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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next president of Czechia will be either Petr Pavel or Andrej Babiš. The ex-head of the Czech Army will go into a second-round run-off against the billionaire ex-PM and ANO chairman in a fortnight’s time.

Jan Zrzavý was a painter, illustrator and scenographer, and a leading representative of the Czech avant-garde. He was a mysterious, solitary artist living in his own world, rarely open to anyone else. Although he was never admitted to the...

After two “COVID” years Prague Zoo returned to normal in 2022. Despite the lower number of foreign visitors and the deteriorating economic situation a high number of visitors returned: in 2022 a total of 1,419,122 visitors passed through its...

The new exhibit complex for Przewalski’s horses and other representatives of fauna of inner Asia is currently being created in south-east corner of the Plains in the upper part of Prague Zoo. Until its opening in spring of 2024 Prague...

A short demo just released on Steam for an upcoming game is said to be reminiscent of Warcraft 3 – but instead of orcs, you are commanding Hussite soldiers. And instead of the giant team that was behind Warcraft, this game is the work of a...

Among those taking part in elections for the next president, which begin on Friday, will be many thousands of Czechs living abroad. With postal ballots not an option, registered voters need to travel to a Czech embassy or consulate and cast...

For decades now Prague city dwellers have been used to hearing a calm, modulated and well-known voice citing the names of the various stops on tram, bus and metro routes around the city. Who will have the privilege to be the voice that hundreds...

Czech composer Bedřich Smetana is probably best-known for his set of symphonic poems Má Vlast, or My Country, as well as for his folkloristic operas and string quartets. However, the Czech music great has also written a number of piano...

People in Brno paid tribute to Monty Python’s famous Ministry of Silly Walks sketch last week on the occasion of the 10th edition of the annual international day of silly walking. Source

The Czech School Without Borders has been running in London since 2007, allowing children with a Czech parent to enhance their language skills and meet other kids from bilingual families. On a recent visit to the UK, I stopped by the school to...

The Plzeň 35th Regiment, whose fame is reflected in a song familiar to many Czechs, was founded in 1683. The military annals of the Austrian monarchy state that Emperor Leopold I commissioned George Frederick, Duke of Württemberg, to set up an...

The 10th edition of Prague’s ÍRÁN:CI festival of Iranian film gets underway on Wednesday. This time it is taking place in the shadow of four months of unprecedented protests and brutal repression in Iran – a situation which has greatly shaped...

Czech scientists, in cooperation with their colleagues from Great Britain, are carrying out research aimed at tracing the origins of medieval Gregorian chants. They are doing so with the help of computational algorithms, that are commonly used...

A team of scientists from Brno has announced a unique discovery that could contribute to an innovative and sustainable way of lighting in the future, possibly even replacing electric light bulbs. The results of their study, based on the inner...

The 2023 Dakar Rally was only a few days away from ending and Czech rally raid truck driver Aleš Loprais was in the lead. But he has now confirmed that he is dropping out of the famous race following an incident where a spectator died after...

Despite the Velvet Divorce, relations between Czechia and Slovakia still remain very close. This is perhaps most evident in the Moravian Slovakia region, which lies on the border between the two countries. Radio Prague International visited the...

Although still a largely unknown sport among the majority of Czechs, cricket has been played in Czechia since at least the 1990s. Today the country boasts several leagues as well as a national team that has even set some records. The sport is...

Prague’s Municipal Library has recently become a hit among foreign tourists visiting the Czech capital. The reason? An artwork called Idiom that has been in the library’s lobby since 1998, and which has just recently become a hit on social...

Adina Biguine was born in Kyrgyzstan, but spent more than half of her life in Prague. She originally came to the Czech capital to study at the Faculty of Humanities, but instead of psychology, she decided to pursue the art of pastry making...

The Czech government has approved an amendment to the Road Traffic Act that will mean higher penalties for the most serious transgressions such as speeding and drink-driving, while allowing young people to start driving a year earlier, from the...

On moving to the Czech Republic, many foreigners are surprised to find famous women such as Hillary Clinton and Meryl Streep referred to in the Czech media as ‘Hillary Clintonová’ and ‘Meryl Streepová’. Now one Czech news outlet has sparked...

Monday saw no fewer than nine former Czech prime ministers attend a special dinner hosted by the country’s current head of government, Petr Fiala. The get together was organised on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of...

Days after it ended, cabinet members publicly assessed Czechia’s presidency of the European Union on Tuesday. The Europe minister said the country’s success during six months at the helm of the EU had surprised fellow members – and improved its...

Next year Prague is set to see the goodbye concert of Kiss, a return of Maroon 5 and the first ever visit of Jack Black’s Tenacious D. In Brno, locals can look forward to bands such as Deep Purple or the Hollywood Vampires led by Johnny Depp...