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Seven miniature versions of Prague’s Communist-era brutalist buildings have been installed in a park outside the Malostranská Metro Station. The site-specific project, featuring seven illuminated sculptures cast from concrete, was created by...

Dumplings, poppy-seed cakes and Czech traditions help keep the memory of the “old country” alive in the community of second and third generation Canadian Czechs in Saskatchewan province, Canada. A group of local enthusiasts are now also working...

Fyield, a group of musicians from Czechia and Iceland, have just released the LP Future Landscapes. The unusual project, based on field recordings made in a variety of locations in both states, is aimed at boosting awareness of climate change...

A film festival highlighting brave acts of resistance to the Nazi and Communist regimes and the people behind them is currently underway in Prague. Organized by the Museum of 20th Century Memory the festival offers screenings, lectures and...

With heating bills going through the roof, many Czechs are turning back to solid fuels, stocking up on coal, firewood and in the worst-case scenario, burning household waste, including plastics. Environmental experts are warning of the multiple...

Translator, writer and tireless promoter of Czech literature Markéta Goetz-Stankiewicz passed away at the age of 95 in Vancouver on Sunday. During the 1970s and ‘80s, she became a crucial link for Czechoslovak dissidents with the West...

Sanusi Ayomide is a 24-year-old professional dancer from Nigeria. For the past year, he has lived in Prague as part of a Nigerian mission established by Czech artist and UN Goodwill Ambassador of the Czech Republic Yemi Ankemi (professionally...

A new Czech Children’s Book Centre has recently opened in Prague with the aim of promoting quality children’s books by small publishers and encouraging a love of reading among the young. The institution, located at Janský Vršek just below...

Prague hosted the largest international fair of cannabis and medicinal herbs of its kind last weekend. Known as Cannafest, the 12th edition of the fair drew great numbers of Czechs of all ages to explore and try out the various legal cannabis...

A previously unknown work by one of the greatest Czech composers, Bohuslav Martinů, was recently discovered in the Israeli National Library in Jerusalem. Czech musicologist Natálie Krátká came across the piece while researching the library’s...

Frantisek Bílek’s villa in Hradčany is one of the most original houses in Prague. The villa has an unusual round floor plan, which is supposed to resemble the footprint of a scythe in a field of wheat. Wheat plants also served as...

A High-level multi-stakeholder event on the Future of the Internet took place in Prague, Czech Republic, on 2 November 2022. The event included plenary sessions as well as workshops, where government representatives together with stakeholders...

One of the highlights of this year’s Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival was the Czech premiere of Darkening (Tmání), a film by Ondřej Moravec that explores depression – via virtual reality. Headsets are used for Darkening, with...

A faithful replica of the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, Czechia’s most famous archaeological find, went on sale on Tuesday at the Moravian Museum in Brno. The current model is much more accurate than any of the previous ones. The prototype for the...

A unique collection of newly discovered photographs depicting everyday life in the Terezín ghetto are currently on display at the Memorial of Silence in Prague. The previously unseen images are on display at the Bubny train station, the place...

According to sexologists, interest in sex change among young people in Czechia is on the rise. While in 2013 a special commission at the Ministry of Health approved 47 applications for gender transition, last year it was 195. Tobiáš, now 22...

Prim watches, which started to be produced more than 70 years ago, are one of the most famous Czech trademarks. For many people in Czechia, who grew up during the Communist regime, the brand is synonymous with wristwatches. Today, Prim watches...

Neela Winkelmann-Heyrovská never had the chance to meet her Nobel-prize winning chemist grandfather – Jaroslav Heyrovský died in 1967 and she was born two years later. But she had to live with his legacy her whole life – which, she says, was...

Czech astrophotographer Petr Horálek from the University of Opava was selected for NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day for his photograph “Seven Years of Halley Dust”. The photograph is a composite of the biannual Orionid...

The Mucha exhibition which opened in July at Prague’s Waldstein Riding School has proven so popular that it has been extended until the end of the year, although it was originally slated to close on Monday. Marcus Mucha, the great-grandson of...

The great singer and dissident Marta Kubišová – who many Czechs associate with key moments in the country’s modern history – turns 80 on November 1. Marta Kubišová’s signature song Modlitba pro Martu, A Prayer for Marta, was very popular in the...

Professor Jan Bedrna is one of the early pioneers of heart surgery in the former Czechoslovakia. At a hospital in Hradec Králové 75 years ago, he performed cardiac surgery for the first time in the country’s history. On 30 October 1947...

Data released by Eurostat on Monday show that Czechia saw the sharpest year-on-year rise in electricity prices out of all EU member states in the first half of 2022 (+62%). The average cost of electricity for Czechs was the sixth highest in the...

With your support, we have been able to reach record breaking numbers in October. Thank you!

When the #MeToo campaign resonated in the Western world many Czechs were openly sceptical and even ridiculed what they considered to be a typical excess of Western feminism.

October 28th is Czechoslovak Independence Day, marking the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918.

Thousands of people gathered on Wenceslas Square in Prague on Wednesday evening to call for an end to prejudice against LGBT+ people, which led to the homophobic murder of two young men in Bratislava earlier this month.

After nearly seven decades, the National Literature Memorial has left its premises in Prague’s Strahov Monastery and moved to its new headquarters in the district of Bubeneč. Last week it opened to the public under the name Museum of Literature.

The 26th edition of the Ji.hlava International Festival of Documentary Films has just got underway. This year’s edition of Czechia’s biggest documentary event will deliver nearly 100 world premieres and several valuable retrospectives. On the...

The great Czech artist Theodor Pištěk, who turned 90 on Tuesday, won an Oscar in 1985 for his costumes for Amadeus. However, he regards himself primarily as a painter – and a cross-section of his works can now be seen at a joint exhibition in...

In retaliation for the assassination of Heydrich, 262 relatives and helpers of the paratroopers from groups Anthropoid, Silver A, Bivouac, Out Distance, Steel and Intransitive were court-martialled and sentenced to death by the Prague Gestapo...

Saudi Arabia’s national airline to be the first airline in the MENA region to invest in sustainable air mobility with plans to purchase 100 all-electric Lilium Jets and support certification across the region. SAUDIA, the national flag carrier...

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Lidice tragedy, the Czech village razed to the ground by the Nazis in 1942 as revenge for the assassination of Nazi governor Reinhard Heydrich. 340 people were murdered, including 88 children. For the...

The iconic Lennon Wall in Prague’s Kampa is one of the most visited sites in the Czech capital. Now a Czech artist has taken this symbol of resistance to Paris within celebrations of the Czech EU presidency. People walking past the Pantheon in...

The Skalka cable car in the Ještěd Ski Resort in Liberec undergoes a thorough safety test ahead of each season. And what better way to do that in Czechia than with beer? The process involves putting 200 fifty-litre beer kegs on the cable car to...

Josef Václav Mysliveček, was a famous 18th century Czech composer who spent most of his life in Italy, where he was known as the ingenious ‘Il Boemo’. Musicologists speak about his significant contribution to the formation of late...

Screenwriter and director Patrik Křivánek has become the first Czech to win a prize at the Page International Screenwriting Award competition, which aims to discover up-and-coming scriptwriters from around the world. His story about an aging...

Czechia has just over two more months at the helm of the EU and according to the Minister for European Affairs Mikuláš Bek, the hardest test of its ability as a negotiator is yet to come. Prague needs to push ahead with some of the basic...

The global network of Czech Centres operates as the cultural wing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, promoting the Czech Republic abroad and strengthening cultural ties between countries. There are 26 Czech Centres operating in 24 countries on...

The last trolleybus route in Prague, from Orionka to Strahov Stadium, came to an end on 15 October 1972. The city’s first trolleybus service began in today’s Prague 6 on 29 August 1936. The mode of transport was better suited to climbing hills...

Say “Tesla” and most people think of electric cars. But here in Czechia people associate the brand name with a wide variety of electronic products they grew up with. During the communist era Czech households relied on Tesla radios, Tesla TV...

Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša is set to become music director of the Royal Opera House in London. The 41-year-old Hrůša, who is currently chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, will take over from Antonio Pappano in 2025. However, he will serve...

The common European mole, immortalised as Zdeněk Miler’s beloved cartoon character in animated films, now has another Czech connection – a Czech scientist was part of the team that discovered the mole’s unusual evolutionary tactic for surviving...

A new memorial to war veterans was unveiled at War Veterans Alley at Rajhrad near Brno at the weekend. Pictured by the monument, which takes the form of a tree is Jakub Bruno Středa, veteran of a Czech mission to Afghanistan. Source

The shooting dead last week of two young gay men in the Slovak capital Bratislava has also rocked the LGBT community in Czechia, with many drawing a link between negative portrayals of sexual minorities and acts of violence. I discussed that...

The Lauder School of Prague, the only Jewish educational institution in Czechia, is marking 25 years since its foundation this year. The school, which opened its first class in 1997, celebrated the anniversary this Thursday, on the occasion of...

The country’s counterintelligence service BIS traditionally performs quietly and efficiently behind the scenes. But on Monday it was at the centre of media attention due to a rare visit by the prime minister, the first in 24 years. It is not...

One of Prague’s leading arts venues, the Archa theatre, has begun its final full season, with the final curtain set for the end of next year. Since its foundation in 1994 Archa has hosted some of the world’s greatest alternative theatre and...

Anna Fodorova is the daughter of the well-known Prague Jewish author Lenka Reinerová – but is a successful novelist in her own right, as well as a practising psychotherapist and former animator. On a recent trip to the UK, I had the pleasure of...

Dimitrij, which premiered in Prague at the New Czech Theatre on October 8, 1882, was Antonín Dvořák's most ambitious grand opera. Set to a libretto by Marie Červinková-Riegrová, with a plot derived from Ferdinand Mikovec's Dimitr Ivanovič –...

Last week the European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti greeted the Czech capital on Twitter from the International Space Station, attaching a picture of the city from space. Prague was hosting the European Space Week at the time.

The Václav Havel Human Rights Prize was awarded on Monday to Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian dissident who is currently in jail for speaking out against Putin’s war in Ukraine. Michael Žantovský is head of the Václav Havel Library, one of the...

In the wake of worrying reports regarding the quality of care for patients in Czech mental hospitals there is a push to expand the existing network of mental health centers, which help people to avert the onset of serious problems requiring...

While the Ještěd ski resort in the north of Czechia started making artificial snow this week in preparation for the winter season, other ski centres around the country are facing the prospect of a shorter season or are closing down altogether.

The Czech government has responded to Russia’s intensified bombing of civilian targets in Ukraine by closing its doors to Russian tourists with Schengen visas. The cabinet also approved a plan for Czechia’s participation in the reconstruction...

Property prices are expected to fall or stagnate in Czechia next year, Czech Television reports, citing statistics from the Czech Banking Association as well as statements from the country’s leading developer companies. The stop to more than a...

On 11 July, the President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog, together with his wife, First Lady Michal Herzog, came to Prague on an official state visit.

On the occasion of the 77th Anniversary of the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Ambassador H.E. Thai Xuan Dung and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thien Nga held a reception at the Grandior Hotel Prague.

Exhibition at the Waldstein Riding Hall of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

On the occasion of the Slovenian Statehood Day, H.E. Mrs. Tanja Strniša, Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the Czech Republic, hosted a reception.

On the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Establishment of Mexico-Czechoslovakia diplomatic relations (1922-2022), the Embassy of Mexico in the Czech Republic and the Strahov Library organized the inaugural “Documentary and Cartographic...

Škoda Auto boasts one of the oldest unbroken histories among car manufacturers still operating today. It is the fifth-oldest company in the world still producing cars, after Daimler, Opel, Peugeot, and Tatra, another Czech company – meaning...

Czech researchers at the Technical University of Liberec have developed a new material that could find multiple uses in interior design and various artistic fields such as the creation of perfumed jewelry. The new glass-ceramic porous material...

The renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has won an international competition for the design of a new Jewish Museum in the Moravian city of Brno. The striking building in the shape of a seemingly endless white ribbon with a tree in the centre...

The first pre-school institution -a so-called “model youth nursery” – was founded in 1832 by Jan Svoboda, a teacher at the Prague Emmaus parish school Na Hrádku. Svoboda taught children aged three to six the basics of reading...

Lenka Morávková is a sound-artist and electronic producer from North Bohemia who divides her time between Prague and Los Angeles. A few years ago, she created a one-of-a-kind glass sculpture called the Bohemian Cristal Instrument, a unique...

On the occasion of Czech Statehood Day, the Czech Embassy in Canada organized a gala evening in Ottawa, awarding EU presidency medals to the Czech-Canadians who helped mold the close relationship between the two nations.

Four out of ten people in Czechia expect that they will be doing the same job until they retire and a further 20 percent believe that they will be doing the same job for at least another decade, according to a survey conducted by the Data...

Just because you have a medical condition diagnosed, doesn’t mean you should never leave your city or country. People suffering from chronic illness travel just as often as healthy people. As long as you’re mobile and don’t...

The first ever football match in the Czech lands is not very well documented. According to some sources it took place 135 years ago, according to others it was five years later. What is certain is that the match took place on an island on the...

UK historian Mark Cornwall is an expert on Czech-German relations and the late Habsburg Empire. His book The Devil’s Wall explores the previously little-known story of Heinz Rutha, an associate of Sudeten German leader Konrad Henlein whose...

Historian Mark Cornwall is an expert on Czech-German relations. He is preparing a book to be entitled Queer Bohemians and another on treason under the Habsburg Empire. Listen here. Author: Ian Willoughby

Today largely forgotten, Emil Fafek was a leading Czech news photographer for decades, covering everything from the Prague Uprising as a young man to his beloved sport. A new exhibition in Prague entitled Emil Fafek: On Guard aims to rekindle...

The number of children and adolescents suffering from depression and those self-harming has increased steeply in the last few years, which many experts ascribe to the period of social isolation during the Covid pandemic. Alarmingly, the society...

The annual Literature Night (Noc literatury), which has become the largest European literature project of its kind in Czechia since it was introduced to the country 16 years ago, is taking place across 80 venues in the country’s capital and...

Conceptual artist David Černý has a new project. His sculptures will grace a new residential building in Prague’s district of Karlín.

A recent public opinion survey of Czech attitudes to environmental issues suggests that, on the whole, Czechs care about the environment and most do not doubt that anthropogenic climate change is happening. But when it comes to concrete...

New issue of Czech & Slovak Leaders Magazine coming soon!

Trams ran up and down Prague’s Wenceslas Square in the past and are set to do so again. This plan has now taken another step forward, with the city’s transport authority issuing a public tender to build the necessary lines, Novinky.cz reported...

Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on Thursday, is fondly remembered by many Czechs. Not least thanks to her visit to the country in March 1996, when she met with the then president Václav Havel and chatted with locals on Charles Bridge. One...

The Slovak Ambassador to Czech Republic, H.E. Rastislav Káčer has been appointed as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia. We wish him all the best in his new role! You can read more about this in a post published by Mr. Káčer (in...

A new book called „Youth Without Family to Lean On“ edited by Moshe Israelashvili and Shula Mozes will be published by Routledge on September 20, 2022. The book is in English, and attempts to give a comprehensive description of interventions in...

A new monument, called The Return of the Stones, has been unveiled at the Old Jewish cemetery in Prague’s district of Žižkov. It is made out of fragments of tombstones from derelict Jewish cemeteries that were cut up into cobblestones during...

Hana Zagorová, one of the country’s most popular singers and a nine-time winner of the Golden Nightingale award died last week at the age of 75. In today’s edition of Sunday Music show we mark her long and successful career, during which she...

Prague’s graffiti-covered John Lennon Wall was a symbol of freedom in the final decade of communism. Now it has been repainted by artists from all around Europe in a project that is part of the Czech presidency of the EU. Over two dozen artists...

Devastating floods have hit Pakistan, submerging 1/3rd of the country underwater that’s roughly the land mass of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called this a “climate catastrophe“...

Archaeologists in Prague are currently uncovering a monumental building from the Stone Age. The so-called roundel, built around 7,000 years ago, is located in the district of Vinoř on the outskirts of the city. Experts are hoping that the...

From Monday 26th September to Saturday 1st October, audiences can enjoy six days of international, multi award-winning, theatre in English, presented by 28 theatre companies from all over the world. 

A team of experts from the Centre of Experimental Archaeology in North Bohemia is constructing a copy of a real Neolithic boat. The vessel will then be used to test out a hypothetical sea trading route from that era between Greece and modern...

Prague’s Signal festival of light art will celebrate 10 years of existence from October 13 to 16, again drawing tens of thousands of people to the city’s streets. Among the highlights this year will be a work referencing Ukraine by top Czech...

International Institute for Middle East and Balkan Studies (IFIMES[1]) from Ljubljana, Slovenia, regularly analyses developments in the Middle East, the Balkans and around the world. Dr J Scott Younger is a President Commissioner at Glendale...

Pork crackling spread, or škvarková pomazánka, is a side dish you are sure to find in nearly every Czech pub. The spread, made of ground pork cracklings, lard and finely chopped onion, is usually served on a slice of bread. While not exactly a...

Jewish athlete Kurt Epstein played on the Czechoslovak water polo team and represented the country at two Olympic Games, including the 1936 “Nazi Olympics” in Berlin. Epstein is the subject of a new exhibition set to open at the Terezín Ghetto...

Several streets in Prague’s new district of Smíchov City, which is currently under construction, are to be named after women who contributed to freedom, democracy and the fight against totalitarianism. The main pedestrian boulevard that will...