AuthorMartin Hladík

Photo: Paul-Henri Perrain, Radio Prague International

The South Bohemian Region boasts ancient towns full of life, fairy-tale castles and palaces, unique picturesque villages and literally thousands of fish ponds.

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Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International

Bedřich Smetana has been in the spotlight recently in connection with the 200th anniversary of the Czech composer’s birth. Smetana is also the subject of a new novel, Friedrich řečený Bedřich (Friedrich, Known as Bedřich), by Milena Štráfeldová. One focus of the book is the music great’s complicated German and Czech background.

Hundreds of earlier books have been devoted to Smetana, says writer Milena Štráfeldová, but there is still plenty of material about him that is not widely known. For instance, his diaries, which he began keeping aged 16, have never been published in full.

“What’s interesting is that he wrote them in German. And that could be one reason why people rather tiptoe around this issue. Because in reality how was it with his Czechness and his Germanness?”

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Prague City Tourism

While the streets of Prague 1 may be breath-taking by day, they turn ugly by night for the city’s residents who are severely plagued by noisy drunk tourists wanting to make the most of their time in Prague. The locals, many of whom have lived in the city centre for generations, accuse the authorities of turning a blind eye to the problem. But the solution is not so simple. Many businesses in the city centre rely on these tourists for their survival, as Karolína Šnejdarová, spokesperson for Prague 1 explained to me.

“This situation is not new and we are very aware of this problem. This is often a problem that many capital cities face – for instance Prague, Paris and Rome. It’s a difficult situation because on one hand we want to accommodate our citizens, but on the other hand we are the city centre of Prague and it cannot be closed at 10pm. So we have to deal with this.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Magdalena Hrozínková, Radio Prague International

A new study by the Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR Prague) comparing the Czech capital with 11 other European cities has found that there is still a gap between East and West in many respects. The analysis looked at areas of life such as housing, transport, work and free time to see how Prague fared in a European context, and concluded that the city has not yet shaken off its post-communist legacy in some ways. I spoke to Lucie Pára from IPR Prague to find out more.

You compared 12 cities in your study – Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Vienna, Munich, Amsterdam, Milan, Barcelona, Bucharest, and Sofia. It seems like you got a good spread from north to south and east to west, but were there any other criteria by which you selected them?

See the rest here.

Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: Hana Slavická, Radio Prague International

Hundreds of people attended the 25th edition of a gathering of vintage car enthusiasts in the Central Bohemian city of Poděbrady at the weekend. One model on display came all the way from Italy.

Author: Hana Slavická

The Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová, together with the President of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil, participated in the two-day international Conference of Speakers of the Parliaments of the European Union in Spain.

One of the main topics of the joint discussion was the ongoing Russian war of aggression in Europe.

In her speech, the Speaker emphasized, among other things, the strategic necessity of expanding the Union to include other states with similar values and praised the cooperation of other European legislators in the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for defending Ukraine. The conference concluded Spain’s presidency of the Council of the EU last year.

“We are being told that those who support Ukraine, unlike the Kremlin, do not want peace. Unfortunately, many citizens and politicians in Europe and beyond believe this lie. It is therefore essential that we agree on how things really are: Putin, who started the war, is not offering peace, but surrender. The only way to achieve peace is further support for the Ukrainians, especially military and economic,” said the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, in her main speech, adding, “I am pleased that so many countries have joined the Czech initiative to purchase ammunition for the Ukrainian the army.”

Other topics discussed were the conflict in the Middle East and the issue of the strategic autonomy of the EU. It is currently facing new security challenges in the form of artificial intelligence and social networks.

“If we are to face threats and manage them, we must first tell ourselves how we are doing. We have to admit the situation we are in. Let’s take this conference as a wake-up call, if we continue to be as slow as we are now, if we think so much and do so little, things will not turn out well. Because the others, the undemocratic ones, the totalitarian ones, will attack us and maybe even overpower us, and that would be a disaster not only for us but especially for our children,” emphasized Senate President Miloš Vystrčil during the subsequent discussion.

Leading representatives of the European legislatures, who were hosted in their homeland this year by the President of the Congress of the Kingdom of Spain Francina Armegnol, also dealt with the issue of further EU enlargement as part of the conference.

“The European perspective for the countries of the Western Balkans, the South Caucasus, Moldova, and Ukraine is no longer a matter of our choice. I am convinced that this is a strategic necessity. Even for the Czech Republic in the 1990s, joining the EU was a distant dream which many refused to believe. This year marks 20 years since accession, and our country is a full member of the community and contributes to its security and prosperity. I believe that the same chance will be given to all other countries that are sincerely interested in it,” concluded the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Markéta Pekarová Adamová.

The conference is traditionally hosted by the country that presided over the Council of the EU in the second half of the previous year. It was therefore a formal completion of the parliamentary dimension of last year’s Spanish presidency.

The phenomenon of hockey and ice skating in fine art is the subject of a new exhibition of the National Gallery Prague (NGP), which reopens the Kinské Palace on Old Town Square to visitors. The exhibition will present almost a hundred works across various art techniques and media from Czech institutional and private collections. They will be visiblefrom April 26 to October 27, both paintings by old masters and works by contemporary Czech artists.

How does folk entertainment become a work of art? Through an unusual exhibition, the National Gallery in Prague shows how skating and hockey, a much-loved sport in Bohemia, were reflected in art over time. Like the old masters even contemporary artists have captured the emotion, fun, and life associated with these sports. The current hockey world championship was the inspiration to look at this sporting phenomenon from a new point of view and bring something to the audience that hasn’t been seen before to see.

Ice skating began on frozen canals, lakes, and rivers in the Netherlands in the 17th and 18th centuries, then this social entertainment gradually moved to our landscapes and became a common part of winter for all classes of the population. At the beginning of the 20th century, real hockey began to be played here and the first winter stadium was built. This sport gradually began to be perceived as part of the national identity and found its place as a theme in art, for some artists it became a free field for artistic experiments.

“At the exhibition On ice! Hockey and ice skating in pictures we will show visitors how paintings of old masters such as Pieter Brueghel II. or Norbert Grund, the most outstanding creator of Czech art of the 19th century – August Bedřich Piepenhagen, Karel Purkyně or Antonín Barvitio. But a number of works with the theme of hockey throughout the 20th century will also be exhibited, and last but not least, the works of contemporary artists,” says the general director of the National Gallery Prague, Alicja Knast, adding: “I am pleased that we are opening up a topic that has not yet been treated more comprehensively presented.”

Across media and centuries

The exhibition, which was prepared by NGP in cooperation with the Sport in Art platform and with the support of general partner Komerční banka, will present almost a hundred works of art from Czech collections. In addition to the aforementioned artists, they will be seen and (not only) the Prague rinks of T. F. Šimon, Otakar Nejedlý, or Karel Holan. Marcel Niederle’s drawings draw viewers into the world of hockey and the first big matches and victories, many hockey moments are also reminded of the photographs. “In addition to the classical treatment of the theme in painting and drawing, experimental artistic approaches by Jiří Kolář, Vojtěch Tittelbach and Teodor Rotrekl are also presented,” explains the curator of the exhibition, Anna Strnadlová.

The 1990s opened up new possibilities, which in art on the hockey theme are manifested mainly by a critical and even ironic perspective, as can be seen in the works of Krištof Kintera, Jiří Surůvka and Ondřej Kohout. “In cooperation with the NGP, we approached contemporary artists to create new works on the subject of hockey specifically for this exhibition. They include Alena Anderlová, Pavel Jestřáb, Alena Kotzmannová, Laura Limbourg, Julius Reichel, Paulina Skavova, Jakub Špaňhel, Karel Štědrý and Jan Vytiska,” says Petr Volf from the Sport in Art platform.

Hana Kovářová, Executive Director for Brand Strategy and Communication from Komerční banka, which is the general partner of the exhibition, adds: “On the tenth anniversary of cooperation with the National Gallery Prague, we gave each other this unique gift in the form of the exhibition On ice! It is no coincidence that it combines hockey and art, in the year when the national team is playing the World Championship in Prague. I would like to cordially invite everyone to the exhibition to explore for themselves how sport, which is so fundamental to the Czech Republic, is reflected in art.”

The exhibition will be open from April 26 to October 27, 2024 in the Kinský Palace on the Old Town Square, i.e. a place connected with the history of hockey

and celebrating his achievements. A Czech and English catalog is published for the exhibition.

On the ice! Hockey and ice skating in pictures

Venue: Kinských Palace, Staroměstské náměstí 1/3, 1st floor

Date: April 26 – October 27, 2024

Curator: Anna Strnadlová

Professional collaboration: Petra Kolářová, Olga Kotková, Blanka Kubíková,

Michal Novotny, Petr Volf

In cooperation with the platform: Sport in Art

General partner of the exhibition: Komerční banka

A Czech and English catalog is published for the exhibition.

Photo: Ondřej Deml, ČTK

With just over three months to go to the Summer Olympics in Paris, work on the Czech Olympics House is in full swing. Where will it be and what can visitors expect?

The popular La Villette park on the north-eastern suburbs of Paris is set to become a hot spot of the summer Olympics. Rather than having national Olympics houses scattered around the capital, the French Olympics Committee has decided to place 15 of them in one location – Parc de la Villette –a popular venue for walks, picnics and street artists. The massive venue of over 20,000 square metres will now become a melting pot of different cultures where athletes and fans alike will come together to celebrate their victories and cheer on fellow athletes. Aside from the hosts, Club France, La Villette will be home to the national houses of Canada, the Netherlands, Brazil, New Zealand, Portugal, Czechia, Slovakia and Slovenia, among others.

See the rest here.

Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Ladislav Hampl, Source:Český rozhlas

The Committee of Good Will – The Olga Havlová Foundation will award the Olga Havlová Award for the thirtieth time this year and the Public Award for the eighth time. The award goes to personalities who, despite their health handicap, help others and are an inspiration to others. The laureate of the Olga Havlová Prize is chosen by a jury appointed by the foundation’s board of directors, while the winner of the Public Prize will be chosen from an online vote. The medallions of the nominees, who can vote until May 10, are published on the website www.cenaolgyhavlove.cz.

“The jury of the Olga Havlová Prize selected three candidates for short nomination for the Public Prize. They are Daniela Bláhová, Michaela Linková and Jaroslav Winter. It also selects the winner of the Olga Havlová Award from all 19 nominees,” says Monika Granja, director of the Goodwill Committee – Olga Havlová Foundation. Like the winner of the Olga Havlová Prize, the winner of the Public Prize will be presented at the award ceremony on May 27 in the Fant building of the Main Railway Station in Prague.

Candidates for the Public Award within the Olga Havlová Award

Daniela Bláhová

Daniela has been living with multiple sclerosis for more than 25 years, due to which she is confined to a wheelchair. All this time she has been working full-time in the ROSKA organization, and since 2013 she has been the president of the Prague organization. In addition to ensuring operation, he conducts occupational therapy and art therapy for clients of ROSKA Prague. He organizes rehabilitation stays for patients with multiple sclerosis and handles accounting for the non-profit organization Center for Disabled Skiers, z.s. She became a model, and showed off models that convinced hundreds of women that they could look good even in a wheelchair. She managed to get financial resources, as well as media and, above all, enormous moral support for a group ascent to Kilimanjaro to tell everyone that a wheelchair is not an absolute barrier to life. She herself climbed to a height of 5100 meters! Daniela has also become an example of life’s optimism, diligence, perseverance and overcoming difficulties for thousands of healthy students – her classmates at the Metropolitan University of Prague.

Michaela Linková

Michaela suffers from a rare and very serious disease, systemic scleroderma. She works in the association Revma Liga Czech Republic, where for the last two years she has been intensively dedicated to the preparation of a project that fundamentally changes the patient environment in our country. During this time she had to face two difficult battles with cancer. Although she is currently undergoing regular chemotherapy, Míša is not leaving the project. Even in the most difficult moments after chemotherapy, she helps others by phone or email, organizes congresses and workshops, and in addition, she works with energy on the Revma web project in peace. In addition, in 2018 she founded the Skleroderma patient group, which provides valuable assistance to all patients with this diagnosis in our country. As a patient herself, she decided to take the initiative and start actively caring for the education and care of these patients. She is a pioneer in the field of care for rare rheumatic diseases, through her participation in the creation of official recommendations, organizing conferences and other projects that really help people with this diagnosis.

Jaroslav Winter

Jaroslav, although he himself is almost deaf, has been running the www.helpnet.cz portal for over 20 years, which provides the public with information about the lives and needs of people with medical disabilities and interesting things from the world of disabled people. He is very actively involved in raising awareness about the world of the deaf. As a coordinator of projects supported by the Vodafone Foundation between 2008 and 2011, he made a significant contribution to the introduction of simultaneous transcription of spoken speech as a social service and, through the management of the project Elimination of discrimination of hearing-impaired persons in court proceedings, contributed to the use of simultaneous transcription in courts. He has already organized 20 years of the INSPO conference, the largest of its kind in Central Europe, which focuses on technologies for people with specific needs and which is completely barrier-free for participants with any handicap. In 1999, he co-founded and since then manages the BMI association, whose mission is to support the development of the Internet as a global means of communication and the use of modern technologies for the development of civil society and especially people with specific needs.

About the Olga Havlová Prize

The Olga Havlová Award was first announced by Mrs. Olga in 1995 with the aim of honoring people with a medical disadvantage who, despite their handicap, do not forget others and are an inspiration to overcome obstacles for others. Olga Havlová participated in the first year, and after her departure, the Award became a memory of a personality who always stood up for the rights of endangered citizens.

The main media partners of the 30th Olga Havlová Prize are Český rozhlas and Deník N. Other partners are: Railway Administration, Minet Elektro, spol. s. r. o., ČSOB, Mountfield, Rückl, Copy General, Model Obaly a.s. and Radio 1.

You can vote for the Public Prize as part of the Olga Havel Award 2024 here: https://www.cenaolgyhavlove.cz/

Photo: Bohuslav Martinů Centre in Polička

Music must be beautiful,” wrote Bohuslav Martinů, “or it wouldn’t be worth the effort.” One of the most prolific 20th century Czech composers wrote around 400 works, drawing inspiration from different styles and genres. His long-lost Concerto for Violin and Orchestra carries typical Czech traits.  

Bohuslav Martinů (1890 -1959) was born in the small town of Polička as the son of a simple bell ringer, but his great talent for music opened the way to fame and success and a cosmopolitan life in some of the world’s greatest cities.

Recognizing his talent, the townspeople of Polička raised money to fund his studies, sending him to Prague where he studied with Josek Suk and played violin in the Czech Philharmonic. The ensemble’s concerts took him to London, Geneva and Paris. The latter made a big impression on him and in 1923 Martinů moved there to study with Albert Roussel.

See the rest here.

Photo: Archiv Mowshe

Nicholas Lowry leads viewers through IDENTITA: A Film About Czech Graphic Design, which is set for release later this year. The New York auctioneer, art expert and TV personality seems the ideal man for the job, given his vast knowledge of the subject and his family background. We discussed Lowry’s Czech heritage, his time in Prague in the “Wild East” early 1990s and what he has learned from working on IDENTITA in Prague recently, shortly after shooting wrapped on the feature-length documentary.

What are your own Czech roots, Nicho?

“My father was born in Prague in 1932 and lived here with his parents and his brother. They were officially at that time Sudeten Germans, so German was his first language; Czech was his second language.

“We’re also a Jewish family, so come the war, come 1938/1939, the family had to leave, and were able to successfully get out.

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Archiv Mowshe

Art expert Nicholas Lowry has Czech heritage and lived in Prague in the early 1990s. He will soon be seen as the presenter of a documentary on classic Czech graphic design.

Author: Ian Willoughby

See the rest here.

Photo: Matěj Vodička, Czech Radio

Roma representatives, top officials and cultural figures attended the opening of a memorial to Romany and Sinti victims of the Holocaust in Lety, south Bohemia on Tuesday. Due to communist neglect, the site of a former concentration camp originally served as a pig farm and it took close to three decades for the state to buy out the property and erect a dignified memorial in its place.

It was an emotional experience for descendants of the Roma whose lives ended in the Lety concentration camp in illness, poverty and isolation. Over 1,300 Roma passed through the camp’s gates between 1942 and 1943 never to come out. More than 300 of them died there, mostly women and children. Over 500 inmates were sent to Auschwitz.

See the rest here.

Authors: Libor Kukal, Daniela Lazarová

Photo: RSAA/ ZAN studio

A new monument honouring the courage of those who fought in the May 1945 Prague Uprising has been selected in a public competition and will be erected in the Bubeneč district. It will replace a statue of the Soviet Army commander Ivan Konev, which was removed in 2020.

A larger-than-life statue of Red Army Marshal Ivan Konev was taken down four years ago due to his repressive role within the Communist Eastern Bloc. This caused a quite a stir in Czechia, including protests and disputes between Prague and Moscow. Now, a monument to the liberation of Prague from Nazi occupation is set to be erected in its place.

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Magdalena Hrozínková, Radio Prague International

In today’s episode of our series In Franz Kafka’s Footsteps we are back in Prague to visit places where the famous writer lived, worked and wrote, and also where he spent his free time.

This is how Franz Kafka described Prague to his friend Oskar Pollak. Today, the city has a square, a gallery and a museum named after the famous German-speaking Jewish writer. But his legacy can be found in many other, often unexpected places, such as the Botanical Garden in Troja or the Civic Swimming Pool on the banks of the Vltava River.

In 1907, at the age of 24, Franz Kafka started his first job, which was located in an impressive, neo-Baroque palace on the corner of Wenceslas Square and Vodičkova Street. It was the Prague branch of the Italian insurance company Assicurazioni Generali. Journalist and publicist Judita Matyášová, author of a book called On the Road with Franz Kafka (S Kafkou na cestách), continues:

“This job was arranged for him by one of his uncles through various business contacts. Kafka took it very pragmatically. He was interested in the fact that the company had headquarters in Trieste, by the sea. He decided that if he was industrious enough and learned Italian, he might be sent to the headquarters of this insurance company.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

While the worst of the winter months are behind us, the need for the services that aid people experiencing homelessness in Prague have not diminished. Homelessness continues to be a significant problem across Czechia’s capital, as Jitka Klánová, Director of Social Services for the Salvation Army, told me.

“The humanitarian measures that Prague introduced for the winter months are over. The 600 extra beds are no longer provided, so we are back to our normal everyday capacity for our services for people experiencing homelessness in Prague. As we are all experiencing, there is a cold wave right now, and this morning in Prague it was slightly below zero, so the situation is not good. We are still offering all of the services we provide during the year, and we are still seeing a very high demand for them. Our night shelters are full, and so are our day shelters.”

See the rest here.

Photo: Štěpánka Budková, Radio Prague International

After nearly a week of temperatures in the mid-20s Celsius, Czechs are having to put their winter coats back on as the weather dips below freezing. But the sudden change doesn’t only impact our clothing choice – it has an even more detrimental effect on the crops that have begun to grow and respond to the warm temperatures. To understand more, I spoke with Miroslav Havránek, a researcher from the Charles University Environment Centre.

“If you think about it in the bigger picture, the impact will be a loss of crops and yields. The trees that had already started to bloom – like cherries and peaches. Some of these trees will have lower yields, and in some extreme cases, lose their production completely. Other impacts could be the stunting of growth, which would also cause smaller yields. It’s very unfortunate, because we had a very warm February and part of March, and nature started to react to it like it was real spring. Now we are getting temperatures that are below zero, and freezing temperatures are always going to harm crops.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Vít Šimánek, ČTK

The first details about this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival have just been revealed. The 58th edition of the region’s biggest cinema event will feature a special section dedicated to Franz Kafka, while its visual identity will reflect the Brutalist hotel at the centre of the festival.

Cameras whirred as Karlovy Vary festival president Jiří Bartoška and designer Aleš Najbrt pulled back a sheet to reveal the visual identity of the 58th edition in Prague on Tuesday morning.

The main image comprises three circles and a square making up a number 58.

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: ČT24

We’re diving into the enduring relationship between Czechs and this vibrant city, exploring moments that have left an indelible mark on our nation’s story.

Today, we’re focusing on a truly remarkable chapter from World War II – the story of how the exiled Czechoslovak president, Edvard Beneš, managed to de facto recreate a country that was torn apart by the Nazi occupation. It’s a tale of resilience, but also the beginnings of diplomacy that in effect brought Czechoslovakia into the Soviet sphere of influence and led to the installment of a totalitarian regime for over 4 decades.

See the rest here.

Author: Vít Pohanka

Photo: Ondřej Hájek, ČTK

The innovation of film with sound first made it to Czechoslovakia 95 years ago. The first sound film to be screened in the country was not a feature film, however, but an advert for a factory in Ustí nad Labem. It had its premiere in the same city, four months before the first sound film was shown in Prague.

Georg Schicht, the owner of a soap manufacturing company in Ústí nad Labem, was behind the successful premiere of the first sound film to be screened in Czechoslovakia. He bought a huge sound system for the Alhambra cinema in Ústí – reportedly so huge that it took up the entire room – and used it to show an ad for his factory.

The memorable screening on April 26, 1929 was attended by the cream of Ústí society as well as people from Prague who travelled to come and see it. The premiere’s aim was not so much artistic as commercial – it was intended to introduce sound film and its advantages to the owners of Czechoslovak cinemas who were in the audience and to emphasise the importance of sound film for advertising.

See the rest here.

Photo: Marie Vítů, Czech Radio

Ever wondered what happens to your Christmas tree after the festive season is over? Well, in the case of one particular Christmas tree at least, it won’t end up on a scrapheap or in an incinerator. Apprentice carpenters from one of the capital’s vocational schools are turning Prague’s Old Town Square Christmas tree into useful wooden objects for old people’s homes.

Benches, moveable crates, and insect hotels – those are just some of the items being created in the carpentry workshops of the Secondary Vocational School in Prague 9 from the wood of the 22-metre-high spruce tree that adorned Prague’s Old Town Square until early January. Students from the school are working on giving the tree a second life now that the Christmas season is over.

See the rest here.

Authors:Anna Fodor, Marie Vítů, Source:iROZHLAS.cz

Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International

How would cities look if we designed them with children in mind? That’s the topic of an event hosted by Prague’s Centre for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning (CAMP) taking place on Wednesday evening. The lecture, titled “Start with Children”, argues for cities to put children at the centre of urban planning in order to create greener, safer places for youth to grow. Head architect at CAMP, Štěpán Bärtl, told me more.

“Today we have a special event called ‘Start with Children’, which is a preview for a conference taking place next month in Bratislava. The idea is quite simple, it’s the theory that if you design a city that is friendly and inclusive towards children, it will be friendly and inclusive for all. Our panel is going to discuss how to make Prague, and cities in general friendlier to children and our future generations.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

The Embassy of the Republic of Rwanda in the Czech Republic organized on 18^th April 2024 a ceremony at the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic with the theme: Remember-Unite-Renew

The commemoration period, commonly referred to as Kwibuka ( the Kinyarwanda word for Remembrance), is an opportunity for Rwandans and the global community to stand together and draw lessons from Rwanda’s tragic history ensuring sustainable peace in the region and around the world.

The hall at the Parliament was full of Ambassadors, Deputies, politicians, and other distinguished guests.

The ceremony was moderated by Benedicto Nshimiyimana, the first counselor at the Rwanda embassy.

After lighting candles and a minute of Silence to commemorate the Genocide victims, the guests were welcomed by Mr. Simon Heller – a member of the Chamber of Deputies and Chairperson of the Rwanda-Czech Republic Parliamentary friendship group.

Then a Video with a statement by Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General on Kwibuka 30.

Ambassador H.E. Mr. Richard Masozera had a remarkable speech (Video attached ) and Mr. Jan Marian – Deputy minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave his remarks ( video attached ).

The video Despair to Hope was screened, with testimonies of survivors of the Genocide. Not even one dry eye could be found on the full hall.

Video of Mrs. Alice Wairimu Nderitu – the UN secretary general & special adviser on the prevention of Genocide, spoke about UN steps to avoid such cases in the future.

Ambassador Karel Kovanda – former permanent representative of the Czech Republic to the UN presented a very interesting the topic:The Failure of the UN and lessons learned from Rwanda in 1994”

You can read more at: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-rwanda-genocide

Ambassador H.E. Mr. Richard Masozera expressed his gratitude to the participants and the guests and closed the memorial ceremony.

On Wednesday, April 17, 2024, the General Commissioner of the Czech participation in the World Expo, Ondřej Soška, signed a contract with the general contractor for the construction of the Czech national pavilion, the Japanese construction company Daisue (its CEO Kazunori Mura).

“We are very happy that we can be part of the construction of the Czech national pavilion and that we have received such an honor. The Czech pavilion will be a demanding construction – the wooden CLT structure will be covered with glass. However, our company is currently starting to deal more with the construction of wooden buildings, and we take your pavilion as an excellent reference for other orders. We would like to establish deeper cooperation with the Czech Republic in the future,” says Daisue CEO and President Kazunori Murao.

On this occasion, the virtual premiere of the Czech National Pavilion also took place. It now has its virtual twin, just outside of Prague, at the Virtuplex headquarters. A year before the start of the world exhibition, partners from companies, as well as regions, cities, and various institutions can visit the pavilion and talk about the possibilities of cooperation.

“The ability to walk through the pavilion with 3D glasses, see it on a 1:1 scale, catch all sorts of flaws before we start building, and at the same time show a very real model to our contracted and potential partners is invaluable. From the beginning, I conceived the entire project in such a way that I wanted to allow excellent Czech architects and Czech contractors to show their talent and creativity, present themselves abroad, and open up new opportunities and possibilities for cooperation. That is why, after more than twenty years, we have announced an open architectural competition in which 38 great projects have applied. The advantage of the architectural competition compared to the Design & Build used in recent years (i.e. a situation where you compete with a construction company and architects at the same time) is the fact that we can better control the design and the whole process so that it is in line with the concept of the Czech participation in EXPO 2025, which approved by the government in 2022,” says Ondřej Soška, general commissioner of Czech participation.

The transformation of the Czech national pavilion for the World Exhibition EXPO 2025 in Osaka into virtual reality exemplified the great benefits of modern virtual reality technologies. From the early stages of the project, it was possible to walk through the pavilion in the lobby area of Virtuplex and coordinate the model with the architects down to the last detail – from the materials used to the intensity of the light inside. Thanks to the virtual model, the first-ever video of the Czech national pavilion was also created.

“With the EXPO organizational team, we discussed in detail and simulated, for example, the journey through the pavilion and its key parts. Thanks to the fact that you walk through the model on a 1:1 scale, you have the opportunity to perceive all distances, views of the interior, but also views outside the pavilion. Through various variants of the interior solution, the model also enables business partners to become more familiar with potential variants of the use of space,” explains the co-founder and CEO of Virtuplex, Martin Petrovický.

The second step after the architectural competition is to choose the pavilion contractor – someone who will build the building. “Although we were unable to find a Czech company that had the Japanese construction license required by legislation, we were looking for Japanese companies that want to cooperate with Czech suppliers. We are planning to import Czech wood and glass to Japan,” explains Commissioner Soška and adds: “Based on previous indications and expressed interest, we invited six companies to the selection process for the general contractor, and we received an offer from three of them. The company Daisue submitted the lowest bid.”

After the signing of the contract, which took place on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at Virtuplex, the Daisue company will begin preparatory work on the Czech land on Yumeshima Island in Osaka.

“The pavilion will take advantage of its exposed location at the intersection of the coastal promenade and the main boulevard, attracting attention in all weathers with its dominant solitary mass and the visuality of the building’s transparent glass envelope. The facade made of sheet art glass refers to the rich history of glassmaking in the Czech territory and at the same time offers unusual exhibition spaces with a changing interior atmosphere. The house will be an exhibit in itself,” explain architects Michal Gabaš and Tomáš Beránek from Apropos Architects.

Following the selection of the general contractor, the team of the Office of the General Commissioner for EXPO 2025 is launching an active recruitment of partners. During the 26 EXPO weeks, he is preparing several business topics and conferences that he and his partners would like to present in Japan. These are, for example, nanotechnology, fintech, space technology, cyber security, or the circular economy. Those interested in cooperation can contact e-mail partnership@expo2025czechia.com or fill out the questionnaire on the website www.expo2025czechia.com. For example, the companies Elmarco and AtomTrace, which signed a cooperation agreement with Commissioner General Soška on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, are preparing for the EXPO in this way.

“Participation in EXPO 2025 will above all provide companies with a great opportunity to expand not only to Japan but also to the broader Asia-Pacific region, where it is not always easy to get to. In Asia, the perception of the state is generally much stronger than in Europe, and if a company cooperates with the state and participates in the national pavilion, it has much more weight and relevance in the eyes of the partners there. Of course, some companies do not have ambitions to expand into Asia, but they perceive the EXPO as a prestigious event and a great reference order for domestic and international partners. Which ultimately can mean, for example, expansion into new markets or an increase in the volume of orders. Companies like Koma Modular, GreeenTech or Česká mincovna have such an experience in the past,” summarizes Tomáš Akerman, partnership manager of the Czech EXPO team.

The business program will usually take place in the pavilion from Tuesday to Thursday, Mondays are set aside for so-called corporate days, when partners will be able to rent certain parts of the pavilion. A cultural program will take place on Friday and at the weekend.

The current director of the Czech Center in London, Přemysl Pela, is now participating in the preparation of the cultural program of the Czech National Pavilion and explains: “We will build the cultural program of the Czech Pavilion at EXPO 2025 in Osaka with partners from the cultural sphere so that it corresponds to the purpose of the event in dialogue with the business program: draw attention to the current Czech Republic. In addition to traditional cultural attributes, we will focus on contemporary Czech artistic creation, which has the potential to interest the domestic Japanese public as well as foreign visitors to the exhibition.” In the coming months, open calls will be issued for Czech artists who are interested in presenting themselves at EXPO 2025. These events will underline the theme of Czech participation at the next world exhibition in Osaka – the Czech Republic as a country of talent and creativity.

During the virtual premiere of the Czech National Pavilion, the Office of the Commissioner General presented the official mascot of the Czech participation in EXPO 2025 – exhibitor René. “Mascots and cartoon characters are extremely popular in Japan, after internal discussions we decided to use a mascot to pay tribute to the exceptional Czech artist René Roubíček, who exhibited in Osaka in 1970,” says Aleš Kysela, marketing director of the Czech EXPO team.

On this occasion, the Office of the Commissioner General presents a video clip that it shot in collaboration with Michaela Lesařová Roubíčková, glassmaker Pačinek Glass and director Jakub Jahn.

René is a creature of crystal glass, friendly, surprising and playful like the glass itself. He was born in the fiery furnace of a glass factory in the legendary crystal valley in Bohemia. René, named after its creator, glass artist and designer René Roubíček, will become the official symbol and mascot of the Czech pavilion at the EXPO 2025 world exhibition in Osaka. René Roubíček, who designed the sculpture “Cloud-Water, Source of Life” for EXPO 1970 in Osaka, symbolically returns after 55 years to the same city in Japan, for the world exhibition EXPO 2025. René has a crystal and plush form, and in the Czech Republic he will be officially available for purchase by the end of 2024.

“Father and mother were among the founders of a new view of glass, when glass – a material used exclusively for the production of utilitarian objects – began to be used as a material for making sculptures, a new branch of art and the term glass sculpture were born. Roubíček’s sculpture, chosen as a mascot, is just such a work from the time of the emergence of this new art branch. I am glad that his contribution to global development has not been forgotten. At the same time, I am very proud that my father’s work can become the official symbol of the presentation of our country abroad,” concludes Czech artist Michaela Lesašová Roubíčková.

About the Czech pavilion at EXPO 2025

In December 2022, after more than twenty years, the Office of the Commissioner General announced an open anonymous architectural competition for the design of the national pavilion for EXPO 2025. 38 competition teams applied for it, from which an expert jury led by the world-renowned architect Eva Jiřična selected the winning design in March 2023 in the shape of a glass spiral by Apropos Architects. The load-bearing structure of the building will be made up of modern wooden panels, while the facade will be made of art glass, which is a centuries-old tradition in the Czech Republic. The national pavilion will offer a worthy background for the Czech participation in EXPO 2025, which will be held from April to October 2025 on the artificial island of Yumeshima in the Osaka Bay. The pavilion will house a permanent exhibition, a multifunctional auditorium, facilities for business meetings, a restaurant, and a VIP lounge, and in front of the pavilion there will be a relaxation area with a view of the sea for visitors.

About Czech participation in EXPO 2025

The Czech Republic will participate as an independent state in the World Exhibition EXPO for the sixth time. Ondřej Soška, who won the selection procedure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with his concept and theme “Talent and creativity for life”, holds the position of the general commissioner from September 2022. The Czech Republic should be presented in Osaka not only with what the Japanese know very well and have admired for a long time, for example, Czech glass and classical music, but especially with Czech innovations, nanotechnologies, promising startups, and regional talent.

You can find more information on the website of the Czech participation in the world exhibition EXPO 2025. You can also follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

From January 2023, the Office of the General Commissioner is part of the Czech Centers network.

Czechia is becoming increasingly attractive for international students, and numbers are growing fast, but the bureaucratic challenges faced by prospective students can be daunting. Here you can find some useful tipes and advice to get you through the visa process.

See the rest here.

Author: Ela Angevine

The Ambassador of Spain H.E. Mr. Alberto Moreno Humet

And Mrs.  Blanca Azqueta Oyarzun host at their residence a farewell reception.

Here are selected sections of H.E Mr. Alberto Moreno Humet and H.E. Most Reverend Jude Thaddeus OKOLO speeches at the event.

Czechia is becoming increasingly attractive for international students, and numbers are growing fast, but the bureaucratic challenges faced by prospective students can be daunting.  We bring you tips and advice on how to get your diploma recognised.

To many people the word nostrification is unknown until they become students abroad. In essence, this is the official process of comparing and matching foreign high school or university qualifications to the local system. Contrary to its simple explanation, the nostrification process in the Czech Republic can be long and complicated, especially for undergraduate students who have completed their secondary education outside the country or the European Union as a whole.

See the rest here.

Author: Lora Lúkova

Photo: Filip Jandourek, Czech Radio

A telescope in the Štefánik Observatory on Prague’s Petřín hill has been returned after underdoing extensive repairs in Germany for two years. The telescope, which was first placed in the observatory in 1930, allows visitors to observe the moon, planets, and even the Sun during the day. Magdalena Hrnkova, a specialist at the Observatory, told me more.

“The telescope has been at the observatory since the 1930s and has undergone some minor repairs, most of which were done by hand. It was in dire need of serious repairs this time.”

What is special about this telescope? What can be seen through it?

“It’s a telescope with a very big lens, which aren’t very common these days although they were quite common 100 years ago. Telescopes like these are used for mapping the moon, it has two telescopes – one for observing and one for taking photographs. It is particularly good at observing the solar system, the moon and the planets.”

Given the fact that the telescope is quite old, was it complicated to take out for repair and reinstall?

“Yes, it was quite a complicated process and we were quite nervous about it. To get it out of the building, we had to lift it out with a crane. Since the observatory is in the middle of the rose garden at Petřín, we didn’t know if the crane would fit. The telescope is quite heavy, five tonnes in total. So we needed to take it out in two parts. But all went well, and it’s safely back in now.”

See the rest here.

Písek, a South Bohemian town of around 30,000 inhabitants, was an important town in the Middle Ages and has a well-preserved medieval centre with six churches and a partly preserved Gothic castle, rebuilt into the town hall and a brewery. Known as a centre of education, it also is home to a number of important schools.

Where is Czechia’s oldest bridge? You might be tempted to think it’s Charles Bridge in Prague – but you would be wrong. The oldest surviving bridge in what is now Czechia is actually located in the South Bohemian town of Písek, as Jaroslav Jiřík from the Prácheň Museum in Písek proudly tells me.

“We have here the oldest stone bridge in the Czech Republic. It’s older than Charles Bridge in Prague. It was founded in the 13th century and Charles Bridge was built by Emperor Charles IV, so only in the middle or late 14th century.”

The Písek Stone Bridge, one of the oldest preserved bridges in Europe, was the site of some colourful local traditions, says Jan Kouba, also from the Prácheň Museum.

See the rest here.

Authors: Anna Fodor, Zdeňka Kuchyňová

When your child isn’t feeling well, the next step any parent would take after over the counter medicine would be a paediatrician – but that’s not so easy any more in Czechia. Today, many Czech parents don’t have a general practitioner for their child, meaning more end up going to emergency rooms for more minor issues, causing a backlog in hospitals. Czech Radio reporter Lucie Pávová told me more about the issue.

“The main problem is that the paediatricians in the Czech Republic are getting older. Right now, there are about 2,000 of them – but half of them are older than 60. This is a big problem, especially because younger paediatricians don’t want to work in smaller towns, cities, and villages. There is a small town called Tachov near the German border – and the issue is that the few paediatricians who are working in the town are older and will retire soon, and no one younger wants to replace them.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

On Thursday, April 18, 2024, at Prague Castle, the President of the Republic Petr Pavel received the credentials of the new ambassadors to the Czech Republic:

H.E. Mr. Suwat Kaewsook, the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Thailand, based in Prague

H.E. Mr. Kansuke Nagaoka, the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan based in Prague

H.E. Mrs. Ana Berenice Díaz Ceballos Parada, the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of Mexico, based in Prague

H.E. Mr.  Benjamin Albert Hayes, the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Commonwealth of Australia, based in Warsaw.

Source : Hrad.cz

Pictures : Tomáš Fongus

In the past year, 43% of foreigners and 36% of domestic travelers visited one of the cultural monuments in the Czech Republic. Castles and chateaux are the most frequently visited. Monuments in Prague play a leading role, and visitors also spend the most on this activity. Among foreign visitors, the sights in the Czech Republic are most often sought by travelers from the USA, France, Spain, and Italy.

Cultural monuments have long been among the most visited destinations from the point of view of foreign and domestic tourists. During the last year, they recorded a total of over 21 million visits, 3 million year-on-year, and almost 17% more. People in this area most often head for castles and chateaux, but there is also interest in museums and galleries, temples and churches, towers, folk culture, architecture, or perhaps places associated with important personalities.

“From the VISA data, it follows that expenses for activities from the category of cultural monuments make up roughly 17% of all tourist spending, the most of which is in Prague – almost 80%. Those who are further away from us travel to see monuments. It is logical – if a person is considering a longer trip, he wants to see as much of the country as possible. But those who believe in cultural monuments and history also include people who have culture in their blood. In addition to US citizens (73%), travelers from France (77%), Spain (73%), or Italy (72%) also search for them most often. Swedes (69%) and the Dutch (66%) also like them. On the other hand, citizens of neighboring countries – Austria, Slovakia, Poland, and Germany – spend their stay in the Czech Republic also in other activities, and on average a third of them go to see sights in their own country,” sums up František Reismüller, director of the Czech Tourism Office – CzechTourism.

Last year, 4.2 million people visited state castles, chateaux, and other monuments managed by the National Institute of Monuments, which is a year-on-year increase of 10%. % more than the year before. Last year, the greatest increase in the interest of tourists was recorded in monuments after restoration, which made available additional spaces or sightseeing routes and thus offered new things to visitors.

“The other most visited monuments are Lednice Castle with 349,000 visitors or the European Marian pilgrimage site Svatá Hora in the Příbram region, which was visited by over 310,000 people. There is also considerable interest in the largest Czech outdoor museum – the Wallachian Museum in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, where 305,000 people went. tourists. The Sedlec Campus in Kutná Hora, which was chosen for a visit by 291,000 people, is sought after. tourists, the art nouveau gem of Prague, the Municipal House, which was visited by 261 thousand visitors, or the Old Synagogue, where last year they welcomed over 251 thousand. lovers of history and sacred monuments,” adds Petr Janeček, head of the Institute of Tourism of the Czech Tourism Headquarters – CzechTourism.

Monuments, as a key attraction, form the basis of CzechTourism’s promotion of the country. They are reflected in almost all her activities. The aim is to support tourism in all regions. Including those that are away from the crowds but have a lot to offer and are worth a visit. An example of a campaign for the domestic market is the TV series Skryté skvosty, the second season of which is currently running on ČT, and in which the actor Jaroslav Plesl, himself a passionate lover of monuments, guides viewers through lesser-known jewels of Czech historical architecture.

Those interested can also find tips for visiting cultural monuments, including lesser-known and normally inaccessible objects, on the Kudy z nudy web portal. They can thus remember the International Day of Monuments, which was declared in 1982 by UNESCO and the United Nations Department for Education, Science, and Culture, and which falls on April 18 every year.

Source: Prague Jewish Museum

The Jewish Museum in Prague has joined an international project called the Library of Lost Books. It invites readers from all over the world to help track down the thousands of books that once belonged to the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin, one of the world’s most important Jewish libraries before the Second World War.

The Higher Institute of Jewish Studies or Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentum operated in Berlin since 1872 and housed some 60,000 books on Jewish history, culture and religion, before it was shut down by the Nazis in 1942. Some of the confiscated books were destroyed during the war, but others survived, ending up in various libraries and collections all over the world.

See the rest here.

Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Terezie Jirásková

Photo: Martina Schneibergová, Radio Prague International

One of the places writer Franz Kafka liked to visit was Třešt’. Indeed before he entered the workforce he regularly visited his uncle in the small Vysočina town in summer.

We begin our journey in Franz Kafka’s footsteps at the former synagogue in Třešt’. Our guide is Romana Št’astná, head of the Department of Culture at the local municipal office. She leads the way through an arcade into a striking white building and we continue up the stairs to the first floor. There we find an exhibition dedicated to Kafka and his family.

The Prague-born German-language writer regularly came to Třešt’ during his studies, between 1900 and 1907. He spent his holidays there with his uncle Siegfried Löwy, who had a medical practice in the town. Dr. Löwy was the youngest brother of Kafka’s mother.

See the rest here.

Author: Martina Schneibergová

Photo: Vojta Pechar, @mulletnatripu

Travelling along Route 66, riding free by plane, going to a casino and taking part in a beer run. These are just some of the many adventures Czech traveller Vojtěch Pechar experienced on a hitchhiking trip across the United States, during which he didn’t spend a cent of his own money. He spent three months travelling from New York to San Francisco, passing through 18 states, getting rides in 50 cars and covering a distance of 9,000 kilometres. He documented his journey on an Instagram account called Mullet na tripu or Mullet on a Trip, which refers to his rather unusual haircut, and which attracted more than 90,000 followers.

I caught up with Vojtěch Pechar to discuss his unusual journey and I started by asking him what made him embark on his trip across the US without a single dollar.

“I just love hitchhiking. I have been hitchhiking in Europe, and I wanted some bigger challenge, so I decided to hitchhike the longest range in a country where I can understand the language. That’s why I chose America and the longest distance between its two cities.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

The Czech Republic is strengthening its potential as a European golf destination. Golf tourism is one of the important sources of income in the tourism industry. Golf is gaining popularity among both domestic and foreign tourists. In this regard, the Czech Republic can entertain the whole family. The position of the unequivocal leader in Eastern Europe is currently confirmed by the opening of the largest golf destination in the country – 55 HOLES Golf Destination, which was created by connecting two golf resorts, Prosper Golf Resort Čeladná, and Golf & Ski Resort Ostravice.

Golf has a rich and long history in the Czech Republic. We can boast of three roughly century-old playgrounds. One of the oldest golf courses in continental Europe is the Royal Golf Club in Mariánské Lázně, which was inaugurated in 1905 by the British King Edward VII. In 2007, the Czech Republic received the title “Undiscovered Golf Destination of the Year” from the International Golf Travel Writers Association. There are currently more than 100 courses and roughly 200 golf clubs in the country. Foreign tourists most often go to the Central Bohemian, Moravian-Silesian, and Karlovy Vary regions for this sport. Domestic golfers then go to Central Bohemia, Karlovy Vary, and the Ústí Region.

“Golf tourism has huge potential and fits into the concept of promoting the Czech Republic as a destination suitable for active tourism. A golf holiday with us doesn’t have to be just about golf. We have castles, chateaux, beautiful nature, and all this can be combined with this sport. In other words, we can entertain the whole family. Even if, for example, one of their members is not looking for golf. Travelers can thus divide the day into parts, spend it according to their preferences, and then enjoy relaxation together, for example in the wellness spa. Or, on the contrary, they can go to the playground and combine their visit with a trip to, for example, a nearby castle,” says František Reismüller, director of the Czech Tourism Center – CzechToursim.

As already mentioned – this year’s golf event is the opening of the 55 HOLES Golf Destination. Adherents of the traditional game on the green can play on three 18-hole championship courses. They have two restaurants, three hotels, and two conference halls for organizing social events and conferences or wellness. In other words, this is an example of an activity where the country offers comprehensive services.

“In the context of the Czech Republic’s offer for golfers, it is a unique combination of beautiful nature, cultural monuments and other leisure opportunities. In short, the whole family can come to the Czech Republic, and even directly to North Moravia, and everyone will find something for themselves. The opening of a new destination takes your golf vacation to the next level. The unique golf destination 55 Holes Golf Destination is unique not only in its area, but also in its services, the untouched nature of the Beskydy Mountains and a number of attractions in the immediate vicinity, from traditional culture in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm to the modern face of Ostrava with technical uniques,” says the director of the product management department, České head office of the tourism industry – CzechTourism Veronika Janečková.

One of the goals of 55 Holes Golf Destination is to increase the attractiveness of the Moravian-Silesian region not only for Czech golfers and tourists but also to address foreign clientele and increase awareness of the region in foreign markets. Very good cooperation with the Moravian-Silesian Region, Destination North Moravia, and CzechTourism helps in this.

“Golf is one of the cornerstones of tourism in our region. We definitely welcome the fact that the region will be proud of the largest golf destination in the Czech Republic. Linking golf courses is an important undertaking in the tourism industry, which will help improve the image of our tourist destination North Moravia. I believe that this significant investment in golf infrastructure will attract even more visitors to us and strengthen not only our position on the map of golf destinations, but also the awareness of the destination North Moravia as a great holiday area with a rich network of services and quality facilities for leisure activities.” adds Petr Koudela, executive director of Moravian-Silesian Tourism.

“We are very happy that after many years we can take advantage of the unique situation where two of the most important golf resorts in the Czech Republic are so close together. By combining them into joint products and services, the most significant golf destination in our country can thus be created. The great thing is that thanks to our reinforcement, the Spanish coach Gonzálo Sanchez, from the very beginning with international overlap. The news is all the more that Prosper Golf Čeladná has undergone an extensive renovation and is ready for the new season in better condition, not only technically, but also in terms of the services it offers to golfers and other guests,” says General Manager of Prosper Golf Resort Čeladná Jan Kastner.

For some time now, golf has been among the most sought-after sporting experiences in the Czech Republic for a wide range of people of all ages and social groups. Lovers of holes in the country will find excellently equipped golf resorts, championship courses, training academies, indoor simulators and golf courses. New courses are added every year, where you can relax perfectly on the green. The Kudy z nudy web portal also offers tips for inspiration.

“In the beginning, golf tourism was predominantly a male affair. Currently, the general Czech golfing population is divided into 70% men and 30% women. As part of golf tourism, couples most often travel – a man and a woman who both play golf. Or groups of couples. And mixed or all-female groups continue to seek golf. The newest group in golf tourism is families. As a rule, it happens with them that, for example, three out of five family members play golf. It is important for them to have sufficient infrastructure available, including practice fields or golf academies,” says the president of the Czech Golf Federation, Vratislav Janda.

The Czech Republic also supports golf tourism as part of youth support within the project “Going to Golf School”. Some schools have even included this sport in their curriculum.

Photo: Dušan Tománek, Animal Music

Guitarist David Dorůžka, regarded as one of Czechia’s leading jazz musicians, teamed up with flutist Robert Fischmann and drummer Martin Novák to record an album inspired by Jewish music. Called Gilgul, which means “cycle” in Hebrew, it has recently been awarded the Czech Music Academy Anděl award for the best jazz album of the year. You can listen to excerpts from the record in today’s edition of Sunday Music Show.

The trio, including jazz guitarist David Dorůžka, flutist Robert Fischmann and percussionist Martin Novák, formed in late 2020 with the aim to create new music that would develop the various Jewish musical traditions that have evolved over many centuries in different regions of Europe and the Middle East.

All three musicians have been involved in Jewish music before. This time, however, they came with a very unusual concept and sound, based on unusual instrumentation and mixing liturgical Hasidic melodies from Eastern Europe with melodies from medieval Spain, Ashkenazi Yiddish songs as well as inspirations from New York’s downtown scene.

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: ČT24

There were scenes of great joy at Prague airport 20 years ago when three Czech journalists kidnapped in Iraq were reunited with their families. Vít Pohanka, now your Czechast host, was one of them.

This special episode is really a Czechast first: it is hosted by Amelia Mola-Schmidt and her guest is Vít Pohanka. He was among the three Czech reporters kidnapped near Baghdad twenty years ago.

The drama lasted over 5 days and was frontline news for the whole time. Czech authorities put together an emergency team at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and were in constant contact with the American authorities in occupied Baghdad but nobody knew whether the three journalists were alive, held by the insurgents or dead.

This was a time of a very high level of violence when quite a few other foreigners were kidnapped in Iraq and, in some cases, gruesomely executed in front of a video camera, their deaths then broadcast globally.

See the rest here.

Author: Vít Pohanka

This episode serves as a prologue to our upcoming discussions about the deep-rooted connections between Czechs and Britain, particularly through the lens of London.

It was the late summer of 1938, and the clouds of war loomed ominously over Europe. The Sudetenland, home to a significant German-speaking minority, became the flashpoint in an international crisis. These Czechoslovak citizens found themselves at the heart of a contentious debate: remain part of Czechoslovakia or join Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler’s aggressive demands threatened not just peace in our homeland but across the continent.

In a desperate bid to avoid conflict, Britain and France, though bound by treaties to support Czechoslovakia, were eager to appease Hitler. Into this tense atmosphere stepped a British diplomat—Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount of Doxford, or as he is commonly known, Lord Runciman.

See the rest here.

Author: Vít Pohanka

Photo: Václav Pancer, ČTK

The traditional ceremony of “unlocking rivers” opened the canoeing season in Czechia at the weekend. Pictured here are fans of canoeing in Český Krumlov.

Source:ČTK

Already the Friday before last I published in a newspaper a photo of the gorilla female Mobi “looking out” for a sibling. By that I meant the baby, which Kijivu was due to give birth any day, if not any second.

According to data in literature on the duration of gravidity of lowland gorillas the earliest day of the birth could have been as early as March 14^th. On the other side, the latest day, when we could expect Kijivu’s baby, was May 7^th. But Kijivu already had four babies in the past, so we could base our guesses on the duration of her previous pregnancies. According to this criteria, Mobi’s sibling should have been already born last Thursday, on April 4. So, when I was publishing the picture of Mobi “looking out” for a sibling, I added that while the newspaper was being pressed, the baby might have already been born.

Well, it did not happen. And we waited in vain even on following days. The time came only the night of Thursday 11^thto Friday April 12^th.

Kijivu gave birth to her fifth baby at half past midnight. She behaved very expertly and pushed it to her breast, so before 1 am we could confirm that the baby was drinking. However, we know all of that thanks from the camera footage; we let everything to take its course and we went to see Kijivu with the baby on our own eyes only at 8 am, when the curtain covering the gorilla exhibit from the light of phytolamps was raised.

At that moment, Kijivu was sitting with her new-born baby just next to Duni with little Mobi. It was an amazing sight! However, Kisumu, the father of both babies immediately stood in front of them, and then they moved a bit away from each other.

If I recall the view of both mothers with babies, I can describe it in a style of Jára Cimrman in this way: there was grandmother Kijivu next to her granddaughter Duni, who was carrying her great granddaughter Mobi in her arms. But for Kijivu’s newborn baby Mobi is a sibling – they have the same father Kisumu – and a great-niece at the same time. Ugh, I hope I got it right, if not, correct me. But I had to mention it because of various pettifoggers.

However, the important thing is that the second baby born this year in our Dja Reserve is doing well, Kijivu is taking perfect care for it and that there is harmony in the gorilla group. We even evaluated the situation as being good enough that we could keep the house opened for visitors and only limited using long lenses and big cameras, which could provoke Kisumu.

We don’t know the sex of the Kijivu’s baby with one hundred percent certainty, but it seems that it might be a female. But we know exactly, who will select the name for it. It will be the famous primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall, who will officially baptise it on May 11, at 11 am in the Dja Reserve.

Photo: Office of Czech Government

Following talks with US President Joe Biden on Monday, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala visited the US Congress on Tuesday meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson and a number of Democrat and Republican lawmakers ahead of a crucial vote on funding for Ukraine.

The Czech prime minister has been a staunch supporter of military aid to Ukraine and I asked political analyst Jiří Pehe whether the timing of the Czech prime minister’s visit to the US added to its significance.

“I think the timing of the visit was important because Prime Minister Fiala visited the US exactly at the same time when the House of Representatives will be voting on one of the most important pieces of legislation in recent history. The fate of Ukraine will depend on whether the US will decide to support the country. So yes, the timing of the visit was quite important. Whether he was able to influence US lawmakers is, of course, a different story.”

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Czech Republic and the Argentine Republic, the Embassy of Argentina and the restaurant Gran Fierro organized a special event the “Malbec World Day”.

The wine tasting will take place in the Gran Fierro restaurant, Myslíkova 8, Prague 2.

The tasting was a unique opportunity to bring together key importers of Argentine wine and showcase the potential of Argentina products to representatives from restaurants, catering companies, wholesalers, distributors, and specialized media.

In addition to the exquisite wines, Gran Fierro will be served gourmet appetizers to complement the tasting experience.

H.E. Mr. Claudio Javier ROZENCWAIG – Ambassador of Argentina greeted the guests.

The President of the Republic, Petr Pavel, continues his visit to Rwanda. The second day of the planned trip was dedicated to commemoration the Kwibuka 30 event, which commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the beginning of the genocide in Rwanda.

It was the Czech Republic that was the first country to describe the events in Rwanda on the grounds of the UN Security Council as genocide. In 2010, the then Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Karel Kovanda, received one of the highest Rwandan honors – Umurinzi.

The main part of the commemorative events took place in the capital, Kigali. The heads of state and government and other guests started day with a ceremony and laying of wreaths at the Genocide Memorial. The event in the new BK Arena sports hall was also attended by the public. The day ended with a night memorial event for the victims of the genocide “Night Vigil”.

Photos By: Zuzana Bönisch

Max (left) and Rudi (right) are already starting to show themselves as adult males, so it is appropriate for them to leave the Prague Zoo and strengthen breeding – on the recommendation of the breeding program coordinator – elsewhere in Europe. Photo by Miroslav Bobek, Prague Zoo

The first purely Prague elephants Max and Rudi are coming of age and are therefore heading to new homes. Maxmilián, born in April 2016, will go to the zoo in Antwerp, Belgium in June, while Rudolph, who is half a year younger, will still be traveling to the Pombia Safari Park in northern Italy in April. The two young Indian elephants went down in history as the first elephants born and conceived at the Prague Zoo. Visitors were able to say goodbye to the almost eight-year-old brothers on Saturday., they got a “farewell gift” in the grass enclosure of the Elephant Valley near the Gulab restaurant.

Indian elephant Maxmilián (Max) is the first elephant born and conceived in Prague. Now, on the threshold of his eighth birthday, a new home awaits him at Antwerp Zoo in Belgium. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

“The birth of the first and second ‘100% Prague elephants’ – Max and Rudi – was a great satisfaction for us, and the upcoming farewell is all the more difficult for us,” said the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek. “Their arrival in the world was not only the result of breeding efforts, but also the long-term work associated with obtaining their mothers – Janita and Tamara – from Sri Lanka.”

Maxmilián was born on April 5, 2016 to Janita, with Mekong as the father. Max has been playful and self-confident since childhood. Named after Emperor Maximilian II. Habsburg, who probably had the first elephant ever to enter Czech territory in his yard. Rudolf was born on October 7, 2016 to Tamara, while the father was Ankhor. Compared to Max, Rudi is more conservative and calm. His name is a reminder of Rudolph II. Habsburg, whose Prague menageries were the forerunners of European zoos.

Rudolph (Rudi), the second Indian elephant conceived and born in Prague, has larger tusks compared to his brother. He, too, will soon leave the Prague Zoo and head to the northern Italian Pombia Safari Park. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

Today, both male elephants are on the threshold of adulthood, and they are also beginning to manifest their personalities accordingly. The task of the coordinator of the European Breeding Program (EEP) was to choose a suitable location for both youngsters.

“For me, the breeding of any animal is truly complete only when it is involved in breeding with us, or goes to a new home as part of the breeding program,” claims curator of mammals Pavel Brandl. “It must be added that Max and Rudi stayed with us for an exceptionally long time, mainly thanks to the great coexistence with the adult male Ankhor. He functioned flawlessly as a calming element among elephant adolescents.”

Max (center) and Rudi (right) lived in the Prague Zoo in recent years alongside the adult male and father Rudi Ankhor (left). Ankhor was not afraid to discipline the two daring young men, and it was thanks to his calm and patient nature that the elephant brothers could stay in Prague’s Elephant Valley for quite a long time. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

Photo: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Radio Prague International

Farah Abou Kharroub has one of those personalities that draws you in from the moment you meet her. That warmth and hospitality is something that she is trying to translate into her new venture, Aleb – a wine bar purveying exclusively natural wines from around Czechia and serving up food from the Levant region where she hails from. A filmmaker by training, a wine bar was never in the cards for Farah, but when I visited Aleb, she told me more about her time in Prague and how it’s led her here.

“I moved to Prague seven years ago to study film direction at FAMU. I’m in love with the city and the culture, and I call this place my home. I’m graduating this year, and it’s important for me to have more things to do in Prague after I finish at FAMU. I wanted to start a cultural space where we introduce my culture’s food and create a hub where my friends and I can learn together and be together, so that’s how this place was born.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Illustrative photo: Hana Slavická, Radio Prague International

Czechia experienced its first bout of tropical weather this past weekend, with temperatures reaching as high as 30 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country. While the warmer weather is welcomed by some, it’s indicative of a larger problem being experienced globally – climate change. Miroslav Havránek, a researcher from the Charles University Environment Centre, told me more.

We had a really warm weekend here in Prague and all over Czechia. Temperatures reached almost 30 degrees in some parts of the country. What are these weather patterns saying about our current climate here?

“This is something we have been observing for two or three decades now, so it’s surprising by the standards of the month, but scientists and climatologists are not surprised that we are getting new record temperatures. This weekend we actually had the first tropical day of the year, which has never happened before this early in the spring. Every year, we are getting new record temperatures, and this pattern is directly tied to climate change.”

Is this a trend where we suddenly have different seasons appearing sporadically throughout the year? Will seasons begin to amalgamate with one another?

“In short, yes. These mid seasons like spring and autumn will become shorter and shorter. We’ve only had spring for two or three weeks and we’re starting to have early summer. So it’s a pattern that’s going to be observed more often.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Vít Šimánek, ČTK

Unusually high temperatures have been leading Czechs to spend their free time by the water and it feels like summer in many places. Pictured are girls on a pedal boat near Prague’s Charles Bridge.

Source: ČTK

Photo: Archive od Ilona Borská / Wikimedia Commons, public domain

The name Vlasta Kálalová Di Lotti might not mean very much to you – even many Czechs have not heard of her. But the woman with the exotic-sounding name was decidedly one of the most fascinating figures of the First Republic and had an incredible life story that deserves to be more widely known. Not only a female surgeon at a time when this was extremely uncommon, she was also intrepid and pioneering, setting up a clinic in Iraq in the 1920s, and was said to have been fluent in over a dozen languages.

Most of what is now known about Vlasta Kálalová Di Lotti comes from a single book – Doktorka z domu Trubačů or The Doctor from the Trubač Family House, by the now-deceased biographer Ilona Borská. Jana Renner, who a few years ago published a book about pioneering Czech women who made their mark on history, which of course included the story of Vlasta Kálalová Di Lotti, told Radio Prague that reading Di Lotti’s story in Ilona Borská’s biographical novel had made an impression on her as a young girl.

See the rest here.

Author: Anna Fodor, Source:Český rozhlas

Photo: BIOCEV

A new laboratory enabling safe work with highly infectious viruses and bacteria opened this week at the Biocev science centre in Vestec near Prague. The state-of-the-art facility will enable scientists to study hepatitis B, HIV, Covid and other dangerous viruses.

The Biotechnology and Biomedical Centre research centre of the Academy of Sciences and Charles University, opened in Vestec, a small village on the western outskirts of Prague, already in 2014.

However, over the past year it has now been upgraded to a high-security facility, known as BSL3, which enables scientists to work with dangerous viruses.

Tomáš Košt’ák, a manager for JRTech, the company that carried out the year-long reconstruction, says the laboratory must comply with very specific conditions concerning heating, ventilation and air-conditioning:

“The lab’s air ventilation system has to be self-contained. All the exhaust air from the lab is filtered through HEPA filters. There is no way the viruses could escape from the main room, because they are sealed in a vacuum.”

See the rest here.

Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Eva Kézrová

Source: National Gallery Prague, public domain

On April 9, 1624 Ferdinand II issued a patent allowing only the Catholic religion in Bohemia. A few days later he banned royal towns from accepting non-Catholic burghers and also forbade non-Catholics to practice their trade in such towns.

The Battle of White Mountain in 1620 was fatal for the Protestant Estates. With the victory of the imperial troops, a new phase of re-Catholization began under Emperor Ferdinand II.

Re-Catholization took basically two forms: a strict, harsh and uncompromising approach using all means of coercion; and a gradual, consistent and non-violent approach with an attempt to awaken a genuine and sincere interest in the Catholic faith. Any rebellion was nipped in the bud.

See the rest here.

The Czech statute books are set for a significant change. After a lower house debate on Wednesday rape will be defined as non-consensual sex, rather than the current forcible sex. The new bill also gives greater protection to the under 12s in this area.

One-hundred and 68 votes for, zero votes against. Politicians from all parties in the Czech Chamber of Deputies raised their hands in unison on Wednesday to overhaul the definition of rape in the country’s statue books.

At present rape is defined as forcible sexual intercourse. But once the new legislation takes effect this will be replaced by a definition of non-consensual intercourse.

Under the government amendment, disapproval can also be indicated non-verbally, through gestures, crying or adopting a defensive posture.

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Martina Kutková, Radio Prague International

The great writer Franz Kafka was born in Prague in 1883 and spent his entire life in the city. His early years, and the life of his family, are closely linked to its Old Town district.

Today Prague’s Old Town is filled with tourists from all over the world. Naturally, the place looked rather different in the final years of the 19th century, when the young Franz Kafka walked its streets.

To get a flavour of Kafka’s links to the Old Town we spoke to guide Dana Kratochvílová, who shows visitors – foreign and local – around the district of his youth.

“Czechs don’t know much about Kafka. It always surprises me that teenage Americans have read The Metamorphosis and Kafka is a familiar subject for them. Many Czech young people have also learned about him. But under communism here, Kafka was taboo. For several generations, including my own, he was simply kept secret.”

See the rest here.

Author: Magdalena Hrozínková

Mayors of the center will be offered suitable financing models for affordable housing projects and will advise on legal and technical questions, for example. Experts will work in all regions. The centers are financed from European sources, specifically from the component of the National Recovery Plan of the Ministry for Regional Development to support affordable housing.

Last year’s representative survey by the Ministry of Regional Development (MMR) and the Union of Towns and Municipalities in the Czech Republic showed that 69% of municipalities are not satisfied with their housing stock and 72% want to expand or renovate it. At the same time, only about a third of the municipalities had any experience with their own housing project in the last eight years. “Big cities have their experts, they know how to manage projects. On the contrary, smaller towns and villages often lack them, which is also why they do not engage in the construction, repair or purchase of apartments as much. After all, due to the low interest of local governments, the support programs under the previous government did not succeed. For this reason, in addition to financial support, we also offer practical advice and recommendations, for example how to find a quality builder and economist, how to change a spatial plan or prepare an urban study,” explains Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization and Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš.

SFPI regional housing investment support centers were established in eight regions and their branches operate in the rest – thanks to this, they cover the entire territory of the Czech Republic. They will work in cooperation with regional development agencies and a network of selected experts. “The newly established centers will provide mayors with free advice not only regarding state subsidies in the area of housing, but also expert investment advice. Their staff have previous experience in regional development and public construction in their regions. They will actively contact and tour individual municipalities so that both sides fully utilize their potential,” says Daniel Ryšávka, director of the State Investment Support Fund (SFPI).

Photo: Toy Box, Czech Radio

With European Parliament elections around the corner, Czechs are gearing up to head to the polls. But how do Czechs, specifically younger ones, feel about the EU and Czechia’s membership? That’s a question that Czech Radio reporter Anna Urbanová set out to answer based on data from a new study, and I spoke with her about it in our studios.

“We are talking about a project called Divided by Europe, which is a survey conducted for Czech Radio. This part of the survey focussed on young Czechs aged 18-29, the so called ‘EU Generation’. These people were born into non-communist Czechia that was already apart of western structures. The most important trends we observed amongst young Czechs are that the EU is a natural part of western structures, and that the EU is a part of Czechs character – that they can’t imagine that Czechia wouldn’t be a part of the EU. For example, 78 percent of young people would vote in favour of remaining in a hypothetical referendum.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Kristýna Maková, Praha křížem krážem

Conservationists have applied a special protective paint on one of the Gothic towers on Prague’s Charles Bridge, the city’s most famous landmark. The transparent nano-coating can decompose algae and mosses with the help of light alone, keeping the stone walls clean and protected.

The entrance to Prague’s famous Charles Bridge is guarded on both sides by monumental Gothic towers. The taller one of them, known as the Lesser Town Bridge Tower, has been regularly overgrown with mosses and lichen, making its sandstone walls look green rather than beige.

Thanks to modern technologies, experts may have found a solution to the problem. A few months ago, they scraped the walls clean and painted them over with a special coating of transparent nano-paint with self-cleaning properties. So far, it seems to have done the trick, says Karel Kučera, from Prague City Museum:

“There was quite a lot of green growth in the form of cyanobacteria, algae and lichens on both of the tower’s galleries. Occasionally you can still see a trace of lichen. It’s a very indomitable organism and it creates sort of a green map on the stone, but otherwise it’s stable, and nothing new has appeared.”

See the rest here.

Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Tereza Janouškovcová

Photo: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Radio Prague International

Walking through the streets of Czechia, you might spot people sporting tri-coloured sneakers in the country’s national colours; blue, white, and red. Those kicks are from an iconic brand called Botas, originally founded in 1949. Last year, the company almost went under, but two brothers came to its rescue. I caught up with 22-year-old Vít Staněk to learn more about the plans to give this classic Czech brand a new lease on life.

“In 2023, the Botas company was about to be liquidated. My brother and I had a thought that maybe we could continue the legacy of this iconic brand. We decided we would do whatever it takes to buy this company and keep it alive.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Office of Czech Government

The Czech government has officially acknowledged the term “antigypsyism” with the aim of curbing discrimination towards Roma people in the country. But what does the term mean, and how will its use effect change? I asked human rights activist Gwendolyn Albert.

The Czech government has officially adopted the term “antigypsyism”, which signifies them taking a stance on discrimination towards Roma individuals in Czechia. To start off, could you define what antigypsyism means in this context?

“The definition that has been adopted is a legally non-binding definition, it’s just a recognition of this phenomenon. The term is based on the definition that was adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance to discuss how to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and the ideology that led to it. The adoption of antigyspyism is meant to be parallel to the term anti-Semitism – it’s a one word way to reference a very specific set of stereotypes and prejudices that are held in the minds of people around the world about the Roma. The pejorative term that has developed over the centuries for Romani people is gypsy, and so the term antigypsyism is against using that term and the ideas that come with it.

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

The main season of the Prague Zoo has officially started, and along with it, the public’s questions are multiplying: When is the best time to go to the zoo? How to avoid the queue at the checkout? Are there any discounts available? That’s why we answer these and other questions in the new top ten of the experienced Prague Zoo visitors.

We attach a thematic photo to each of the tips. Their sources can be found below.

Lev indický. Foto Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha

1. Sunday is quieter than Saturday

Most people head to the zoo on the weekend. If you are hesitating about which of your free days to spend visiting the Prague Zoo, then keep in mind the secret of all seasoned visitors: Sunday is always less busy than Saturday. Not only will you be able to park more comfortably on Sundays, but you will also avoid possible crowds in the area. And if you plan to visit on a weekday, then know that statistically Tuesday is the “freest”!

Tučňáci Humboldtovi. Foto Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha

2. With an e-ticket, no waiting, and cheaper

Queuing to buy a ticket at the box office? No way, waiting is for the uninitiated… A seasoned visitor conveniently buys an electronic ticket in advance in our e-shop and heads straight to the turnstiles. And they save money on top of that. Whether it is an adult, child or student ticket, its electronic version is up to 50 crowns cheaper than a paper ticket. You can even save 150 crowns on a family ticket, which is valid for two adults and up to four children, by purchasing it online!

You can find more information and make a purchase here: https://vstupenka.zoopraha.cz/

Surikaty. Foto Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha

3. Favorable offer for schools and kindergartens

Speaking of discounts, we remind you of another very favorable offer, for school groups. Pupils of primary and secondary schools here pay only one hundred crowns, kindergarten pupils even only 50 crowns. In addition, teachers can choose from a whole range of thematic tours with our expert guide and thus have fun supplementing the material they are currently discussing in biology, natural science or primary education!

You can find more information here.

Gorila nížinná. Foto Oliver Le Que, Zoo Praha

4. Use the new entrance and public transport stop

Everyone knows the zoo’s iconic main entrance with its Walk of Fame, and motorists often use the south entrance near the river by the vast parking lot. But did you know that we recently opened a brand new gate to the zoo? Right on Sklenářka, near the new gorilla pavilion. No crowds, no waiting. In addition, if you use the entrance in the morning, you will have the Dja Reservation and the small female gorilla Mobi all to yourself. And what’s more – just like at the main entrance, city buses stop right in front of the gate. Just go in the direction of Podhoří: number 234 from Holešovice or lines 235 and 236 from Bohnice.

Pelikán kadeřavý. Foto Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha

5. Bad weather as an unexpected advantage

Thinking about visiting the zoo but it’s raining, windy, or cloudy? So don’t hesitate for a second and start putting on your shoes! After all, we have 15 indoor pavilions. In the Dja Reserve, which was opened last year, you can take a seat in the vast auditorium, from where you can not only watch the gorillas but also have a snack there or charge your mobile phone. You can also visit tigers, hippos, or giraffes with dry feet, warm up with orangutans or Komodo dragons in the Indonesian jungle, or among free-flying parrots in the Rákos pavilion. Look at the map and plan the indoor route of the Prague Zoo!

Gaviál indický a želvy Smithovy. Foto Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha

6. Ride around the area for young and old

A visit to our zoo does not have to be just a walk, it can also be a drive! For families with children, we rent special strollers free of charge at the main entrance, in which you can pull your little ones around the area. If you or your partner have mobility problems, there is nothing easier than booking a wheelchair with us for free, or purchasing a ride on our ZooExpress – in this case, accompanied by an expert guide.

More information about wheelchairs here.

More about ZooExpres here.

Vlk hřivnatý. Foto Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha

7. Take the dog with you, leave your luggage with us

Dogs of all sizes are welcome at the Prague Zoo. Each visitor is allowed one dog friend on a leash. In addition to visiting pavilions, walk-through exhibitions and playgrounds, it can go anywhere with you. And while you watch the animals in the pavilion, you can leave the muzzled dog at the tethering point. On the other hand, you don’t have to drag any heavy luggage around the area – you can conveniently use the storage boxes at all entrances to store them free of charge.

Lemur kata. Foto Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha

8. Zoogastro in the 21st century

Fryer, hot dog or ice cream cone. Of course, we do! But today you don’t have to rely only on fried or fatty ones. Did you know that you can find several meat-free dishes at the Gulab restaurant? Will you try black beluga lentils with halloumi cheese or perhaps vegetarian curry with homemade pita bread? At the Oceán restaurant, you will be delighted with a different daily cash offer, at Obora they will prepare fresh burgers with guaranteed the best view in Prague, and at Gočárové houses you will be transported to the period of the First Republic with first-class sirloin steak or duck in front of you. In short, lunch at the zoo can have style!

Orangutan sumaterský. Foto Oliver Le Que, Zoo Praha

9. Events for free visitors every week

Do you want to experience something special at the Prague Zoo? Follow our program! In all seasons, a number of guided feedings and meetings with the animals await you – you can have breakfast alongside bizarre burrowing owls, have lunch with a flock of penguins or have a snack with the famous nutcracker female Šiška. In addition, we are planning at least one thematic event every week. The program includes tours of selected exhibition units with an expert guide free of charge for all visitors.

Complete program of upcoming events.

Nestor kea. Foto Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha

10. Take your time, observe, take pictures, film, share!

And the last tip? Above all, enjoy your visit to our zoo. Don’t try to do everything at any cost. Prague Zoo is vast, you wouldn’t be able to do it in comfort anyway. Stop by the exhibits, watch the behavior of the animals, sit on a bench in the Hippo Pavilion or the African House, or take a seat in the comfortable auditorium next to the gorillas or sea lions and watch the action in front of you. Take your time. And if you manage to photograph or film something nice, tag Prague Zoo in your story on Instagram or Facebook. We will then be happy to share your photo on our official profile!

Olgoi-khorkhoi as portrayed by the painter Jiří Houska.

Olgoi-khorkhoi – the mythical killing worm from the Gobi Desert – is perhaps better known today in Czech Republic than in Mongolia itself. It happened thanks to Czech enigmologists, who searched for it in local sand dunes. And on top of that, one of them, the late Ivan Mackerle, gave rise to olgoi-khorkhoi‘s world-wide fame  that it gained in sensation-hunting circles.

Today we can say that the origin of the legend of olgoi-khorkhoi was caused by the Tartar sand boa. But the truth is that for a long time it was not known what it was all about.

R. C. Andrews, who led an American paleontological expedition in Mongolia in the 1920s, was the first to report on olgoi-khorkhoi:

“At the Cabinet meeting the Premier asked that I should capture for the Mongolian Government a specimen of the Allergorhai horhai. This is probably an entirely mythical animal, but it may have some little basis in fact, for every northern Mongol firmly believes in it and will give essentially the same description. It is said to be about two feet long, the body shaped like a sausage, and to have no head or legs; it is so poisonous that even to touch it means instant death.”

Tartar sand boa peeks out of the sand. Photo: Miroslav Bobek

Note, that in Andrews’ rendering olgoi-khorkhoi cannot kill at a distance.

In the 1940s, the Russian palaeontologist I. A. Yefremov picked up the topic and portrayed it in one of his short stories:

“…I called the driver and Misha to come back. But they continued running to the unknown animals, and either they didn’t hear me, or they didn’t want to.

I took a step toward them, but Darkhin pulled me back. I broke free from the guide’s tenacious hands and at the same moment I watched the animals. My assistants had already reached them: the radio operator in front, Grisha little bit behind.

Suddenly each of the worms curled up into a ring. At the same moment their yellow-grey colouring darkened, turning into purple-blue and bright blue at the ends. Without a cry, the radio operator suddenly collapsed and laid motionless with his face in the sand. I heard a scream from the driver, who was at that moment running to the radio operator lying about four metres from the worms.  A second – and Grisha bent over just as strangely and fell on his side.

His body flipped over, rolled to the bottom of the dune and disappeared from the sight.”

Well, it is a different story!

Yefremov’s short story has also been repeatedly published in Czech – and I am sure that it initiated the interest of Czech enigmologists, among whom the abovementioned Ivan Mackerle stood out. In early 1990s, he searched hard for olgoi-khorkhoi in Mongolia. He was even allegedly trying to drive him out of the dunes by setting off the explosions of small charges. With no result. However, his belief in the existence of a worm, which kills at a distance, was unwavering. At the same moment the testimonies of witnesses he recorded largely support an interpretation that he had even not thought of, namely that the myth of olgoi-khorkhoi arose from encounters between shepherds and Tartar sand boa. For example, the old woman Püret told him:

“ʻI have never seen it myself, but I have heard a lot about it. In the past shepherds occasionally encountered it, but today it is very, very rare. It usually appears after rain, but it rarely rains here. It basks in the sun for two to three days and then it disappears again. In a sea of sand like a fish in water,’ she laughed. ʻUsually, it digs holes just under the ground and on the surface above him the sand is pushed a little bit, so it is possible to see where it is moving. When it wants to attack somebody, it pulls half a way out of the sand. It starts inflating, the bubble on its end gets bigger and bigger until finally the poison squirts out of it.’”

And so, eventhough Mackerle was wrong, he gave rise to popularization of the “killing worm from Gobi” and I dare say that if it were not for him, I probably would not have thought about showing the archetype of olgoi-khorkhoi – Tartar sand boa – in our zoo.

Photo: Vyšehrad

On this week’s Sunday Music show, we spotlight a classic piece of Easter music – Jan Dismas Zelenka’s ‘Cantata sacra Il serpente di bronzo’. Composed in the year 1730, the piece was first performed on Good Friday of that year in Dresden, Germany. Performed at the Saxonian-Polish court, the piece is an important contribution to Catholic sacred music.

Born in 1679 in the Bohemian village of Louňovi, Jan Dismas Zelenka, dubbed the “Czech Bach”, is one of the most significant Baroque composers. Yet his music was largely forgotten after his death and was only rediscovered more than a century later. Today all his works are available in digitized form and have become increasingly popular with the public.

See the rest here.

Photo: Emily Sawicki, Santa Monica Daily Press

A new work by David Černý – a five-tonne kinetic metal head of iconic movie director David Lynch – was recently unveiled at an apartment complex in Santa Monica, LA. The Czech sculptor is perhaps best known for works that have made their mark on Prague, such as the babies crawling on Žižkov TV Tower. So how did this project in California come about?

“I was reached by the developer via an art agent. That’s a normal way how I am reached. So it wasn’t even via my American gallerist, it was direct.”

But was it the case that they had seen your Kafka head in Prague and were looking for something similar? Because it is quite similar.

“Yes, actually, they did see what I was doing here. Generally they told me that they would like to have a piece that would resemble, somehow, the piece in Prague.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Join us on a trip to South Bohemia – a region of castles, ponds, and the famous Budějovický Budvar brewery. Check out its dense network of centuries-old fish ponds, its picture-perfect UNESCO heritage villages, and the lush forests of the Šumava Mountains – all from a bird’s eye view!

See the rest here.

Authors: Vít Pohanka, Barbora Navrátilová

Photo: Martin Pařízek, Czech Radio

Researchers at the Czech Technical University in Prague are using artificial intelligence to train robots, teaching them to search unfamiliar or hard-to-reach areas. In the future, these intelligent robots could help search for missing persons or victims of accidents.

Scientists at Czech Technical University’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering are working with a number of robots, some of which resemble tiny vehicles while others look like dogs or giant spiders.

Doctoral student Miloš Prágr uses a game console controller to drive one of the robots, a black and yellow vehicle on four rubber wheels, out of the lab and into the corridor.

“It’s a four-wheeled robot of small to medium size that we use mainly to inspect sites or facilities.  It is equipped with several cameras. The two located at the top are both colour and depth cameras, which allows them to sense the geometry of the surrounding environment. The other set of cameras are simple colour cameras. We use them to detect various objects or people.”

See the rest here.

Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Ondřej Vaňura, Source:iROZHLAS.cz

Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International

Pavel Bobek gained his first teaching experience in an immigrant neighbourhood in London’s district of Croydon. After two years he returned to Prague and has since been teaching at one of the city’s primary schools. Are the teaching methods that he learned in the UK also applicable in a Czech school?  How does he gain respect in a classroom of 30 kids? And how does he make sure that all the children, including those with a different mother tongue and with learning disabilities, move forward? These are just some of the questions we discussed, but I started by asking what prompted Pavel, who originally studied political science, to become a teacher:

“I have always been close to education and to work with children. I volunteered in Czech-German youth projects for many years. Later I worked for the Goethe Institute as head of an international debating project, working with pupils alongside teachers.

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Zuzana Jarolímková, iROZHLAS.cz

Revelations a Czech-based Russian influence network was paying politicians in several states have made headlines around Europe. Czechia’s European commissioner says she sensed Moscow was using such dirty tricks – and says steps should be taken to weed dodgy politicians out of the European Parliament.

Last week Prime Minister Petr Fiala dropped some bombshell news: The Czech secret service had uncovered a Russian network seeking to influence the European Parliament, to which elections take place in two months.

It was soon reported that the group, including pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, were funnelling cash to anti-establishment politicians in EU states, including, allegedly, Petr Bystroň of Alternative for Germany.

See the rest here.

Author:Ian Willoughby, Source:Czech Radio

Photo: Stanislava Brádlová, Czech Radio

The Crystal Touch Museum in Litoměřice offers a unique exposition of authentic handprints of famous personalities captured in Bohemia crystal. The exhibition is the work of glass master Jan Huňát who launched the project in 2007.

Most people are familiar with the handprints of celebrities on Hollywood Boulevard, but few people know that Czechia also has its collection of handprints of famous people. The Crystal Touch Museum in Litoměřice offers a unique exposition of authentic handprints of famous personalities captured in Bohemia crystal – among them the hands of the late Czech president Václav Havel, Ringo Starr, Ennio Morricone, Sir Nicolas Winton, Jaromír Jágr, Patrik Elias, Elijah Wood, Sir Tom Finney, Dominik Hašek, Madeleine Albright, Ivan Lendl and many others.

See the rest here.

Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Stanislava Brádlová, Source:Český rozhlas

Photo: Soňa Vaicenbacherová, Czech Radio

In the West Bohemian city of Plzeň there is a modern sculpture that people either love or hate. Its official name is The Panopticon, but in Plzeň everybody calls it “the pink rabbit”. Why is it there? And is it art or a terrible kitsch?

The concrete sculpture of a gigantic pink rabbit eating a human being was erected in Plzeň’s Lochotín district in 2015. Ever since it was unveiled, it has been a point of controversy among both locals and visitors. Miroslav Brabec, the mayor of the Lochotin district where it stands, says that he too suffered an initial shock on seeing it.

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Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Soňa Vaicenbacherová, Source:Český rozhlas

Photo: Honza Ptáček, Czech Radio

Easter egg trees are a popular Central European tradition and the town of Pardubice has one to make the locals proud this year. Whoever guesses the exact number of eggs on it can look forward to a prize!

The egg is an ancient symbol of life in many countries of the world and the tradition of brightly decorated Easter egg trees is common in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czechia, Poland, and Hungary. Multi-colored, mouth-blown eggs are hung on branches of trees and bushes and on cut branches inside homes.

While many families decorate tree branches with eggs in the home, not all towns and villages sport Easter egg trees, which require a lot more time and effort.

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Author: Magdalena Tereza Kadula, Source:Český rozhlas

Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International

In the English-speaking world, we know the days during Holy Week leading up to Easter as Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and so on. But, despite also sharing a Christian heritage with Anglophone countries, the Czechs call these days by pretty different names in most cases – and many of their Easter traditions are quite alien to people from Anglo-American cultures, as they often pre-date Christianity, originating from Slavic pagan times.

Palm Sunday = Blossoming Sunday

Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, is known as “Květná neděle” or Blossoming Sunday in Czech. People would decorate their houses with pussy willow, and according to Czech tradition, one shouldn’t bake anything with flour on this day. Farmers would watch the weather, as the saying went that whatever the weather was like on Palm Sunday was an omen for the coming harvest.

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Authors: Anna Fodor, Barbora Kvapilová, Source:Český rozhlas

Photo: archive of Carmelite Monastery in Drasty

Prague’s Hradčany Square right next to Prague Castle is a top-notch address, but with hordes of tourists and ever rising noise levels it is not conducive to quiet contemplation and prayers. This led the community of Barefoot Carmelite Sisters to roll up their sleeves and get to work to turn a derelict farmhouse on the periphery into their new spiritual retreat.    

The order of the barefoot Carmelite Sisters was founded during the 12th century on Mount Carmel in Israel and reformed by Saint Teresa of Avila in 16th century Spain. The nuns originally walked barefoot, but as the order spread to places with harsher winters, the rules adapted. However what has not changed is that the order lives isolated from the world in silence and contemplation. The sisters rarely venture outside of their spiritual retreat and even do their shopping online.

The Prague-based order originally lived in Prague’s Hradčany square right next to Prague Castle. But when the noise levels and the hustle and bustle around their monastery increased they looked around for a new home in a quieter setting.

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Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Bára Kvapilová, Source:Český rozhlas

Photo: Ondřej Hájek, ČTK

The historic astronomical clock in Česká Kamenice has been successfully repaired at the cost of about one million crowns. Its fourteen glass figures were made by students of the glass school in neighbouring Kamenický Šenov. The  astronomical clock is the work of local watchmaker and goldsmith Adolf Eiselt, who put it into operation in 1920.

Source:ČTK

Photo: Kateřina Šulová, ČTK

More than 200 young people joined the traditional three-kilometer run through Prague’s Stromovka park at the weekend and President Petr Pavel was among them.

Source: CTK

Photo: Ian Willoughby, Radio Prague International

The new book Red Tape: Radio and Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1969 takes a fresh look at radio broadcasting in, and to, the country between the end of the war and the immediate aftermath of the Soviet-led invasion. How “Communist” were staff at Czechoslovak Radio? How did reporters respond to the new freedoms that came with the Prague Spring? And what happened after that relatively liberal period was brutally curtailed? I discussed those questions and more with author Rosamund Johnston, a Vienna-based historian who is also a former colleague at Radio Prague International.

What state was Czechoslovak Radio right after the war, let’s say in the summer of 1945?

“I would say it was in a maybe surprisingly good state, given a lot of continental Europe and given a lot of the infrastructure in continental Europe at that time.

“On the other hand, there had just been a big fight for, among other things, Czechoslovak Radio, and it bore some of the scars, as well as had some of the prestige, of that.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Hana Slavická, Radio Prague International

The Municipal District of Prague 1 recently launched an initiative to help residents of the area deal with common problems. The aim is to curb depopulation and reassure residents of the area that the heart of the city is in fact a comfortable place to live for locals and families, and is not just a reserve for tourists.

Living in the heart of Czechia’s capital may sound like a fairy tale to some, but the reality of renting a flat in the city’s Prague 1 district can be far from idyllic for its residents. Astronomical rents, dealing with a rotation of people coming in from Airbnbs, and the noise of rowdy tourists on the street has led to an exodus from the city centre.

In an effort to reduce the depopulation of Prague 1, the local authorities have launched a new effort called ‘Contact Point’, with the aim of providing citizens with information, support, and guidance regarding housing in the area. Karolína Šnejdarová, spokesperson for Prague 1, told me more.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: © Kaupo Kikkas

Arguably one of the most internationally renowned contemporary Czech composers, Miroslav Srnka has wowed audiences across the globe with his original and innovative operas. In 2016, Srnka debuted his double opera, South Pole, which tells the story of a 20th century arctic expedition – receiving outstanding reviews. In our third episode of the Faces of Czech Music, we learn more about the elusive man who often feels more comfortable outside of his native Czechia than in it, the inspiration behind some of his most recognized works, and how he believes today’s art is often  softened for the masses.

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Authors: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Petr Dudek

Photo: Regional museum Most

On 26 March 1964, the Czechoslovak government decided to liquidate the old city of Most to make way for new coal mines and apartments to house the miners who would be working there. The demolition of the historic centre of the town lasted 23 years, finally finishing on 1 April 1987.

The history of Most – or Brüx, as it was known by its majority German-speaking population – dates back to the mid-13th century, when the settlement received the status of a royal city. In 1273, it received the privileges of Přemysl II, which included, for example, the right to imprison debtors.

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Author: Klára Stejskalová

Photo: David Hertl, Czech Radio

The well-known Máj department store in the centre of Prague is soon to re-open following a two-year renovation. The long-awaited reconstruction has already sparked controversy, when it emerged that the façade of the building will be adorned with two giant butterflies made of Spitfire aircraft fuselages.

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Author:Ruth Fraňková

This week’s Sunday Music show is devoted to pop singer Aneta Langerová, the winner of the first ever Czech Pop Idol contest, who is celebrating 20 years on stage. To mark the occasion, Aneta has released a double album, mapping the two decades of her career. Apart from her biggest hits, it also includes a brand new song, called Zázračná písně krajina or Miracle Song Landscape.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Markéta Kachlíková, Radio Prague International

The Hradec Králové Region ranges from the Giant Mountains to the lowlands around the Elbe. Check out its landmarks in our photo gallery!

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Illustrative photo: Štěpánka Budková, Radio Prague International

A recent study that analyses the housing situation in Prague revealed that the country’s real estate market is the least affordable in Europe. Factors such as privatization and a lack of growth in real wages have put an increasing number of residents in an insecure position. To learn more, I spoke with one of the editors of the study, Václav Orcígr.

According to this survey – Prague is the most unaffordable city in Europe for housing. Housing prices have risen by 50 percent while wages have only gone up by 21 percent. Can you tell me a little bit more about what the study has revealed?

“The study is quite complex. We tried to gather data that is recent and up to date regarding housing affordability in Prague. The main data sources are either international surveys or local Czech surveys from the Czech Statists Council, Deloitte, or the Institute of Planning and Development. There are about 200 sources that were used in this publication.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: YouTube

Thursday is the 55th anniversary of a famous moment in the country’s modern history. On March 28, 1969 a Czechoslovak ice hockey win over the USSR – less than a year after the Soviet invasion – sparked celebrations that turned into riots in Prague and other parts of the country.

On March 28, 1969 Czechoslovakia beat the USSR 4:3 at the World Ice Hockey Championships in Sweden. It followed another (2:0) victory over the Soviets a week earlier.

While the first win saw some celebrating on the streets, tens of thousands took to Prague’s Wenceslas Square, many waving Czechoslovak flags, on Friday March 28.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Lukáš Řezník, Czech Radio

The new Škoda 1000 MB was unveiled in Mladá Boleslav on March 21, 1964. Designed to be an inexpensive family car, it was Czechoslovakia’s answer to the Ford Model T: the first mass-affordable automobile, making car travel available to more people in the country than ever before.

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Authors: Anna Fodor, Luděk Hubáček, Agáta Faltová, Source:iROZHLAS.cz

Photo: Martin Pařízek, Czech Radio

Over 400,000 Czechs have availed of the opportunity to take part in Erasmus, the EU’s academic exchange programme, since Czechia signed up in the late 1990s. But what specifically do students get out of the experience? I spoke to some former participants.

According to data recently published by the Czech National Agency for International Education and Research, no fewer than 411,000 Czechs have taken part in the Erasmus Programme since the country joined it in 1998, just over a decade after the scheme began.

Erasmus+, as it is now referred to, also includes stays abroad for academics, and even offers opportunities to secondary and primary school children.

But it is mainly third-level students who sign up for the programme, people such as Veronika Kührová, a Film Studies student in Brno who did her Erasmus in the Germany city of Jena in 2007.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

The Czech secret service has scored a major success, uncovering a Russian network attempting to influence elections in various European states. The Prague government followed this revelation with sanctions on two individuals, including a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician.

Czechia’s counterintelligence service, known by the acronym BIS, has achieved a considerable success, breaking up a Russian network in the country that was seeking to exert influence on upcoming European elections and foment anti-Ukraine sentiment.

Speaking on Wednesday afternoon, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala revealed something of what BIS had discovered about the Moscow-financed suspects and detailed in a 300-page report.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Vít Pohanka, Radio Prague International

Brian Goodman is an author and an associate professor at Arizona State University. He has spent the past two decades immersed in a project that bridges American and Czech literary worlds, delving into the shadows of the Cold War.

Brian’s book, “The Nonconformists: American and Czech Writers across the Iron Curtain,” has been making waves since its publication last year by the prestigious Harvard University Press. The book has garnered acclaim for its insightful analysis and meticulous research, even earning high praise in venerable publications like the Times Literary Supplement.

But what makes Brian’s work truly remarkable is the depth of his research. He ventured into the heart of the Czech Republic’s past, spending countless hours in the communist secret police archives and interviewing writers and former dissidents in Prague to bring the stories of these writers to life in full detail. For example: Why did one the most significant American authors of the 20th century Philip Roth become interested in Prague?

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Author: Vít Pohanka

Photo: Zdeněk Rerych, Gambit Cafe

If you’ve spent a day or two in Prague, you’ll know that the city is dotted with cafes, from the small and cozy places offering good coffee and traditional Czech desserts to the luxury cafes in Prague’s historic city center usually frequented by tourists. But, increasingly clients want more than just good coffee and so some Prague coffee houses are offering a special program to go with it.

For those looking for more than just a cup of good coffee there is a wide variety of cafes to choose from in Prague. One where you are served by a robotic arm, another where your image is printed onto the foam of your cappuccino, a café where your order arrives on a model train or one which offers a wall of roses for selfie-lovers.

There are several where you can play board games but there is only one coffee house in Prague reserved for lovers of chess and you will find it in the trendy district of Karlín.

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Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Václav Müller, Source:Český rozhlas

Photo: Galerie hlavního města Prahy

An exhibition called New Realisms opened in Prague City Gallery on Wednesday, offering a fresh perspective on visual culture and art in Czechoslovakia between 1918 and 1945. It presents works by well-known artists, such as Otto Guttfreund and Jan Zrzavý, alongside artists from the German, Slovak and Hungarian-speaking minorities. I discussed the exhibition with one of its curators, Ivo Habán, and I first asked him to explain the term New Realisms:

“The term New Realism is connected with the overall atmosphere in Europe after World War I. It was connected with ideas about the possibility of new life and fairer society and there were paintings depicting for instance ‘new Adam and new Eve’.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Amanita Design

The Czech independent studio Amanita Design has won the award for Excellence in Visual Art at the prestigious San Francisco Independent Games Festival for their new game Phonopolis. The hand-crafted adventure, set in a dystopian city made of cardboard, was inspired by George Orwell’s 1984. I discussed it with Amanita’s producer Lukáš Kunce and I first asked him about the inspiration behind the game:

“The inspiration for Phonopolis for the artists and the creative team behind the game comes mainly from the interwar artistic movements, like Constructivism, Futurism and Suprematism, as well as the entire Avant-Garde movement. It can not only be seen in the visuals but it can also be heard in the music by Tomáš Dvořák aka Floex, as well as in the sound design.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

The rapid growth of generative AI is influencing many areas of life and there is no doubt that it will play a role in campaigning in the European elections. So are Czech parties preparing to harness the potential it affords and will Czech voters be able to recognize AI-driven disinformation?

A survey among Czech political parties shows they are gradually starting to make use of the benefits AI offers. The Pirate Party, which is the main driving force behind the digitization of the state sector, argues that not to use the technologies of the modern day and age is to fall behind. The party says it uses AI wherever it is useful – to produce texts, generate images, edit photos and videos –while fully respecting ethics and clearly labelling AI generated content. The SPOLU coalition (Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats and TOP 09) also says it uses AI to subtitle videos and analyze data, but insists that their election campaign will be conducted in a fair manner. Jakub Skyva is spokesperson for the SPOLU coalition.

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Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Jana Karasová

Photo: Patrik Uhlíř, ČTK

The Brno Zoo organized a spring welcoming event a few days early at the weekend, with a special program that included feeding the animals. In the picture, the zoo’s Kamchatka bear getting his share.

Source: ČTK

Photo: Jana Karasová, Czech Radio

As the world watched the orchestrated re-election of Vladimir Putin as Russia’s president for the next six years, Russian nationals in Prague gathered on Wenceslas Square in a symbolic show of support for the “Noon against Putin” protests at home. Many of them did not get the chance to vote.

Russians opposed to the Putin regime, took to the streets in cities around the world on Sunday in a symbolic show of support for Kremlin opponents at home. In Prague several dozen Russian nationals assembled on Wenceslas Square holding up banners reading “Putin is not my president”, “Prague against Putin” and “End the war!”. The organizer of the event, Anton Litvin, said it is important to show the world that not all Russians support what is happening.

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Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Jana Karasová

Photo: René Volfík, iROZHLAS.cz

The ruling coalition has accused opposition leader Andrej Babiš of undermining the government’s support for Ukraine through his “pacifist” language and putting at risk Czechia’s security. At a special session of the lower house on Tuesday the prime minister said the opposition should make clear whether it sides with the free West or with Putin.

Although Czechia has been one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, in recent months the opposition has been increasingly vocal regarding the need for peace talks. Growing tension between the ruling parties and opposition leader Andrej Babiš reached a head last week when Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský labelled him “a security threat” and Babiš asked his close associates for a dossier on Lipavský and his family, using extremely vulgar language. He sent the mail to the wrong address and its contents ended up in the media. The ruling parties slammed Babiš for communist-era practices and called a session of the lower house to clarify the country’s security interests.

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Author: Daniela Lazarová, Sources: ČTK,Česká televize

Photo: Daniela Honigmann, Radio Prague International

People in Need is one of Czechia’s most well-known NGOs, providing humanitarian relief to crisis-affected regions and implementing long-term development projects and educational and human rights programmes around the world. It has been 30 years since it adopted its current name on 21 March 1994, so on the occasion, I spoke to the non-profit’s founder and director, Šimon Pánek, to find out about its beginnings and how it got its name.

It’s been 30 years since Člověk v tísni (People in Need) got its name, but the organisation has been around a couple of years longer than that. Could you tell us briefly about its very beginnings and how you got started?

“Soon after communism fell, conflicts popped up like mushrooms in many of the multi-ethnic former communist countries. Because communism, besides everything else, pretended that we have a new, stronger, better identity – the socialist or communist identity – not Czech or Slovak, or Croat or Bosnian, or Russian or Chechen. So unfortunately, along with newfound freedom, conflicts appeared.

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Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: X/Martin Baxa

The National Library of the Czech Republic is currently working on getting a project off the ground that will provide mobile units that would be sent to Ukraine to help preserve cultural artefacts endangered by the war. The head of the National Library Tomáš Foltýn, told me more about the endeavour

“We started this project around 2016/2017 when we were creating and updating our strategy for the Czech National Library. An integral part in this strategy concerned the long term preservation of our physical collection. One of the parts of the strategy was also the creation of a mobile unit aimed at conserving and restoring our physical collections.

“The war in Ukraine is ongoing, and we were starting to think about how we could help the cultural institutions of the country. We were talking with the Czech Ministry of Culture about different ideas, and we thought about creating an ‘arc’, a unit where we can restore and conserve the physical collections, or a unit aimed at digitizing the masterpieces of Ukrainian libraries. The Czech Ministry of Culture ended up loving the idea.”

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Radek Petrášek, ČTK

Organizers of the upcoming 2024 Ice Hockey World Championship have unveiled the gold, silver and bronze medals that will be awarded to the winning teams. The trophies, produced by glassmakers in the north Bohemian town of Nový Bor, are made of crystal glass, which resembles a piece of ice scratched by skates.

Preparations are in full swing for the Ice Hockey World Championship that will get underway in Prague and Ostrava in May. Glassmakers from the Kolektiv Ateliers in the north Bohemian town of Nový Bor are currently working on a set of medals for the winning teams. They have to produce at least 40 pieces of each metal in case some of the medals break.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Klára Stejskalová, Radio Prague International

Hradec Králové, which lies on the confluence of the Labe (Elbe) and Orlice rivers in north-east Bohemia, is one of the oldest and historically most significant Czech cities. For centuries, it was one of the dowry towns of Czech queens. At the turn of the 20th century, Hradec Králové was remodelled by the pioneering Czechoslovak architects Jan Kotěra and Josef Gočár, who turned it into a modern and progressive city, which became known as the Salon of the Republic.

The first written evidence of Hradec Hrálové comes from 1225, when the settlement of Hradec was mentioned in the deed of the Bohemian King Přemysl Otakar I. In 1306, Hradec became a dowry town ruled by Bohemian queens. Hence its name Hradec Králové, which literally means “the castle of the queen”, explains local tourist guide Lucie Nováková:

“The local royal castle was therefore home to queens, namely Elizabeth Richeza of Poland and later Elizabeth of Pomerania, the last wife of Charles IV. During the reign of George of Poděbrady, the town was one of the most important and beautiful Renaissance seats, but this happy period was brought to an end by frequent fires, plague epidemics and the Thirty Years’ War.”

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Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Zdeňka Kuchyňová

Photo: Sabina Vosecká, Czech Radio

Havel Speaking, Can You Hear Me? is the name of a brand new documentary tracing the final years of Václav Havel’s life. The current Czech president and his Slovak counterpart were in the audience for a special screening of the film at Prague Castle on Monday night.

Over the years there have been several documentary films about Václav Havel, the dissident playwright turned head of state. In fact Citizen Havel from 2007 did some of the best box office for a Czech documentary ever.

Now a new film about the final years of the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of Czechia is ready to hit cinema screens.

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Author: Ian Willoughby