka

The President of the Republic, Petr Pavel, spoke at the summit of the Council of Europe in Reykjavík, where he supported the establishment of a Register of Damages Caused by Russian Aggression. Its establishment also became the main output of the summit. The registry will be based in The Hague and will collect claims for compensation from both Ukrainian citizens and legal entities such as the state, municipalities, hospitals or schools. The register should start functioning during the autumn. Within three years, the Council of Europe should also create a compensation mechanism for damages.

“I am glad that this is happening, because it is the first time that, on the basis of a solid legal basis, there will be an inventory of the damages caused by the war, whether to individuals or the state, and based on this, a mechanism will be set to compensate the damages, from which sources. The Czech Republic actively participated in this and I am glad that the Czech footprint will be visible in this process,” said Petr Pavel at the end of the summit.

The summit took place after eighteen years, the last time it was held in Warsaw in 2005, and its renewal was a clear signal that the Council of Europe still has an important role to play.

“The topic of this summit is Russian aggression against Ukraine. It resulted in the loss of countless innocent lives, widespread destruction and the displacement of thousands of people. We stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian friends,” the president said in his speech.

In his speech, President Petr Pavel also supported the creation of a special criminal tribunal for crimes in Ukraine.

Photo : Zuzana Bönisch

The President of the Czech Republic Peter Pavel was received by Her Majesty Queen Margaret II at noon. & His Royal Highness The Crown Prince Frederik at Amalienborg Palace.

The President was accompanied by the Minister of Immigration and Integration Kaare Dybvad Bek.

Upon receiving the president went to the royal family stable at Christiansborg Palace, where the white Kladrubia horses of the royal family are housed. Horses are bred in the Czech stallion Kladruby nad Labem, which is about 80 kilometers from the capital Prague.

The Czech stallion is one of the oldest in the world and at the request of Prince Henrik, he has been breding cladders for the State Royal Branch since 1994. President Pavel is in Denmark in connection with the Copenhagen Summit on Democracy 2023, which takes place in the Danish capital today and tomorrow.

Photo : Zuzana Bönisch

Photo: Festival Pražské jaro

Perhaps the most anticipated event of the 78th Prague Spring takes place on Wednesday night, with rising classical star Klaus Mäkelä making his debut appearance in Czechia, conducting the Czech Philharmonic and viola player Antoine Tamestit. Ahead of the concert, featuring works by Schnittke and Mahler, I asked Tamestit what it meant for him to also be the music festival’s artist-in-residence.

“This is a fantastic honour, of course, because of the historic reputation of the Prague Spring festival.

“But it’s also a fantastic chance for me as a musician to express myself in different contexts.

“And also as a viola player, where in the last 200 years we have not necessarily been given the same exposure as a violinist, or a pianist or an opera singer to appear as a soloist or an individual.

“But as the artist-in-residence I was given the choice of repertoire, of partners. “Really, it’s a fantastic chance, for me and the viola.”

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Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Kino Ponrepo/NFA

Ponrepo, the Prague cinema administered by the National Film Archive, will be screening a very special film this Tuesday evening. Arsenal is a revolutionary epic that depicts the January workers uprising in Kyiv in 1918. Directed by the famous Ukrainian-Soviet director Oleksandr Dovzhenko, it is considered to be the most prominent expressionist film in Ukrainian cinematography and was voted one of the best films of the year by the American National Board of Review when it came out in 1929.

When the average film fan is asked about early-Soviet cinema, the first name they are likely to come up with is Sergei Eisenstein. However, there were also other key proponents of what is commonly known as Soviet montage theory. Among them was the Ukrainian filmmaker Oleksandr Dovzhenko, who made several critically acclaimed films during the inter-war period.

It will be his film Arsenal that viewers will be able to see at a screening at Prague’s Ponrepo cinema this Tuesday from 8:30pm. The 58-minute-long film recalls an episode from the Russian Civil War. Specifically January 1918, when an uprising of workers in Kyiv aided the besieging Bolshevik army against the forces of the Ukrainian national Parliament who were in control of the city at the time.

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Author: Thomas McEnchroe

Photo: Lasvit

Lasvit is Czechia’s leading exporter of high-end glass and light installations, producing often stunning creations for luxury hotels, residences and retail outlets around the globe. The company was co-founded in 2007 by Leon Jakimič, who was initially based in Hong Kong but is now back in his native North Bohemia. We spoke at Lasvit’s exquisite showroom – packed with wonderful lighting creations and glass pieces – in Prague’s Holešovice district.

I’d first like to ask you about your family background. You’re from Liberec but of course your name, Jakimič, isn’t Czech.

“Jakimič is a Serbian name. But it was in the 18th century that my many times great grandfather moved from Serbia to Kyiv.

“Then in 1920 my great-grandfather reached Příchovice u Tanvaldu, so North Bohemia, and married Marie Swarovski from the Swarovski family – from the branch that did not move to Austria but stayed in Bohemia.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

A very special exhibition of the Czechoslovak born painter Nicholas Egon was open today ( 18.11.2023 ) at GALERIE JAKUBSKA – Thunovská 183/18, 118 00 Malá Strana.

The exhibition will be open for the public until 1.6 , every day from 11 – 17:00.

Nicholas Egon was born in Brno, then Czechoslovakia, in 1921, only son of Count Kornel Vranov and his Hungarian wife, Olga Apponyi. From a loving home and exquisite education with private tutors, he was to leave the family castle aged 16 to pursue a career as a fine artist, with only a silk dressing gown and seven pounds in his pocket.

Working his way through Europe, including as a bell boy in Cannes, by 1939 he was living in England, designing cinema posters and saving pennies to buy books and gramophone records. He was commissioned as War Artist to the Czech Army in Exile, but resigned after disagreements with the regime about his ‘unpatriotic’ drawings. Then he was recruited as War artist for the British army and by 1947 was painting scenes from the Civil war and famine in Greece for a War Memorial commissioned by General Papagos, a bottle of Indian ink attached to his belt.

From 1946-50 he worked as Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at the University of London – the youngest ever in that post – and concurrently lectured weekly at the National Gallery. His early work included a number of abstract paintings, mainly oils, inspired by scientific subjects such as the discovery of DNA.

In the London of the 1950’s and ‘60’s, he became an acclaimed ‘society’ portrait painter, numbering Helen Mirren, Somerset Maugham and L.S.Lowry amongst his many sitters, and members of the aristocratic and royal families of Britain, Greece and Saudi Arabia. The author Maurice Collis was to write: ‘There is no one to my knowledge in England at present who can produce portraiture of such exquisite quality’.

The 20 paintings of flowers are from a much later period, 2007-2017 – the last decade of his life. They were selected for a tribute exhibition at the Benaki Museum, Athens in May 2019, and are representative of the ultimate stage of his ‘Nature and Landscapes’ period, which had commenced after moving to Greece in 1996. From his studio in the hills surrounding Corinth he had wonderful views of the sea and mountains, a natural panoply bathed in that Greek light which he considered unequalled in the world and a source of his greatest inspiration.

They combine watercolour and pastel chalks and are of Greek flowers, except two which are of autumnal trees inspired by a visit to South Korea in 2009. Well-represented are poppies, ubiquitous in Greece in Spring, and geraniums, a ‘signature’ flower of the Egons which overflowed perenially from terracotta pots in the main entrance of their home. Almond blossoms from orchards on our mother’s home island, Chios; Peloponnesian fields of wild flowers; and wilder bushes on mountain crags against blazing summer skies bear witness of his travels around his adopted country.

We see the culmination of his artistic endeavours, far removed from war memorials or high society, yet conceived along the same principles of excellence and truthfulness, and devoid of affectation. They are elegies to Nature, miniature hymns of praise to the natural world, swan songs, perhaps, with their deceptively simple style.

Nicholas Egon remained in contact with his parents until their communications were to cease abruptly without explanation. Affected deeply by their loss and the appropriation of the family estate, he was never to return to his homeland. He would have been amazed and grateful that his works have been brought to Prague by his good friend, H.E. Jan Bondy, and displayed under the kind auspices of the Galerie Jakubska. The family would like to thank them greatly.

One of the first challenges foreign students in Czechia face after arriving in the country is finding accommodation. While most universities offer places in dormitories, many foreign students prefer to stay in private housing. How difficult is to find a place to live in Czechia when you are a foreign student? And what are the advantages of living in a shared apartment? Find out more in the next edition of our miniseries dedicated five top Czech universities.

Some 20,000 students on average arrive in Czechia every year to study at one of the country’s universities. Most of the foreigners head for Prague, but many of them also study in other cities, such as Brno, Olomouc or Liberec.

Finding a temporary home may prove to be a challenge, especially for those staying in the capital, where the demand for housing has been steadily rising in recent years, and so have apartment rental prices.

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Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Daniela Honigman

Photo: archive of Czech Radio

It was exactly a hundred years ago, on 18 May 1923, that listeners in Czechoslovakia were first able to tune in to regular radio broadcasts. Much has changed since then. Today Czech Radio has ten nationwide stations and fourteen regional studios, based in towns and cities around the country. And of course, there is also Radio Prague International, broadcasting in seven languages around the world. Back in 1923 there was just one station, which in those early days broadcast for a few hours every day from a scouts’ tent on the edge of Prague. To mark the anniversary, we take a journey through the radio archives.

We start with an unforgettable moment from twenty-five years ago. It is 22 February 1998 and Czech Radio’s Aleš Procházka is commenting the ice-hockey final at the Winter Olympics in Nagano. In the 49th minute Petr Svoboda scores what proves to be the winning goal against Russia, bringing the Czech team gold in a tournament studded with NHL stars. That moment is etched into the memories of many of us who were watching or listening, but what about the radio’s beginnings, seventy-five years earlier?

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Author: David Vaughan

Photo: Nachtigall Artists

Bass-baritone Boris Prýgl ranks among the most talented Czech young opera singers. One of the finalists of Plácido Domingo’s Operalia, Prýgl has performed at the Slovak National Theatre and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. He is now a guest singer at the National Theatre Opera.

Boris Prýgl studied in Bratislava with Zlatica Livrova and first appeared on stage at the Slovak National Theatre where he performed Leporello in Don Giovanni. He later performed at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (2017 to 2021), where he appeared as Morales (Bizet: Carmen), Ping (Puccini: Turandot), Prince Ottokar (Weber: The Sorcerer), The Hunter (Dvořák: Rusalka) and Marco (Puccini: Gianni Schicchi). In March 2022 he took part in a rendition of Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Semyon Byčkov at the Musikverein in Vienna and the Elbe Philharmonic in Hamburg.

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Author: Daniela Lazarová

When I left my office to watch the couple of hamerkops that were tirelessly carrying material to their already gigantic nest in the aviary under the cliff, Helena Růžičková’s replica from the well-known Czech comic film Sun, Hay and Strawberries came to my mind: “If you build an extension, we´ll add a whole floor!” Except the hamerkops added two floors straightaway.

Having about a half meter in height, hamerkops are birds which I often used to see in the company of our black storks on their wintering grounds in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, usually it is said (1) that they were named after the shape of their head, which resembles a hammer in profile, then (2) that in Africa they are surrounded by many superstitions and legends, and finally (3) that they build really large nests. After all, Emil Holub has already written about them: “The nest is 50 to 95 centimetres high; you can measure the upper circumference of 2 to 2.5 metres; however, at the bottom it protrudes to a point, therefore it is not unlike an inverted truncated cone. The nest itself, into which a square hole wide and high from 20 to 26 centimetres leads, the hamerkop builds from brushwood and soil.”

Our hamerkop couple started building last year. At the “ground floor” they first raised a chick, but then they continued the construction and built the “first floor”. That was not surprising, hamerkops are passionate builders that build regardless of the necessity of their structures; perhaps it helps them to strengthen the relationship in the couple. This year hamerkops continued in the aviary under the cliff with a third floor. Currently they have stopped working and their cone-shaped nest has the upper diameter of about 160 cm and a height of two metres. It is really a mega-nest that you should not miss!

At the same time as hamerkops other birds were building their modest nests in the aviary under the cliff, so that the hamerkops would not dismantle them immediately and carry the material on their own construction, the keeper Aneta Kratochvílová took care of the supply of material. She carried to the aviary about twenty bags of dry grass, moss and other building material – but she still did not protect everything, for example, the visitors’ reed shelter from the hamerkops. There are serious holes in it.

I have consulted my colleagues from the construction department about how much the hamerkops’ nest might weigh. They estimated it at 300 kg. When it is dry. It will be much heavier when it gets wet. Therefore, I had supports added to it and I will wait anxiously if hamerkops continue with its construction after finishing nesting this year. After that, it may be worth entering in the birds’ book of records.

The Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in cooperation with the United Nations Office in Prague, National Museum of Agriculture in Prague and Apiculture Museum Radovljica, Slovenia organizes the commemoration of 6th World Bee Day (20 May) which will take place on 16 May 2023 at National Museum of Agriculture. The guest of honour will be Czech Minister of Agriculture Mr. Zdeněk Nekula. World Bee Day was declared by the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization in December 2017 following the proposal of the Republic of Slovenia. Nowadays, it is celebrated globally to raise awareness about the importance of bees and other pollinators for food security, climate change mitigation, environmental conservation, and human well-being. World Bee Day provides an opportunity for governments, organizations and concerned citizens to promote actions that protect and enhance pollinators, improve their abundance and diversity, and support the sustainable development of agriculture. Since 2018, Slovenia has co-created more than 300 pollinator projects with partners on all continents. Under the theme “Bee engaged in pollinator-friendly agricultural production”, World Bee Day 2023 calls for global action to support pollinator-friendly agricultural production.

General reflection on World Bee Day and its results (2018-2022)

In December 2017, following an initiative by the Republic of Slovenia and with the unanimous support of all Member States, the United Nations General Assembly declared 20 May as World Bee Day. The date was chosen to honour Anton Janša, a Slovenian pioneer of modern apiculture, who was born on 20 May 1734.

World Bee Day has contributed significantly to raising awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators, and to promoting international cooperation to protect them. Thousands of actions have been realised worldwide since 2018. Pollinators have made their way in many more school curricula, policy debates, research agendas, business plans and agricultural practices. Above all, World Bee Day has contributed to general reflection on the environmental crisis and pollinators’ importance.

The observation of World Bee Day encourages every concerned citizen and environmentalist to help protect bees and their habitats. It is important to support beekeeping and conservation efforts in order to maintain a healthy and sustainable environment for both humans and other species.

General reflection on the environmental crisis and pollinators’ importance

Ecosystem crises has critically worsened since 2018, pollinators included. The latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report and the recent UN Water Conference were a strong reminder that the world remains massively off track in preventing ecosystem degradation.

The bee population has been declining in recent years due to a variety of factors, including habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change. Intensive monoculture production and improper use of pesticides pose serious threats to pollinators by reducing their access to food and nesting sites, exposing them to harmful chemicals, and weakening their immune systems.

Pollinators are key to global food security. Every third spoon of food we eat depends on them. Pollinators are key to global ecosystem health. Nearly 90% of wild plants depend on them for reproduction. Pollinators are our key allies in addressing the major global challenges. Humanity will therefore stand or fall on its ability to protect and support them.

Pollination has a positive impact on the environment in general, helping to maintain biodiversity and the vibrant ecosystems upon which agriculture and humanity depend. A wide variety of plants critical to human well-being and livelihoods require pollinators. In fact, bees and other pollinators provide the important ecosystem service of ensuring out-crossing (that is, crossing genes) and, thus, reproduction of many cultivated and wild plants.

World Bee Day 2023: “Bee engaged in pollinator-friendly agricultural production”

Under the theme “Bee engaged in pollinator-friendly agricultural production”, World Bee Day 2023 calls for global action to support pollinator-friendly agricultural production and highlights the importance of protecting bees and other pollinators, particularly through evidence-based agricultural production practices. Pollinators are under threat – sustainable agriculture can reduce risk to pollinators by helping to diversify the agricultural landscape and making use of ecological processes as part of food production.

Slovenian bee diplomacy

Slovenia is particularly committed to actively contributing to raising awareness about the importance of bees and other pollinators for humans and nature, and the need to take measures to protect them. The so-called bee diplomacy has become part of Slovenia’s environmental diplomacy efforts, which are inseparably connected to climate and water diplomacy. Since 2018, Slovenia has co-created more than 300 pollinator projects with partners on all continents.

Against the backdrop of the intense environmental and social challenges, Slovenia upgraded its pollinator diplomacy this year and aligned it with its development cooperation. Environmental protection and social inclusiveness are our two big missions. We primarily support pollinator activities, which help restore the ecosystem and empower vulnerable communities. Slovenia’s flagship pollinator projects, for example, empower mine victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, support social inclusion of female Afghan refugees in Iran or livelihoods of indigenous communities in the Amazonia, who take care of endangered autochthonous pollinator species.

Slovenia strongly believes in beekeeping’s unique potential to address social and environmental vulnerability. It has become, for example, an ever more popular means of climate adaptation in water scarce regions, where people are losing their main livelihood source and have to turn to other activities.

In 2023, Slovenia has been preparing more than 30 pollinators project all over the world.

Bees are also at home at the Embassy of Slovenia in Prague

Bees also have a very significant role at the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Prague, as they have lived in a traditional Slovenian beehive in the garden for over two years now. More specifically, it is Carniolan bees, from Slovenia, which are housed there.

Each year, the Embassy organises several events to raise awareness of the importance of bees and pollinators. In the past few years, it has also become a tradition to celebrate the Slovenian Traditional Honey Breakfast, which consists of fresh bread, butter, milk, apples and, of course, honey. Every year it falls on the third Friday in November. The Embassy has been educating children about the importance of bees for the world through the medium of the honey breakfast in different schools in Prague. These are our small but important steps for the protection and well-being of bees.

Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia
Pod Hradbami 15, Prague 6

The Press Release was prepared with support from the United Nations Information Centre Prague.
Prague, 15 May 2023

Prague City Hall has commissioned a new copy of the Old Town Square astronomical clock calendar that will replace the heavily-criticised version that was created in 2018. The artist who created the copy was lambasted by art historians and heritage enthusiasts for changing elements of Mánes’s 1866 original, to give it a more modern look.

The controversial copy of the astronomical clock calendar was commissioned as part of a broader overhaul and renovation of the Old Town Hall tower, on which the clock is mounted, and was finished and unveiled in 2018. For a few years nothing was said about it, but in 2022, Milan Patka from the Club for Old Prague filed an 18-page complaint about the copy to the National Heritage Inspectorate.

“I noticed it sometime before last Christmas when I was walking past the astronomical clock. Although I had seen the calendar many times before, it suddenly struck me that the pair of lovers were sitting not by a flowering bush, but by a pile of straw. I have a copy of Mánes’s calendar from 2002 at home which luckily I hadn’t thrown away. So I started comparing and found 10, 15, 20 mistakes which I wrote down and sent to the National Heritage Inspectorate.”

See the rest here.

Author: Anna Fodor

In Czechia, as well as in most Central and Southern European EU states, still wines are not subject to consumption tax. However, with the ongoing need to balance the budget, government experts have suggested introducing precisely such a tax, arguing that it could bring CZK 2 to 5 billion crowns into state coffers. This has angered the country’s winemakers who say that it would not just hit them hard in times of crisis, but also place a long tradition under threat.

Along with sparkling wine, still wine is currently the only alcoholic beverage in Czechia that is not subject to the so-called consumption or excise tax. In practice, this means that winemakers are not charged by the state if they produce fewer than 2,000 litres of wine per calendar year.

See the rest here.

Author: Thomas McEnchroe

Photo: Miloš Turek, Radio Prague International

Some of the most beautiful views of the Vltava River are at the river’s turn near Úholičky, an area linked to the rulers of the Přemyslid dynasty – Prince Bořivoj and his wife Ludmila.

This trail is ideal for day trip for cyclists and hikers. All you need to do is hop on a train from Prague to Úholičky, get off at Sedlec and you will find yourself surrounded by nature and history. The lookout at Stříbrník is a wonderful photo location from which the trail will lead you to the Řivnáč settlement site dating 2,000 years ago.

One of the highlights on this tour is St. Ludmila’s Lookout built on a historic site used by the rulers of the Přemyslid dynasty – Prince Bořivoj and his wife Ludmila. St. Clement’s Church, in its close vicinity, was built on the foundations of a rotunda dating back to those days.

See the rest here.

Author: Miloš Turek