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The full title of this Czech public holiday is Day of Freedom and Democracy and International Student Day, and it commemorates two significant moments in the country’s history. What events are taking place for those who want to learn more...

Surviving Utoya and Oslo is the title of a new podcast produced by the Czech Radio station Radio Wave. Across seven episodes released in both English and Czech versions, creator Lukáš Houdek speaks to Norwegians who made it through the 2011...

The Ambassador of Mongolia H.E Mr. Gansukh Khashkhan DAMDIN organized an open day program to remake the birthday of the Chinggis Khaan on 14th November 2023, the first day of the winter month of the lunar calendar. H.E Mr. Gansukh Khashkhan...

A dignified memorial to the Holocaust of the Roma and Sinti in Bohemia is finally nearing completion. On Monday survivors, activists and politicians symbolically planted the first trees in a forest in Lety that will symbolize the lost Roma...

Under the esteemed patronage of Speaker of the Lower House Markéta Pekarová Adamová, the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia hosted a thought-provoking seminar at the Czech National Library on November 14, 2023. The half-day event convened a...

Books and libraries are the inspiration for READ, a major new exhibition of works by international and domestic artists at the Kunsthalle Praha gallery. READ is curated by the Berlin-based Scandinavian art duo Elmgreen & Dragset, who also...

The Ore Mountains got their first snow of the year. In Klinovec the snow stayed on the ground and children could build the season’s first snowman. Source: ČTK

The Herzl Center for Israel Studies is a research and teaching institution dedicated to the enhancement of knowledge and awareness about the modern State of Israel. It is the first academic institution in the Czech Republic fully dedicated to...

One of the greatest Czech operas, Jenůfa by Leoš Janáček, is currently being staged at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Jakub Hrůša conducts the orchestra and the international cast features one Czech singer. The piece premiered on Sunday and will...

The Embassy of Japan organized a seminar on the topic of the alcoholic beverage sake in the ambassador’s residence, which was attended by a large number of prominent figures of Czech gastronomy, entrepreneurs from the field of food trade...

The popularity of energy drinks among Czech schoolchildren has been steadily rising in recent years and so have concerns about the dangers of such drinks. The lower house of parliament is currently debating the possibility of introducing...

Danish and Swedish tourism experts, buyers, and key influencers recently cooked in the Czech language in Copenhagen. Under the baton of Kristína Nemčková, the chef of the local Michelin-starred Geranium restaurant. The “Tastes of...

Tomáš Masaryk, the first president of independent Czechoslovakia, married the American Charlotte Garrigue. She had been born to a wealthy and patrician family in Brooklyn, New York. On her father’s side she had ancestors among the French...

Former Czech ice hockey goaltender Roman Čechmánek, Olympic champion from Nagano and three-time world champion, died on Sunday at the age of 52. Čechmánek was a substitute for Dominik Hašek at the Nagano Olympics and won world championship...

Czechia will be introducing a deposit return system on plastic bottles and cans from 2025. The new system means people will no longer sort their drink containers into the large colourful recycling bins that can be seen on almost every street...

The Book of Prague is a collection of short stories by Czech authors that had never before been translated into English. As the title suggests, Prague, with all its different layers and histories, plays a prominent role in the stories. The book...

Rapid industrial development and major social changes at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries increased the number of people suffering from mental illnesses. On November 12, 1903, the Provincial Committee of the Kingdom of Bohemia decided to...

Extremely popular capybaras are returning to the Prague Zoo after years. This Saturday, November 11, at 11 a.m., representatives of the zoo will present them to the public. The capybaras will inhabit the enclosure together with the anthills in...

An expert panel debate on the topic of cooperation within Central Europe took place on November 7, 2023 in the Chamber of Deputies. The debate, which was initiated and opened by the Speaker of the House Markéta Pekarová Adamová, was held in the...

On Sunday, November 12, the traditional Goodwill Benefit Concert for the Goodwill Committee – Olga Havlova Foundation (VDV) will take place. In the concert hall of the church of St. Šimon and Judy will perform in the Old Town, and this...

A team of enthusiasts from Oslavany near Brno are building a replica of a Viking boat from the 12th century. The eight-metre boat is called Gislinge, after the Danish village where the original was discovered, and should be launched in the...

There were more tourists in the 3rd quarter than before the pandemic More tourists visited the Czech Republic in the 3rd quarter of this year than in the pre-Covid 2019 year. Almost 7.9 million of them arrived, of which more than 4.8 million...

Debate is still going on over whether to knock down Prague’s Vyšehrad Railway Bridge. Some interested parties say it may only remain in place if it is expanded from the current two tracks to three. However, the group Nebourat (Don’t Demolish)...

Vincenz Priessnitz, the founder of modern hydrotherapy, was born in the Olomouc Region. He founded a spa near the town of Jeseník that successfully applies his curative methods to this day. Vincenz Priessnitz was the son of a local crofter and...

The NGI Forum 2023, a flagship event of the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative, is set to take place on November 15-16, 2023. With a forward-looking theme, “NGI Forum 2023: Unlocking the Power of Digital...

A new documentary explores the story of the Mašín brothers group, three members of which shot their way from Communist Czechoslovakia to the West in 1953. Escape to Berlin, featuring extensive interviews with the now elderly Josef Mašín and his...

Mapamátky is a Czech association dedicated to popularising Prague’s architecture. As part of their activity, they created a web app motivating people to go outside and explore the city. It originated during the Covid lockdown as a university...

In today’s Sunday music show we’ll be commemorating the great Czech conductor Zdeněk Mácal, who passed away last week at the age of 87. During his long career, Mácal conducted more than 170 major orchestras in four continents, including the...

A group of Czech specialists have teamed up with conservation workers at the Mkomazi National Park in Tanzania to track and study the movement of lions. The team placed trackable collars on selected lions this past October in order to collect...

Bring Them Home Now! is the title of a gathering set for Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Tuesday evening demanding the release of the over 200 hostages still being held by Hamas, exactly a month after its brutal attacks on Israel. Ahead of the...

Visitors to Prague Airport can now see a large and quite stunning 3D portrait of Václav Havel comprised of items associated with him and the Velvet Revolution he led. These include keys, typewriters and even a barrel of beer. The anamorphic...

The annual Gender Equality Index report amongst EU member states was released recently, with Czechia placing 25th out of the 27 EU member states. The report ranks nations based on factors such as power, money, and education to understand the...

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala left Prague on Friday for an eight-day trip to Africa, during which he is visiting the east and west African countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Although primarily a trade...

Czech Egyptologists have made another important discovery in Abusir – the roughly 2,500-year-old tomb of a young royal scribe. Together with other recent archaeological finds in the area, this newly discovered tomb gives researchers a better...

Czech scientists are developing a new technology that could help in accidents involving radioactive materials. Called the RaDron, it combines autonomous drones with unique particle detectors, which can expose even unknown sources of radiation...

You can meet them wherever you go in America, from New York in the East, to San Francisco and Los Angeles in the West, from Chicago in the North to Houston and Miami in the South. But it is in the Midwestern states where you can find whole...

How do you bring up children in bilingual and bicultural families? On the one hand, it is potentially a great advantage if the kids get this educational and learning impulse and live in two cultures at the same time. On the other hand, it is...

Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský on Monday met for talks with his newly-appointed Slovak counterpart Juraj Blanár from the ruling SMER party, which has indicated a U-turn in the country’s support for Ukraine. The meeting was viewed as an indicator...

The week of the Czech Academy of Sciences started on Monday, commencing six days of programming that presents the latest and most important findings of modern scientific research in Czechia. Around 400 events are taking place in 22 locations...

One of biggest construction projects in Prague at present is the renovation and extension of the city centre Savarin Palace. Behind the 1.7 hectare complex, which should house Alphonse Mucha’s Slav Epic, are developers Crestyl, who are also...

Charles Games incorporates history and social issues into their games. The World War II period appears in Attentat 1942, the pitfalls of modern technology in DigiStories Nela. This makes them good teaching material. “You learn about...

The Egon Schiele Art Centre, one of the most popular attractions in Český Krumlov, first opened its doors in 1993. The Austrian Expressionist painter Egon Schiele died at only 28. However, he spent spells of his short life in the pretty South...

A very strong Aurora borealis brightened the sky above the northern horizon of Czechia on Sunday night. Source:ČTK

You wanted them, so you will have them. Capybaras are coming back to Prague Zoo. Probably the most popular animals in the world at the moment. At least in the world of social networks, where they appear in countless memes with huge numbers of...

The famous male gorilla Richard has lived in the Prague Zoo for 20 years. On Saturday, November 4, two decades will pass since the arrival of the silver-backed founder of the local breeding and the father of all gorilla cubs to date in the...

The Prague Sounds music festival is set to kick off on Tuesday, ushering in more than two weeks of performances, with concerts ranging from classic jazz to hip-hop. On the eve of the event – formerly known as Strings of Autumn – I spoke with...

With a career spanning over two decades, 41-year-old Czech professional ice hockey player Tomáš Plekanec announced his retirement from the game on Saturday evening. Known as ‘Pleky’ by his devoted fans, he spent more than a decade with NHL team...

The Olomouc Region is located in the north-western and central part of Moravia. Spreading over an area of just over 5,000 square kilometers, it is the 6th largest region in the country. The region’s assets include the university town of...

Olga Havlová's fourth Tree was planted in front of the Charity Nový Hrozenkov building on the day of the celebration of the 105th anniversary of the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia. With this act, the picturesque Wallachian village...

A new study from the FOOD Barometer survey commissioned by the Czech Chamber of Commerce sheds light on how Czechs eat on a daily basis. The study revealed that Czechs are much less guided by the nutritional value of foods, and that while...

For more than 50 years, actor and singer Václav Neckář has been captivating and entertaining radio listeners with his voice. This past weekend, just two days shy of his 80th birthday, Neckář was inducted into the prestigious Czech Radio Hall of...

Developers Penta Real Estate have completed work on the Masaryčka building complex by Prague’s Masaryk railway station. It was designed by the UK’s Zaha Hadid Studios and is regarded as one of the boldest projects of its kind in the Czech...

The new film You Will Never See It All puts the spotlight on Ján Mančuška, a conceptual artist who is not so well-known in his native Czechia despite having works in the collections of Paris’s Pompidou Centre and MOMA in New York. The film...

The award-winning Ukrainian novelist and short story writer Natalia Matolinets is fascinated by the layers of common history shared by the cities of central Europe. She was born and lives in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which, she says...

A famous London avant-garde sculpture created by Karel Vogel, a Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia, is set to undergo a major renovation. The concrete figure of a reclining woman, considered to be one of London’s most important pieces of...

A new installation by Czech luxury glass and light firm Lasvit honouring war veterans was recently unveiled in London. The site-specific artwork, called Poppies, was made for the Raffles London hotel, situated in the Old War Office, which...

Czechs have always had somewhat contradictory feelings toward their nobility. One of the country’s leading aristocrats once even bitterly complained that Czechs are either louts or boot-lickers, nothing in between. One of the first laws of the...

Jaw harp, known in Czech as brumle, is an ancient musical instrument that has been played all over the world for centuries. Here in Czechia, it is mostly used in traditional folk music, especially in Moravia, but it has also found its way into...

One of the laureates of the 2023 Gratias Agit awards, handed out by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs to people and organizations for promoting the good name of the Czech Republic abroad, is Jan Marek, a leading expert in the field of...

Together for Israel, was the name of the public gathering organized by the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic (FŽO) in support of the State of Israel and its people. On Wednesday, November 1, 2023, the Old Town Square in the...

Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 there have been reports of increasing harassment, hate speech and sometimes even physical assaults against members of both Jewish and Muslim communities in countries around the world. So what is...

Halloween often has the reputation of being an imported US holiday in Czechia, but long-term Prague resident Dinah Spritzer wanted to find a way for her half-Czech kids to be able to enjoy trick-or-treating – so she got the idea of making...

There is no main story in Space Engineers. This allows players to have an infinite number of objectives. “Games allow us to create new realities,” says Marek Rosa, founder of Keen Software House. Since its founding, the studio has...

Around 40,000 people turned out to watch the annual fish harvest at the Vrkoč pond in the Brno Region at the weekend. Fish specialties were available for tasting at Vrkoč, one of the country’s biggest fish ponds, producing around 200 tonnes of...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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