Tourism leaders from across the world have met again in Barcelona, Spain to shape the sector’s future, emphasizing the sector’s vital economic importance while also placing it firmly on the political agenda.
The 121st session of the Executive Council of UN Tourism welcomed representatives of 47 countries, including 18 Ministers of Tourism, to advance the Organization’s vision for the sector as it achieves full recovery from the impacts of the pandemic. According to UN Tourism data, around 285 million tourists traveled internationally in the first quarter of 2024, 20% more than the same period of last year, while international tourism receipts grew back to USD 1.5 trillion in 2023.
Investments and education remain priorities for the sector
Opening the session, UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, stressed the need to embrace innovation and grow and direct investment into the sector in order to drive its positive transformation. “With tourism having bounced back from the biggest crisis in its history, now is the time to channel our energy into building greater resilience against any future shocks,” he said. “At the same time, we must ensure tourism’s growth benefits people everywhere, above all by expanding access to education and job opportunities and harnessing the power of new technology.”
This weekend representatives of 90 or so states will be taking part in a conference at the Bürgenstock Resort in Switzerland aimed at finding a route to sustainable peace in Ukraine. Specifically the event will focus on issues such as nuclear safety and security, food safety and prisoner exchanges and the protection of civilians. Formally named the Summit on Peace in Ukraine, it follows other such gatherings based on the Kyiv government’s own peace formula. Notably, however, it will not feature any representation from Russia. What’s more, other major states such as Brazil and China have ignored invitations to attend. Czechia, by contrast will be there, represented by President Petr Pavel and Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Marian – and for Prague’s perspective on the summit I spoke to the latter at the Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Czernin Palace on Thursday.
I believe this is the fifth such peace conference for Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. What message will you and President Petr Pavel be delivering from Czechia at this conference?
“First, this is the first summit on the highest level, on the level of leaders. Before those were meetings on the level of national security advisors or deputy ministers.
“So this is the first meeting of this kind in the Ukrainian peace formula process.
Moscow is very likely to blame for a recent failed arson attack on city busews in Prague, the Czech prime minister said on Monday. Petr Fiala said the foiled plot was part of a hybrid war Russia is waging against Czechia. But what can the authorities do to combat this kind of “low level” terrorism?
Last Wednesday night a Spanish-speaking man in his 20s from a South American state is believed to have attempted to set fire to buses at a Prague transport authority depot in the district of Klíčov.
Alert staff doused the flames and damage was kept to around CZK 200,000.
On Saturday the police arrested the suspect, who they said had been in Czechia for five days.
The annual Smetana Litomyšl, the second oldest music festival in Czechia and the country’s largest classical music festival outside of Prague, gets underway on Saturday. This year’s edition, marking the bicentenary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana, promises to be the biggest in the festival’s history. I discussed the event with its artistic director Marek Šulc:
“It will be the largest festival so far, not only in terms of the number of days – we are starting this Saturday, June 8, and the final concert will be on July 6 – but we also have the biggest number of concerts. So it really will be a full month of music in Litomyšl.
There was success for Czech athletes at the Canoe World Cup held in Prague’s Troja district over the weekend. Gabriela Satková (pictured) and Jiří Prskavec won gold medals in the women’s and men’s canoe slalom races respectively.
What really happens to your waste after you’ve sorted it and dutifully put it in your local recycling container? The Czech Environment Ministry attempted to find out via a unique experiment – at least for one very specific type of rubbish. They put tracking devices on 100 PET bottles and put them in recycling bins in locations all around the country to see where they ended up after three months – and the results were surprising.
My partner and I are keen waste sorters and pride ourselves on hardly ever having to take out our mixed waste because there is so little of it. We compost our organic waste and dutifully sort everything else into paper, plastic, glass and metal.
But plastic waste still makes up the biggest proportion of our sorted rubbish, despite our efforts to reduce it. And so every time we take our plastic recycling to our nearest yellow container in Prague, we wonder, ‘Will this actually get recycled?’
President Petr Pavel and Eva Pavlova received the President of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Čaputová and Juraj Rizman at Prague Castle. This is the last official visit of Zuzana Čaputová in the role of president. They discussed Czech-Slovak relations, current events in Slovakia, the results of the European Parliament elections, and the situation in Ukraine with President Pavel.
“I am very happy to be able to welcome President Zuzana Čaputová to Prague again today during her visit to the Czech Republic. Today, in addition to joy, it is also with a certain sadness, because it is the last time I will meet her as president of our nearest neighbor. Through the personal approach of the President, her friendliness, openness, and correctness, the relations between our countries have been deepened and strengthened in the desired direction in recent years. And for that, we owe her a lot of thanks” said President Pavel at a press conference.
In the evening, the presidential couples will attend a performance at the Dejvický Theater together, on Thursday they will have breakfast in Lány, and in the afternoon President Pavel will present the Order of the White Lion to President Čaputová at the Prague Castle for her contribution to the development of relations between the two countries. The program will end with a gala lunch.
Statement of the President of the Republic at the press conference here ( in Czech).
The Prague Sounds music festival, which takes place in November and was previously called Strings of Autumn, prides itself on mixing up genres. This year it will feature jazz great Branford Marsalis alongside rather less well-known names in the fields of hip-hop, modern classical and electronic music. I spoke to programmer Guy Borg at an event this week unveiling the 2024 Prague Sounds.
Branford Marsalis is your biggest name and he’s playing at the Grand Hall at Lucerna. What does it mean to you to have such a major artist as part of your festival?
“Well, throughout the history of the festival we’ve been lucky enough to have some of the great legends of jazz, actually usually in concert at Lucerna, in the Grand Hall. For example, Sonny Rollins or Wayne Shorter.
Under pressure to decide the never-ending battle between outdoor concert organizers and local residents regarding excessive noise, the Czech Health Miwnistry has ruled in favour of the culture scene. In a statement published on its web page, the ministry argues that short-term exposure to loud music is a nuisance, rather than a health risk.
The arrival of summer heralds a string of music festivals, concerts and outdoor events – all highly anticipated by music lovers and dreaded by local residents, who have to put up with high decibel levels whether they like it or not. In recent years, the residents of Prague’s Braník district, a popular location for outdoor concerts, have repeatedly complained to the town hall and health ministry about excessive noise pollution.
The Czech government has moved to open the labor market to foreign workers from nine countries outside of the European Union. As of July 1, foreign workers from the selected states will no longer need employment cards or work permits in Czechia.
According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, there are currently close to 818,000 foreign workers in Czechia. Employees from the nine selected countries ‒ Australia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Israel, and Singapore ‒ only comprise about 1.2 percent of the Czech labor market, approximately 10,000 employees. However, 80% of them are in highly skilled positions. The country needs to attract more of these foreign experts to fill vacancies on the labour market.
The KHNP (Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Company) organized an event on the occasion of “Czechia – Korea Nuclear Energy and Cultural Exchange Day”, which took place at the beautiful Zofin Palace by the Vltava River in Prague.
The event was organized to provide an opportunity to raise awareness of nuclear energy and to enjoy the culture of Czechia & Korea.
The event was supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the Czech Republic and the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic.
The Main speakers were :
Jooho Whang – President and CED of KHNP
Jan Rafaj – President of the Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic
Tomas Ehler – Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the CR
H.E Mr. Youngki Hong – Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the CR
Seungcheol Lim – Secretary General of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
A newly restored Jawa 750, which appeared at the start of the legendary 1930s race Thousand Miles of Czechoslovakia, was recently unveiled at the National Technical Museum in Prague. This Thursday, the fiery red sports car will take part in the race again, 90 years after its first appearance.
The Jawa 750 racing specials were created in the early 1930s to participate in the legendary race that took place in Czechoslovakia’s First Republic under the patronage of President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. The race only took place three times, between 1933 and 1935 and the eight Jawas that took part in it eventually ended up in private hands.
The Embassy of Georgia in the Czech Republic and Georgian Wings organize a B2B workshop and presentation at the Lindner Hotel Prague Castle on the occasion of starting direct flights between Prague Airport and Tbilisi Airport.
The main speakers were H.E. Ms. Tea Maisuradze – the Ambassador of Georgia to the Czech Republic, Mr. Shalva ( Shako) Kiknadze – president Geosky the owner of the Georgian Wings, Mgr. Petr Cecak – Ministry of Transport of the CR – Air Transport Division – Civil Aviation Department, and Mr. Ludek Hladis – AVIAREPS General Manager for CR & Slovakia.
Watch the speeches and the interesting presentations.
In the past 12 years Eva and Rob McLean, who live just outside Prague, have fostered no fewer than 12 children. All of them were new-borns who stayed with the pair for a year. What motivates them to devote so much care to often traumatised infants? How do their own sons feel about sharing their lives and home with a succession of babies? And how hard is it to give the children up after 12 months? I discussed these questions and much more with the Czech-American couple.
What prompted you to begin fostering? How many years ago was that?
Rob: “I guess we started 12 years ago. About a year before that, when our kids were, I think, about seven and nine, we were thinking, Is our family complete right now?
“I suggested that we could adopt a child and Eva was completely into that, had no problem with that, though she was more interested I think in temporary foster care, which is something I’d never heard of.
For the 7th year, Prague 6 is organizing a special and unique festival – the Festival of Embassies – Food & Culture.
This year 55 countries and Ambassadors participated in this big festival which was also an EU Voting Day Big celebration.
The festival was hosted by Mr. Jakub Starek the Mayor of Prague 6, Mr. Jan Lacina – a member of the Parliament of the CR, Mr. Jiří Růžička – a member of the Senate of the CR, and other officials.
Ambassadors greet the big crowd by saying “Bon Appetit” in their language.
A unique cultural show from all over the world entertains the crowd.
It was a big success – Tour around the world in 12 hours.
Concerts packed with Czech and foreign performers, music enthusiasts from around Europe and a great community atmosphere – summer music festivals, are becoming more and more popular in this country and there are plenty to choose from. Here are a few of the events you shouldn’t miss in the upcoming months.
Rock for People
The legendary festival will head to Hradec Králové again this week between Wednesday 12 and Saturday 15 June. It is especially attractive for rock fans who can look forward to The Prodigy, The Offspring or Bring Me the Horizon. Yungblud or Avril Lavigne will be present too.
Fans of the domestic scene can look forward to Vypsaná fixa, Mňága a Žďorp and Aneta Langerová, among others. In addition, the festival brings new or lesser-known talents into the spotlight. Civilní obrana, Night Art Expo and Naty Hrychová will all be making their debut here.
Like in other EU member states, elections to the European Parliament in Czechia brought a number of surprises. In addition to a record turnout, almost double that ten years ago, many voters came to the polls to cast a protest vote.
As the results of the European elections were made public late on Sunday night, it was clear that the parties of the ruling centre-right coalition had suffered a humiliating defeat. The most votes went to the opposition ANO party which won 7 mandates, taking a third of the country’s 21 seats, and gaining one more seat than they did in the last elections. ANO leader Andrej Babiš called it a success that surpassed his expectations and said the party’s MEPs would get to work right away to deliver on their election promises.
Some seven percent of children and adolescents in Czechia witnessed or directly experienced repeated domestic violence last year. This behaviour is often linked to excessive alcohol consumption. Experts across the board are currently drafting an action plan regulating access to alcohol and reducing alcohol-related damage.
According to last year’s annual report on addictions, one in eight adults in Czechia drinks excessively at least once a week and as many as 1.3 million people over the age of 15 are risk-drinkers.
While alcohol is usually not the cause of domestic violence, it definitely escalates the problem. Experts point out that serious injuries and even deaths are many times more likely to occur when alcohol is involved.
The Czech government has approved a proposed amendment that would outlaw corporal punishment of children. Czechia is one of the last EU member states to adopt such a regulation and while there will be no sanctions for breaking it, child experts hope it will change age-old habits.
According to the results of an SC&C survey the number of Czech parents who regularly use corporal punishment in bringing up their children has dropped to around 4 percent, which is significantly less than in the past. However, there are those who still firmly believe that “to spare the rod is to spoil the child”. Kristyna, a mother of two, recalls how slapping her first-born was normal when she was under pressure.
” When my son was two, I would slap his hands, when he was three, I would smack him on the bottom. I knew it was wrong. At night, when he was sleeping, I felt regret. Also it didn’t lead anywhere, there was no change for the better.”
Photo: František Fridrich, Zdeněk Wirth, ‘Stará Praha’, J. Otto, 1940/Wikimedia Commons, public domain
The ceremony was attended by Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife Elisabeth, also known as Sissi. The imperial couple also made a significant contribution to a public fundraiser for the construction of one of the largest church buildings of its time.
The collection was financially supported by the Emperor’s predecessor Ferdinand I of Austria, who lived in Prague after his abdication, and later by the widowed Empress Caroline, after whom the newly built district was named – Karolinenthal – Karlín. Marie Riegrová-Palacká and her Committee of Ladies also contributed to the success of the collection. Nine years after the laying of the foundation stone, on the day of the millennium of the arrival of the Slavic heroes Cyril and Methodius, the church was consecrated by the Archbishop of Prague and Cardinal Bedřich Schwarzenberg.
Czech footballer Petr Čech, considered one of the best goalkeepers of the modern era, was born in the west Bohemian city of Plzeň. His journey to the top of the football world is a fascinating story of determination and talent. He launched his career at the local club Viktoria Plzeň and worked his way up through Chmel Blšany, Sparta Prague and Rennes in France all the way to London’s legendary clubs Chelsea and Arsenal.
Petr Čech started as a striker in the junior team of Viktoria Plzeň when he was just seven years old. Jiří Hošek, editor-in-chief of Canal Plus Sport, who has followed his career closely, explains how Čech ended up “between the sticks”:
“That’s because he suffered a very serious injury at the age of twelve: a complicated fracture in his leg. For many, this could have been a career-ending injury. Luckily, in Petr Čech’s case, the leg healed very well. But it definitely was a turning point.”
Even though he had already made the national team as a junior and shone at the European Under-16 Championship, where he was named the best goalkeeper of the tournament, Viktorka Plzeň let him move to Chmel Blšany for just CZK 350,000.
In June, several types of restoration work will begin in the Cathedral of St. Vitus, Wenceslas, and Vojtěch. Those on the stained glass windows with the theme of the Holy Trinity have already started, and monitoring of the mosaic of the Last Judgment on the Golden Gate of the cathedral is also currently underway. The total restoration of the plinths around the entire perimeter of the building is also underway, and scaffolding is starting to be built near the southwest tower, which will be used for the next stage of care for the outer shell and will also allow the revision and treatment of several figurative gargoyles.
The St. Vitus Cathedral has been undergoing gradual repairs and restoration continuously, without interruption, since 1973.
At the Golden Gate, restorers are now working on a unique mosaic of the Last Judgment from the 14th century. The mosaic is composed of more than a million pieces of chipped glass cubes and stone, making it one of the largest and best-preserved mosaics in Europe, and unlike most others, it is mounted on an exterior facade. It underwent a major restoration at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and then before the end of the millennium when it was restored and covered with a protective layer of special varnish. The condition of this protective layer is monitored annually.
In June, the restoration work will also focus on the stained glass window with the theme of the Holy Trinity. It was made between 1935 and 1936 by the artistic glazier Josef Jiřička according to the design of František Kysela. Jiřiček’s diamond-engraved signature has survived to this day on one of the parts of the glass filling. During the period of the protectorate, the stained glass had to be dismantled and never returned to its place – in the middle window above the main altar there is a stained glass window designed by Max Švabinský. However, the pieces of Kysel’s stained glass are part of the art collections of the Prague Castle; their restoration is provided by the Jirička-Coufal art glassworks, the successor of Josef Jiřička’s workshop.
In addition to the work on the exterior, restoration work is also planned inside the cathedral, in two parts of the choir.
The trucks raced through the steppe, raising high clouds of dust behind them, along the improvised road, which the grader dug for them a few days ago. The moment when three Przewalski’s horses, loaded on their decks, would be able to leave the crammed transport crates after more than thirty hours was approaching. At that moment only tens of minutes of driving were left to reach the introduction centre in Alibi and with every kilometre my hope that everything would turn out well after all and that after hundreds of years Przewalski’s horses would return in steppes of Central Kazakhstan was growing.
Unfortunately, our first – and at the same time already twinned – transport of Przewalski’s horses from central Europe to Kazakhstani Golden Steppe has been dogged by serious problems. On Monday afternoon, two army CASA planes were supposed to fly to Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, simultaneously, one from Prague, the other one from Berlin, both of them with four Przewalski’s horses on board. In reality, however, only the CASA flight from Prague left, after a small delay, carrying three horses. During the journey to the airport we sent back to the zoo the stallion Pelle, who had started sitting down in the crate, which could cost him his life during such a long journey. Departure of the second plane from Berlin was at that moment already delayed by at least 48 hours due to a technical defect. During the journey, however, there were other, although not so serious, difficulties that got on our nerves.
But the main things worked. Our “Prague” CASA landed with no difficulties at the runway in Arkalyk, abandoned for decades. Everything was ready on the spot – rescue services, firemen, custom officers and so on – and we were welcomed by the Minister of Environment of Kazakhstan. However, we didn’t have time for ceremonies. We loaded the horses on the trucks and while there were celebrations going on at the airport, we set off for Alibi. Fortunately, the sceptical estimates that the journey would take ten hours were incorrect.
A river ford was the last big obstacle we faced before Alibi. We were already worried about it since our first visit in April last year. But we found it well-tended and with a low water level, so the trucks as well as the escort vehicles got over it easily and soon the gate to one of the two acclimatisation enclosures opened in front of them.
The three-year-old mare Zeta II was the first to touch the ground of Kazakhstan on Tuesday evening. I insisted that it be her. Her namesake Zeta became a legend of Gobi, where she managed to survive the harshest winters and became the mother of many foals. Hopefully Zeta II will follow her… the mare Ypsilonka was the second one to enter the steppe, and the stallion Zorro was the third.
It was a historic moment: the first step to the return of the wild horses to another area, where they had lived in past, and at the same moment the culmination of a tremendous effort of many people. All of them, whether they were on the spot or thousands of kilometres away, could breathe a sight of relief, and some had tears in their eyes…
On Thursday morning the army plane CASA with four mares on board from Berlin landed in Arkalyk. These are now, on Thursday evening, also in the acclimatization enclosure in Alibi.
Done! The first seven Przewalski’s horses are in the Golden Steppe.
Well… done for this moment. We still have a lot of work to do.
The Ambassador of Brazil H.E. Ms. Sonia Regina Guimaraes Gomes and the Mayor of Prague 6 Mr. Jakub Starek organize an unveiling ceremony of the bust of the former Brazilian president Juscelino Kubitschek that has Czech roots.
The ceremony took place at Lázaro Cárdenas Park, Nám. Interbrigády, Bubeneč, in Prague 6.
Watch the video with the speechs of the Ambassador of Brazil H.E. Ms. Sonia Regina Guimaraes Gomes and the Mayor of Prague 6 Mr. Jakub Starek.
It’s a beautiful park, visit it and enjoy the beauty.
The Embassy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg with the Czech Post Museum organizes an exhibition “The Luxembourg Dynasty between Two Countries “ at the post office at Prague Castle.
This unique exhibition was opened by the Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg H.E. Mr. Ronald Dofing , and the manager of the Czech Post Museum Mr. Jiri Strecha.
Watch the video with their speeches and highlights of the exhibition.
If you are at Prague Castle, visit the post office at the 3rd yard.
Releasing the Wespe mare from the transport box to the acclimatization enclosure. Photo by Václav Šilha, Prague Zoo
A CASA plane of the CR Army landed in Arkalyk in central Kazakhstan with four more Převalský horses. The mares Tessa, Wespe, Umbra and Sara completed an 18-hour flight from Berlin and then traveled on the backs of trucks over difficult terrain for over seven hours. Before 5:00 p.m. local time, the mares were released into the acclimatization pen at the Alibi reintroduction center in the Altyn Dala region. At the same time, since Tuesday, the stallion Zorro and two mares Zeta II and Ypsilonka, transported from Prague on the first of the flights, have been getting used to the next enclosure.
Unloading of Převalský’s horses from the CASA aircraft of the CR Army at the airport in Arkalyk after an 18-hour flight from Berlin. Photo by Václav Šilha, Prague Zoo
“This is an event of historical importance: The seven ‘rollers’ that we transported here with two CASA machines represent the first individuals of this species in central Kazakhstan in hundreds of years,” said the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek. “With the double transport, we have taken a significant step towards the return of the last wild horse to another area where they were found in the past. Our goal is to gradually transport at least forty individuals here so that a viable population can be created here. Few exemplify the meaning of modern zoos like The Return of the Wild Horses.”
Today, three mares born in Germany arrived in Altyn Dala, i.e. the Golden Steppe – a stout five-year-old Tessa originally from Tierpark Berlin, an equally old dark-legged Wespe born in the zoo in Weilburg and a three-and-a-half-year-old light-warming Umbra from the semi-natural reserve Aschaffenburg Schweinheim. They were joined by the youngest Sara, who will only be three years old in two weeks and who is the only one from France, from ZooSafari de Thoiry. All the candidates met in Tierpark Berlin in the past six months – similar to what happened here in Dolní Dobřejov, where the Prague Zoo runs a breeding station. The final selection of individuals suitable for transport, mainly with regard to their health status, was carried out by experts from the Prague Zoo together with colleagues from Tierpark Berlin.
The road on the way from the airport to the reintroduction center is in places devastated by the recent floods. Photo by Václav Šilha, Prague Zoo
Today, Tessa was the first to run out of the transport box into the enclosure, followed by Wespe, followed by Umbra, and Sary rounded out the foursome. They will not be joined with the stallion Zorro and the two mares Zeta II and Ypsilonka brought from Prague in order to ensure the genetic diversity of the local population. In the future, he will ideally form a harem with another stallion so that more stallions are bred in the place from the beginning. In two vast enclosures totaling 80 hectares, the seven horses will get used to the local conditions and to themselves under the close supervision of researchers. Before being released into the wild, they must demonstrate resistance to frost or parasites, as well as the ability to find suitable food under a thick snow cover. Their acclimatization will take about a year.
In cooperation with its partners, Prague Zoo is preparing another Kazakh transport for next spring. At the same time, however, preparations are underway for the first-ever transport of Převalský’s horses to the east of Mongolia, to the so-called Valley of the Monastery, in 2026. After a break of several years, this iconic ungulate returned to the Troy area of the Prague Zoo this year. People will now find Převalský’s horses alongside other Central Asian fauna in the Gobi exhibit near the top station of the cable car.
More about the project: zoopraha.cz/kazachstan-2024
Kamaz trucks with horses on their backs also passed long-abandoned houses made of burnt bricks during their journey through the steppes. Photo by Václav Šilha, Prague Zoo
Trumpeter and composer Štěpánka Balcarová, a two-time Anděl Award winner in the jazz category, recently released a new album inspired by her own experience of becoming a mother. It includes eight compositions, inspired by one of the basic human emotions. Called simply Emotions, the album was voted Czechia’s second best jazz album of 2023 by Czech Radio’s Czech Jazz Harvest critics’ poll.
Rosa Bohemica is not your typical arts festival in that it doesn’t just take place in one location, but in 13. Spread out over four different Czech regions, the festival includes concerts, theatre and talks, all held in unique and exceptional settings.
Thirteen concerts, four theatre performances and two lectures – that’s what the fourth edition of the Rosa Bohemica festival offers in its programme this year. Founder and director of the festival Gabriela Eibenová explains what makes the festival unique:
“It brings together historical places and quality music. There is a high concentration of excellent concerts in Prague, but 50km away, people don’t get to hear it. So I wanted to bring these terrific composers and artists out of Prague and fill beautiful places in other parts of the country with their music – beautiful places where very likely such music used to be played a lot more often, because they are locations like churches, castles, and so on.”
One of the aims of the festival is to try to breathe some life back into remarkable yet often-forgotten historical buildings.
More than two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, there are over 339,000 Ukrainian nationals with temporary protection status living in Czechia. As the war drags on, many have grown accustomed to the idea that they may never return. But, there are also refugees who wish to go back, no matter the risks, and the Czech government has launched a program to help them do so.
Fifty-year-old Olena still remembers the day she arrived in Czechia and the volunteer who helped her to get her bearings in a foreign country. Olena has lived in Czechia for two years now and has no plans to return to Ukraine for the time being. Like many refugees, she has no place to go. Her house in Kharkiv was completely destroyed by Russian troops. But Olena understands those of her compatriots who want to return to their homeland, despite the unstable situation. Some yearn to see the family and friends they left behind. Others who need health care prefer to get treatment in their homeland from doctors they know and trust.
For the third consecutive year, Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art is hosting Prague Offspring, a Prague Spring festival concert format dedicated to contemporary music. The legendary Klangforum Wien will again appear in the role of ensemble-in-residence and will also feature in a special concert featuring 50 pianos. I asked Josef Třeštík, Prague Spring’s programme director, to tell me more:
“Prague Offspring takes place for the third time this year and for the third and last time the ensemble-in-residence is Klangforum Wien, an excellent specialised contemporary music ensemble from Vienna. The composer-in-residence this year is Rebecca Saunders, a British-born Berlin-based composer.
“We will feature two of her major works, Nether and Scar. Nether is for a soprano and ensemble at it is based on Molly Bloom’s monologue from the Ulysses by James Joyce. It’s a rather complex work based on sonic qualities of language, which are interacting with the sounds coming from the ensemble.
Photo: Pavel Vlach, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED
Join us on a trip to the Plzeň Region – the birthplace of Czech pilsner lager. Our drone video will guide you through wooded hills, stone castles and ruins, all from a bird’s eye view.
The one-month-old male Sumatran orangutan born at Prague Zoo has been named Harapan, which means ‘hope’ in Indonesian. He is pictured in his mother’s arms, the 11-year-old female Diri. The zoo keepers have shortened Harapan’s name to Hari.
The war in Ukraine dominated an informal summit of NATO foreign ministers in Prague, which entered its second day Friday. Also in attendance was the alliance’s secretary general, who responded positively to news the US is allowing Ukraine to hit targets inside Russia with American weapons.
The informal summit of NATO foreign ministers in Prague was held in preparation for a full summit in Washington in July and was the biggest alliance event in Czechia in over two decades.
The venue for the two-day event was the grand Czernin Palace in the city’s Hradčany district, home of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International
Ondřej Krutílek is a member of the ruling Civic Democratic Party and is running in the European elections within the coalition SPOLU, made up of Civic Democrats, Christian Democrats and TOP 09. He is an expert on EU legislation and is familiar with the workings of the EU.
This is a critical time for Europe, when decisions on security, migration and climate change will decide the future of the Continent. What kind of leadership does Europe need at this time?
“It is not just about the leadership, but also about the structure of the European Parliament and its composition. In my view it is not necessary to have a revolution in the European Parliament, it is necessary to have forces who are aware of the fact that there is a war on Europe’s borders and that we need to be safe in Europe. Security is the key, and to come back to your question –what kind of leadership – I think that not the European Union itself, but member states are the key, because if member states are strong then also the European Union is strong. Because I do not trust in the concept of a European federation.”
The Jungborn nudist sanatorium, the Paris metro, or the picturesque town of Stresa by Lago Magiorre – these are just some of the many places visited by Franz Kafka, the great Prague-born Jewish writer who died exactly 100 years ago. To mark the occasion, a new book, has just come out dedicated to Kafka’s travels. I spoke to its author, journalist and publicist Judita Matyášová:
“We decided to create this book as an inspiration for those who already know Kafka. We would like to inspire people who are perhaps a little bit intimidated by his writing, who think that he is maybe too depressing or pessimistic. So we would like to invite them to follow in his footsteps all around Europe.”
Věra Jourová is one of the best-known Czech names in Brussels’ circles. In 2019, the former Czech minister and commissioner, now Vice-President of the European Commission, made Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people on the planet. Ironically, she entered the EU-executive with a slight disadvantage, because she was put in charge of a portfolio she didn’t particularly want. In this edition of “Czechs in the EU” we look back at Věra Jourová’s work in Brussels with Viktor Daněk, Deputy Director of the Europeum Institute and Czech Radio’s former Brussels correspondent.
When Věra Jourová became the first Czech to make Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people on the planet in 2019, she said she could not have been more surprised.
In the first episode of our five-part-series Czechs in the EU, which we are running in connection with the upcoming European Parliament elections, we will look at the legacy left by the country’s first post-communist president Václav Havel and how he was perceived in Brussels and Strasbourg. My guest in the studio is Viktor Daněk, Czech Radio’s former correspondent in Brussels, now Deputy Director of the EUROPEUM Institute.
Viktor, what is it that makes Václav Havel an inspiration to European politicians almost thirteen years after his death?
“Well, European Union connects states which were for decades divided by the Iron Curtain, and I think that Václav Havel became a symbol, alongside Lech Wałęsa, of this change and of European unity. It even became a matter of curtesy to mention him on important occasions when European politicians speak about history.
Illustration photo: Alexis Haulot, Europäisches Parlament/Europäische Union 2024
Czech voters will cast their ballots in European Parliament elections at the end of this week. A last minute poll suggests the SPOLU (Together) alliance are on the heels of opposition leaders ANO, while the Communists, no longer in the lower house, could take as many seats as the Pirates. I discussed the elections with political scientist Petr Just.
Have there been any issues dominating campaigning for the European elections?
“Before the campaign started most of the political actors thought that it would be migration.
“Although migration remained one of the top issues, in the end the major issue was the Green Deal, as one of the very discussed and also, from some perspectives, controversial policies of the European Union, currently being passed by the European Parliament.
This year, Czechia is marking the 20th anniversary of its accession to the European Union. When it joined the club, some people in this country were concerned about whether the Czech voice would be heard in the competition of so many other countries, especially the ‘heavy-weights’. Twenty years on, one can say that in a number of cases, the Czechs have even been the driving force behind changes affecting the whole of Europe.
In this instalment of our five-part-series “Czechs in the EU”, we look back at some of the most notable changes that Czechs spearheaded in Europe . My guest is Viktor Daněk, Deputy Director of the Europeum Institute for European Policy.
Czechs are paying tribute to the photographer Bohumil Dobrovolský, who died on Wednesday at the age of 89. He is best known for his photographs documenting the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968.
Bohumil Dobrovolský (1935-2024), who died on Wednesday at the age of 89, was born in Libčice nad Vltavou in what was then Czechoslovakia. He was a photographer interested in live reportage photography. Between 1960 and 2024, he held dozens of solo and group exhibitions.
The 80th anniversary of D-Day, otherwise known as “Operation Overlord,” will remember the Allied soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy on 6 June, 1944. Czech President Petr Pavel will attend, along with 25 other world leaders, 43,000 officers, and more than a million visitors.
World leaders are descending on Normandy on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Among those present are the U.S. President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and King Charles III. Czech Radio correspondent Martin Balucha comments on the extraordinary atmosphere..
Rolls Royce and Bentley Club Czech Republic is inviting fans and admirers of these elegant vehicles to its Prague get-together.
The Rolls-Royce and Bentley Club Czech Republic was setup in 2003 by admirers of these elegant and luxurious brands established over a century ago. Today it not only serves the needs and interests of Rolls Royce and Bentley car owners, but offers the general public a glimpse into a world of luxury, craftsmanship, and automotive excellence.
Pavlina Prokesova the Founder and the General manager of ReallocateCZ continues with her exclusive charity events for a great purpose.
This week the “Femme Fatale” Event, took place in the historic Betlemska Kaple – Prague Old Town, a venue that combines unique architecture with a rich cultural heritage.
The evening unfolded with a lineup of enchanting performances, a gourmet banquet, and exclusive networking opportunities with some very interesting figures from the Prague community.
We raise 320,000 CZK., that will provide significant support and relief to the families aided by the Rett Community z.s. that supports families with children has the Rett Syndrome.
3D printing has found a home in several industries, primarily the industrial and electrical sectors. But healthcare has also found many uses for the technology, including for creating medical devices, dental implants, patient-specific surgical models, and prostheses. One of the leading applications of 3D printing in healthcare is in orthopaedic surgery – which is precisely where it has started to be used in Ústí nad Labem’s Masaryk Hospital.
Many hospitals around the world have already adopted 3D printing technology over the last few years – and now another Czech hospital has joined them. The Faculty of Health Studies and the Regional Health Administration in Ústí nad Labem have set up a joint 3D laboratory to help surgeons better prepare for and plan their operations. Tomáš Novotný is head of the Masaryk Hospital’s orthopaedic clinic in Ústí nad Labem.
On the occasion of the National Day, Armed Force Day of the Republic of Croatia and 15 years of membership in NATO the Ambassador of Croatia H.E. Mrs. Ljiljana Pancirov and the Defense Attache Col. Zdravko Barbaric host a reception and presentation of the Moravian Croats at the historic New Town Hall in Prague.
Watch the video with the speech of H.E. Mrs. Ljiljana Pancirov – Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia and the show of the Moravian Croats.
On the occasion of the Independence Day of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E Mr. Adish Mammadov and Mrs. Amanat Pashazade host a reception at the Bohemia Ballroom at the Prague Marriott Hotel.
Mr. Jaroslav Kurfürst – Director General for European Issues was the honored guest.
Watch the video with the speech of H.E Mr. Adish Mammadov – Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Mr. Jaroslav Kurfürst – Director General for European Issues.
Visitors to the Prague Zoo can expect several extraordinary events during the first weekend of June.
On Saturday, June 1, all children under the age of 15 will be admitted to the Prague Zoo for a symbolic one crown. A special program for Children’s Day was prepared by the Prague Zoo in cooperation with the Municipal Police. Prague will offer live music, prize competitions, sports activities, and a bouncy castle.
On Sunday, June 2 at 11 a.m., the christening ceremony of the baby orangutan will take place at the Indonesian Jungle pavilion. The one-month-old male will be named jointly by Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavský and British Ambassador Matt Field.
On both free days, in addition to the aforementioned events, there will also be a special themed, commented animal feeding. On Saturday, visitors can look forward to feeding the parrots as part of the World Parrot Day celebrations, while on Sunday, critically endangered mountain bongos will celebrate their day in the same spirit. You can find the full program below.
Standard guided animal feedings and encounters – including the popular sea lion training – will run daily from June 1 until the end of August. You can find their breakdown here: www.zoopraha.cz/navsteva/program/komentovana-krmeni-cviceni.
Program for Saturday, June 1
9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. Children’s Day with the city police
Music program: Swing Band of the city police – terrace of the Education Center
Throw to the target and Semaphore – intersection near the sea lions
Walking on stilts and Rotopedo – on the way to the exhibition of anthills
Face painting – Veselovského louk
Jumping castle – Veselovského louka
Airbrush tattooing – Archa theater
Photo corner – next to the Archa theater
Kašpar and Klaudie – Children’s zoo and surroundings
Bungee running – on the patch behind the ticket office of the children’s tram
Children’s traffic school – at the Beasts and Reptiles Pavilion
Issuing gifts – opposite the Education Center
10.00–16.00 World Parrot Day Celebrations
10.00 Handing over of enrichment to kea nestors – Rákos’ pavilion
12.00 Meeting with long-billed cogons – Rákos’ pavilion
13.30 Feeding the raven cockatoos – Darwin Crater
15.00 Feeding the lories – Lories
Program for Sunday, June 2
11.00 Baptism of a Sumatran orangutan cub
11.00 revealing the name of the cub – the journey between the capital entrance and the Indonesian jungle
13.00, 14.00, 15.00 commented meetings with orangutans – Indonesian jungle
11.00-14.00 World Bong Day Celebrations
11:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. guided feeding of mountain bongs – enclosure near the Hippo Pavilion
10.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. commented meetings at the mountain bongs – enclosure at the Hippo Pavilion
Have you ever wondered what a Baroque pharmacy looked like? The answer lies in a monastery called Zlatá Koruna, in southern Bohemia, which recently re-created such a pharmacy from authentic items dating back to the 18th century.
Have you ever wondered what a Baroque pharmacy looked like? The answer lies in a monastery called Zlatá Koruna, in southern Bohemia, which recently re-created such a pharmacy from authentic items dating back to the 18th century.
Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International
The annual Ride of the Kings folk celebration – a centuries-old UNESCO listed tradition – took place in the village of Vlčnov in South Moravia on Sunday. The festive ride of young men, led by a nine-year-old boy in the role of king, signifies their transition to manhood.
Hundreds of people gathered in Vlčnov on Sunday to witness the annual Ride of the Kings, which has been taking place in the village since 1808. The tradition refers to the flight of Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus from Czech King George of Poděbrady in the 15th century and is only practised today in four villages in the Slovácko region.
The Czech prime minister on Tuesday hosted a work dinner for a group of EU leaders and the prime minister of Ukraine aimed at coordinating and strengthening aid to the embattled country in the face of continuing Russian aggression. The meeting, attended by some of Ukraine’s most prominent allies, focused on the Czech shells-for-Ukraine initiative, Ukraine’s air defence and European cooperation in the defence industry.
“The situation on the battlefront is reaching a critical point. We must step up our efforts and find new ways to support Ukraine’s defense” — that was the main message from the Prague talks on Tuesday night.
Photo: Martina Kutková, Radio Prague International
A special concert performance of Bedřich Smetana’s opera Libuše will be performed at Prague’s Rudolfinum on Tuesday, marking the 200th anniversary of the great Czech composer’s birth. The event, featuring Czech opera stars Kateřina Kněžíková and Adam Plachetka, is part of the Prague Spring international music festival.
Bedřich Smetana’s opera Libuše about Bohemia’s mythical female ruler was first performed in 1881 at the opening of the National Theatre in Prague and then again at the reopening of the theatre after the first building was destroyed by fire.
“The biggest obstacle is not the stairs, but the people,” says the thirtieth winner of the Olga Havel Award Doris Průšová
On May 27, 2024, Doris Průšová received the Olga Havlova Prize awarded by the Committee of Good Will – Olga Havlova Foundation (VDV) in the Fanta Hall of the Main Railway Station in Prague. The laureate received the award for her efforts to help create jobs in the mainstream labor market for people with health disabilities and break down barriers between healthy and disabled employees. The sculpture “Encouragement” by the sculptor Olbram Zoubek was presented by Markéta Pekarová Adamová, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Vojtěch Sedláček, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the VDV, and Bishop Václav Malý, a member of the Board of Directors of the VDV. Michaela Linková became the winner of the Public Prize.
The Olga Havlová Award was first announced by Olga Havlová in 1995 with the aim of honoring people with a health disadvantage who, despite their handicaps, selflessly help others and are thus an inspiration to overcome obstacles for others. “The thirty-year anniversary of the Olga Havlová Prize is a celebration of all its previous laureates, who follow Olga Havlová’s legacy and make the world a better place to live. It also celebrates the courage, solidarity, and change that this award represents,” said Monika Granja, director of VDV.
This year, the jury of the Olga Havlova Award selected laureates from 19 personalities proposed by the public. Doris Průšová received the award for her efforts to contribute to the accessibility of workplaces for people with any handicap. Her personal experience with how difficult it is for a person with a handicap to find a job in the regular labor market led her to this activity. In the beginning, she encountered a lack of understanding from companies: “They thought that people with disabilities had a protected market where they could work or stay at home and receive a pension. No one has thought about the fact that work is a form of socialization and integration into society,” says Doris Průšová. The Troublegang team, which is part of the Employment Agency for people with disabilities O KROK and where Doris works, has so far managed to find employment for 80 people with disabilities.
For the eighth time, the VDV also awarded the Public Prize as part of the Olga Havlová Prize, which was won by Michaela Linková, who suffers from a rare and severe disease, systemic scleroderma. In addition, she has been fighting cancer for a long time. She works in the association Revma Liga Czech Republic, where for the past two years she has been intensively dedicated to a project that fundamentally changes the patient environment in our country. In addition, she founded the Scleroderma patient group, which provides valuable assistance to all patients with this diagnosis. He actively promotes awareness of this rare rheumatic disease.
The main media partner of the Olga Havlova Prize 2024 is Český rozhlas and Deník N. Other partners are: Správa železnik, Minet Elektro, ČSOB, Mountfield, Rückl, Copy General, Model Obaly and Radio 1.
You can find more about the Olga Havlova Prize here: www.cenaolgyhavlove .cz
Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International
Danuše Nerudová is an economist and university professor and a former rector of Mendel University in Brno. She is running in the European elections for the Mayors and Independents Party.
Ms. Nerudová, a recent poll showed that the issues Czechs are most interested in, in these elections, are security, energy security and migration. Turning first to security. There is a war raging just 300km from the country’s eastern border. Czechia has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine from the start, providing both military and humanitarian aid. Now some parties are increasingly pushing for peace talks. What is your position on this and what is crucial for European security today?
“I think the crucial task for the EU is to provide continued strong support for Ukraine, because Ukraine is also fighting for us. I think that the European Union made a big mistake in 2014, when Putin invaded Crimea, that the response of the EU was very weak. And he took advantage of that to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That should be a lesson to us and I honestly do not understand those voices [calling for peace talks] because we are not the ones who can talk about initiating peace talks. The only person who can do that is President Zelensky, because it is his people who are fighting.
Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International
19-year-old Daniel Matejča is perceived throughout Czechia as a bit of a wunderkind. Studying under the mentorship and guidance of famous Czech pedagogue Ivan Straus, Matejča has been playing the violin since he was four, has impressed audiences with his renditions of Bach classics, and has picked up winning titles such as the Eurovision Young Musicians contest in 2022. But underneath the mature and composed exterior is a young man who enjoys skateboarding, hip-hop, and travel. In our fifth episode of the Faces of Czech Music, we take you into Matejča’s world.
Photo: Magdalena Kašubová, Radio Prague International
The Liberec Region boasts a picturesque, hilly landscape, dotted with many castles and chateaus and a sight you can’t miss – the iconic TV transmitter on Ještěd. Czech out its landmarks in our photo gallery.
The Liberec Region is known for its glassmaking tradition and its exquisite costume jewellery exported to many countries of the world. It offers great mountain hiking in both summer and winter, beautiful nature and picturesque towns. Test your knowledge of the Liberec Region in our quiz!
Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International
Marcel Kolaja is the leader of the Czech Pirate Party in the European elections. He is an IT specialist and internet freedom and digital rights activist and has served in the European Parliament since the 2019 elections.
Europe has seen some tough years – the Covid pandemic, the energy crisis, economic problems and now the war in Ukraine that people fear may spill over. That opens the door to a lot of populism. What will be your message to voters and what can you offer to counterbalance those “easy solutions”?
“The Pirate Party has always been a party that makes decisions based on data. We really like the data-based approach and we are realistic. Our approach is not populist, we do not tell people about how the future will be great. We are open in saying and admitting that there are challenges that we have to overcome, but we would like to turn those challenges into opportunities. So when it comes to climate change, which is currently one of the biggest challenges we face, we point out that all parts of the world are going through an economic transition that is linked to a reaction to climate change and warn that if Europe does not go through the same economic transition, then we will be falling behind. And that is not something we want to happen.”
Billed as “the world’s largest professional Romani festival”, Khamoro, meaning ‘sunshine’ in Romani, has been taking place in Prague since 1999. But as Izabela Chalupníková from the festival’s production team told me, it’s not your typical Romani festival. While most Romani festivals focus on music, Khamoro, in addition to concerts, presents a diverse programme of exhibitions, children’s activities, oral history, film screenings, dance performances, workshops, conferences and more.
“Our main goal is to show how colourful Roma culture is – it’s not all about music, we also have a lot of artists who are painters, dancers, writers, or work in movie production, for example. We want to show this and that’s why we not only have a musical programme during the festival, but also an accompanying programme of movie screenings, activities for children, Roma writers, and so on.
Two Czech titles, Tiny Lights and Our Lovely Pig Slaughter, will be in the main competition at the 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, organisers revealed on Tuesday. Meanwhile Hollywood star Geoffrey Rush will be part of the jury deciding who takes home the Crystal Globe. I spoke to artistic director Karel Och at the unveiling of this year’s official selection.
You have 15 films by debuting filmmakers in the official selection this year. Why so many, and what does it mean to you to have so many young directors?
“I guess that’s our sensitivity for up-and-coming filmmakers. We have been championing them for many years and I’m happy to say that there are so many.
Photo: Hans H. Pinn, 1916-1978 photographer, Portrait Max Brod, [1964], סימול ARC. 4* 2000 08 076, Max Brod Archive/The National Library of Israel
Max Brod, an important representative of Prague Jewish German literature, was born 140 years ago, on May 27, 1884. He is best known as the saviour of Franz Kafka’s work.
Max Brod was born into the family of a German-speaking clerk. After graduating from law school he worked as a postal, financial and court clerk. From 1929 to 1939 he was theatre and music critic for the newspaper Prager Tagblatt. He was also vice-president of the Jewish National Council in Czechoslovakia.
Brod was a good friend of future literary giant Franz Kafka and is known as the man who saved the writer’s work for the world. He did not burn Kafka‘s short stories and novels, despite his express wishes, but instead sorted and published them. He also wrote several studies on Kafka and edited his works.
Jazz Dock, one of Prague’s most popular jazz clubs thanks to its cool location in a modern glass building that appears to be floating on the river Vltava, plays host to a wide variety of jazz, funk, Latin and soul bands. But it also has its own house band, the Jazz Dock Orchestra, which recently released its first album.
The regional centers for Housing Investment Support, which was established in April by the State Investment Support Fund (SFPI), are already fully providing services to municipalities. They register dozens of requests for consultations of various types from mayors.
Ivan Bartoš, Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization and Minister for Regional Development, got acquainted with the activities of one of these eight new expert advisory centers during his trip to the Pilsen region.
“Regional investment support centers are an important part of the mosaic that is our Housing for Life reform. I am excited about the interest that municipalities have already shown in their services. I believe that the centers will be a great support for cities and municipalities, and not only during the launch of our Affordable Housing program in September,” said Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization and Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš on the occasion of a visit to the Pilsen Regional Center for Housing Investment Support.
“Regional centers deal with questions from various areas. I am pleased that after such a short period of its operation it has become a partner of our mayors. Our experts answer questions about project management, implementation and strategic planning of investments, they also help with financial modeling and project financing, as well as with technological designs and building solutions to make them efficient and sustainable,” explains SFPI director Daniel Ryšávka.
Minister Ivan Bartoš also visited the town of Přeštice, which is located twenty kilometers south of Pilsen. A project to complete the area for senior housing and modern facilities for field care services is being prepared on site. There will also be 14 new apartments for the elderly. The SFPI Regional Center for Housing Investment Support is helping with project preparation. “We are glad that the state, through SFPI consultancy, also provides expert support for specific projects, such as the project for our seniors in Máchova street. Municipalities can thus speed up and make capital construction more efficient,” says Tomáš Chmelík, mayor of Přeštice. The municipality plans to use the SFPI Affordable housing program for this rental housing project, which will be launched in September.
Czechia won the Ice Hockey World Championship with a 2:0 defeat of Switzerland in the final on Sunday night. The Czechs, led by star David Pastrňák, secured the title for the first time in over a decade and a half in front of an ecstatic home crowd in Prague.
Czechia secured gold at the Ice Hockey World Championship when David Kämpf found the net for 2:0 with only seconds remaining on the clock, sparking euphoria on the Czech bench and in the stands at the sold-out O2 Arena in Prague.
Sunday night’s final against Switzerland had been a tense, goalless affair until the 51st minute, when the hosts’ biggest star, David Pastrňák, broke the deadlock with a commanding strike.
Lucia Moholy was a Prague-born photographer who documented, often uncredited, the interwar Bauhaus movement in Germany. She has largely been overlooked as an artist – something a major new retrospective at the gallery Kunsthalle Praha aims to redress. I asked curator Jordan Troeller what role Moholy played in the Bauhaus.
“The role that she played is better stated negatively [laughs]. She was neither an enrolled student nor paid staff there; nor did she have another staff, teaching position.
“She was, as she put it, one of the Bauhaus wives [she was married to László Moholy-Nagy, a painter, photographer and Bauhaus professor]. There was a big group of women who were considered the Bauhaus wives – wives of teachers there.
Czechast invites Daniel Hrbek, the director and manager of Švanda Theater in Prague, to discuss the enduring appeal of live theater, even in our digital age.
Despite the rise of streaming services, Prague’s theaters are thriving, with shows often sold out months in advance. People are clearly yearning for the unique experience of live performances. Here’s what Daniel had to say about this trend:
“Our performances are sold out. I cen see that people want to be positive, want to meet and be with other people, want to share their artistic experience.”
But that’s not all we talked about. Daniel also shares some exciting news about an upcoming collaboration between Švanda Theater and the Shakespeare Center in Los Angeles. They are teaming up to bring a modern adaptation of Czech playwright Karel Čapek’s groundbreaking science fiction play, R.U.R., to the stage:
“Our theater produced and performed a play based on a script developed by artificial intelligence. It is called ‘AI: When a Robot Writes a Play. We had an international opening night broadcast live on YouTube, so people could watch the show live all over the world and we had good reviews in The Guardian and some other media.”
Photo repro: Ondráš Přibyla, ‘Atlas of Climate Change’/Lipka
Facts on Climate Change, a Czech team of independent analysts and experts, is committed to making the public debate on climate change factual, constructive and based on scientifically verified data. They recently published an English version of their Atlas of Climate Change, which was previously only available in Czech, to provide teachers, students, journalists, influencers, and political and business decision makers across the world with easy-to-use maps, explainers and infographics that summarise key facts about one of the greatest challenges facing our civilisation today.
Ondráš Přibyla has a technical background in a field laughably opaque to most of us – theoretical physics – that led him to learn about the physics of climate change. But, unlike your stereotypical theoretical physicist, he is also interested in communication, mediation, and how to resolve conflicts.
“Stay where you are. Don’t move,” German primatologist Daniela Hedwig was whispering into a loud gorilla shouting. “It is OK, just don’t move,” she repeated, and I wondered if I should pick up my camera and try to take the photo of my life. I had already tried to imagine this situation before and I had always ended up running away in a panic – which would have been the worst thing I could do. A few seconds ago, a silverback male of lowland gorilla stopped in a threatening posture only five metres in front of me. Makumba.
Of course, it was a misunderstanding. We accidentally got in between Makumba and two of his females. It was probably Bombe, who started the fuss. What else could Makumba do than to show off properly…?
Many years have passed since my meeting with Makumba that took place in Dzana Sangha in the south-west of Central African Republic. But I was still following Makumba and his family from a distance. But exactly one week ago, unfortunately the worst news came: Makumba died.
Soon I learned that he lost his life at night from 14 to 15th May as a result of a fight with a lonely male. Similar skirmishes between the aging Makumba and younger males who sought his leadership had occurred before, but the news of his death was still shocking.
Makumba was more than 45 years old and during his time he fathered at least eighteen young, which he had with six females. Makumba’s and his family’s habituation – i.e. getting them used to the presence of people – started in 2000, when he was twenty. Later he became the true icon and symbol of conservation of both Dzanga Sangha as well as of lowland gorillas. He was the hero of many documentaries, his photos have travelled around the world many times, a number of scientific papers were created thanks to him (including also papers of the Czech team led by Klára Petrželková from the Academy of Science), and last but not least about ten thousands tourists, who brought considerable financial resources, have visited him.
Makumba was the first gorilla male, whom I have seen in the wild. And although our first meeting was somewhat strained, during following meetings I learned that he was the peaceful leading male of the gorilla family. I will never forget his massiveness and elegance. He fulfilled my big dream. And his photos, which I once took in Dzanga Sangha, will help us in Prague Zoo, just as they have done until now, to inform about the gorilla life in Central Africa and win over the public for their conservation.
Allianz Insurance has joined 9,616 companies worldwide that have declared their commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment within the UN Sustainable Development Goals and ESG agenda. It did so by signing up to the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) initiative. This was jointly announced by representatives of Allianz Insurance Company and Business & Professional Women CR, which is the ambassador of the initiative in the Czech Republic, at a ceremonial meeting of WEPs signatories and supporters.
„We are very proud to be signatories to the principles that promote equality. At the same time, I must say that for Allianz, equality is a principle that we consider to be perfectly natural. The fact that we do not just talk about equality, but actually live it, is demonstrated by the fact that we have been awarded, and at the end of last year defended again, the Edge Assess equal opportunities certificate. An equal approach enables us to support and develop talented people. This benefits us as a company, our clients, and our employees. It’s a win-win solution for everyone. I firmly believe that our daughters will see the Gender Pay Gap in the Czech Republic reduced from its current nearly 18% – preferably to zero,“ says Petr Hrbáček, Member of the Board of Directors of Allianz insurance company, which now boasts that it has managed to reduce the gender pay gap to 0.6%. He also called on other companies in the country to join the initiative and together create a community to support each other and promote good practice in the field of equal opportunities.
Business & Professional Women CR (BPWCR) has been campaigning for 15 years to close the gender pay gap and contribute to women’s education and empowerment. It is thus a natural link to those who are building an inclusive and equal corporate culture and are leaders in this regard.
„As part of our work, we try not only to attract new signatories but also to share examples of good practice from companies working on equal opportunities issues. Their activities are inspiring and encourage other companies to take an active role in creating working conditions for women so that they can develop their talents to the fullest. Allianz is taking this step to show its commitment to equal opportunities and we are extremely pleased they become part of this important initiative. I am confident that working with Allianz and the other signatories will lead to positive changes in the corporate environment and will promote modern working conditions for all,“ says Lenka Šťastná, president of BPWCR.
sincere greetings to you all wherever you are right now from Humanitas Afrika we wish you only good health, happiness, and prosperity. We have the pleasure always to update and inform you and where possible to invite you to some of our noble initiatives and activities in the Czech Republic.
in 2002, Humanitas Afrika inspired, revived, reintroduced, and led in one full week of different activities the official celebration of Afrika Day in the Czech Republic in collaboration with then 9 Afrikan Ambassadors and Embassies in Prague. Since then our organization in a small or big way has tried to sustain the celebration of Afrika Day and other Afrikan activities in the Czech Republic with passion, commitment, and creativity.
This year 2024, is no exception. Among the 3 humble events we planned to celebrate Afrika Day in the Czech Republic is our newest initiative called SPEAKER MAKE A VIDEO CLIP CONFERENCE. We kindly asked 9 noble personalities of Afrikan, Czech, and German origins to make conference-style presentations in the comfort of their homes and record purposely in honoring Afrika Day this year. The 9 Sisters and Brothers were given the liberty to speak about the topic brought up by Humanitas Afrika or from their perspectives and experiences about Afrika.
We are pleased therefore to present you with the outcome of the fruitful collaboration between Humanitas Afrika and 9 Sisters and Brothers who accepted our request and took part in the first-ever SPEAKER MAKE A VIDEO CONFERENCE in celebration of Afrika Day. Please see the link to the video on our YouTube channel Ubuntu Is Parada. Kindly do not forget to like our videos and subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQV4am-T-CM&t=187s.
As an addendum in testimony to the creativity of Humanitas Afrika and how we have inspired, led, and sustained the celebration of Afrika Day and other Afrikan socio-cultural activities in the Czech Republic since the year 2000 when our organization was founded by some Afrikans and Czechs in Prague, here is a specific example. In 2021, when the whole world was locked down because of the global coronavirus pandemic and all social and human activities came to an abrupt halt, and a standstill Humanitas Afrika found a way still to honor the celebration of Afrika Day. So it was that on 29 May 2021, Humanitas Afrika had its first-ever online collaboration with the famed Ghana Dance Ensemble to celebrate Afrika Day that year. At the request of and support from Humanitas Afrika the Ghana Dance Ensemble performed live at the campus of Ghana’s prestigious university in Accra- Legon which was live-streamed across the globe via Facebook. In case you missed that historic event in celebration of Afrika Day in 2021, then here is the recorded version of the Ghana Dance Ensemble performance on that occasion. Please see the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Fh1h1QSWA
We would like to thank our Brother Blakk Rasta – a radio journalist and popular reggae artist in Ghana for permitting us to use his song for the Afrika Day – video conference 2024 – Czech Republic. See the link to the video of the song we used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07scHB_xcUo
We also thank all our Families and Friends for your support and good wishes in different ways to our great and continued effort for Afrika and Czech-Afrika relations in the Czech Republic and beyond. Together we will make the world a better place for all humanity – it said that Little Drops of Water Make a Mighty Ocean
Happy Afrika Day 2024 – UBUNTU
On behalf of the wonderful family/team at Humanitas Afrika and the Beautiful Young and Dynamic Czech and Slovak ladies behind the production of our great videos
I remain your Simple and Humble brother Afrikatu Kofi
To mark the 7th World Bee Day 2024, the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Prague, together with the Prague 6 and in cooperation with the United Nations Information Centre in Prague, opened an outdoor exhibition “Saving the Future: the World of Pollinators” in Ladronka Park, Prague 6. The exhibition, prepared by the Embassy and the Apiculture Museum Radovljica, Slovenia, highlights the crucial role of bees and other pollinators, shares interesting facts about beekeeping in Slovenia and promotes Slovenian bee diplomacy activities.
The opening was attended by Deputy-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Mr. Eduard Hulicius, Ambassador of Slovenia H.E Mrs. Tanja Strniša, Mayor of Prague 6 Mr. Jakub Stárek, and Head of the UN Information Centre Prague Mr. Michal Broža, diplomats and other important guests and partners. (Please see quotes from the opening speeches below and the video).
By installing beehives in Ladronka Park, the Prague 6 Municipality contributed significantly to this year’s celebration, thus fostering greater collaboration between governments, local communities and individuals in the efforts to protect pollinators.
The exhibition will be on display until 10 June 2024.
Bees are under threat. Present species extinction rates are 100 to 1,000 times higher than normal due to human impacts. Close to 35 percent of invertebrate pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, and about 17 percent of vertebrate pollinators, such as bats, face extinction globally. If this trend continues, nutritious crops, such as fruits, nuts and many vegetable crops will be substituted increasingly by staple crops like rice, corn and potatoes, eventually resulting in an imbalanced diet, the United Nations warns.
Since 2017 when the United Nations declared 20 May World Bee Day, Slovenia has continued its efforts to raise awareness of the importance of bees and other pollinators and to promote international cooperation to help protecting them. Raising awareness of the importance of the pollinators helps protecting them and makes an important contribution to solving issues of global food supply. According to FAO, 71% of the most important crops grown for human consumption require pollination.
Bee Engaged with Youth
The 2024 World Bee Day focuses on the theme “Bee Engaged with Youth”. It aims to raise awareness among young people about the crucial role of bees and other pollinators in agriculture, ecological balance and biodiversity conservation. By involving young people in beekeeping activities, educational initiatives and advocacy efforts, we can inspire a new generation of environmental leaders and empower them to make a positive impact on the world.
Bees are under Threat
Bees are facing higher than normal rates of extinction due to human impacts, climate change and biodiversity degradation. Promoting more diverse farming systems and reducing dependence on toxic chemicals can help increase pollination.
Furthermore, Slovenia firmly believes in the unique potential of beekeeping to address social and environmental vulnerability. For example, beekeeping has become an increasingly popular way of adapting to climate change in water-scarce regions where people are losing their main source of livelihood and have to turn to other activities.
As a special addition to this year’s World Bee Day celebrations, Slovenia will co-host with the FAO the International Forum for Action on Sustainable Beekeeping and Pollination, “Bees for People, Planet and Peace”, which will take place in Ljubljana on 22 and 23 May.
What Can Individuals Do to Save the Bees?
By taking these simple actions, everyone can help to protect and enhance bees and other pollinators in our ecosystem:
– Plant bee-friendly flowers
– Establish bee houses for solitary bees
– Opt for organic, sustainable food choices
– Buy honey and bee products locally
– Avoid harmful chemicals and pesticides
– Leave nesting sites for ground-nesting bees
– Plant hedgerows
– Sowing meadows with more flowers
World Bee Day is an opportunity for all of us to promote actions that will protect and enhance pollinators and their habitats, improve diversity, and support the sustainable development of beekeeping.
Through the exhibition in Ladronka Park, the organizers hope to inspire new individuals to become beekeepers or take other actions. As long as there are beekeepers and bee guardians, the bees will be protected!
Quotes from the speakers at the World Bee Day event in Ladronka Park:
Mr. Eduard Hulicius, Deputy-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic: “I would like to express my deepest thanks to the Slovenian Embassy and United Nations Information Centre Prague for hosting this important event and for their continued efforts to raise awareness of the importance of bees.Bees are tough and hardworking beings, always working hard for their future. Their dedication and teamwork are amazing. We should learn from them and use their example to improve our own cooperation in building prosperous future.”
Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia H.E Mrs. Tanja Strniša: “Pollinators are key to global ecosystem health and food security, but they are currently under threat due to human impacts, climate change, and biodiversity degradation. Therefore, Slovenia has strategically engaged its diplomatic network to co-create over 300 pollinator projects in collaboration with partners around the world. Slovenia’s flagship program titled “Bees for Peace” promotes peace through cooperative bee-related activities. We strongly believe in beekeeping’s unique potential to address social and environmental vulnerability. For example, Slovenia promotes beekeeping as a means of empowering war-affected people with disabilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina or in Ukraine. Worth mentioning is also a project focused on climate adaptation through beekeeping to build resilience to climate change in Kenya’s drylands, which Slovenia initiated in collaboration with the World Food Programme.”
Mr. Jakub Stárek, Mayor of Prague 6: “We have decided to join the celebrations of World Bee Day initiated by the Embassy of Slovenia not only symbolically, but with concrete actions. We will continue to look for suitable locations for placing more beehives aside from those that have already been installed in our district.”
Mr. Michal Broža, Head of the UN Information Centre Prague: “The UN Office in Czechia is very pleased to have been able to work with Slovenia and Czechia again this year to promote the importance of bees and other pollinators. We need to tell people, especially young people, what everyone can do to protect these beautiful and important creatures and support those who care for them. I am quite sure that we will find many enthusiastic (not only young) allies in Czechia.”
From Monday 27th May – Friday 1st June audiences can enjoy over 140 performances of 36 productions from 15 different countries around the world! The traditional (and not so traditional) theatres and performance spaces of Prague’s Malá Strana district will once again be filled with international, award-winning, ground-breaking theatre, comedy, children’s shows, story-telling, and more.
The festival team has curated an incredibly diverse range of options for audiences to enjoy – from The Untold Fable of Fritz and King John for family fun, too late night stand-up with Bombay Comedy!
Returning favourites such as the award-winning Pip Utton, Henry Naylor and Emily Carding are back, as well as brand new work from fresh, young performers and producers and shows from Japan, Taiwan, Finland, Australia, and even Ukraine.
Prague Fringe Founder and Director Steve Gove says “It’s going to be a belter!” “We’ve curated our most international Fringe in years, packed full of incredible quality productions from around the world, brand-new works and Czech premieres, and two whole venues dedicated to comedy!
The festival is back in its favourite Malá Strana venues including Divadlo Inspirace, A Studio Rubín, Museum of Alchemists, and Café Club Míšeňská.
Plus this year sees two venues dedicated to comedy – the return of last year’s successful Charles Bridge Comedy Club and a brand new venue in the basement of OG Glenn’s Bar which is hosting a full programme of stand-up and comedy shows. Fan favorite Malostranská beseda is back for the larger-scale productions including the talented young actors from the Australian Shakespeare Company, the 5* musical Happily Ever Poofter, Youtube hit sensation UnErase Poetry – Stories from India from Mumbai, a sexy scientific exploration of the Chemistry Of Love by Dr. Michael Londesborough, MBE, and an exclusive Fringe-version of the Czech legendary (fictional) playwright Jára Cimrman’s the Stand-In performed by the Cimrman English Theatre.
On Thursday 30th May there are international performances taking place with 2 shows performed in the original Italian (Alice No, and Be My Guest), and UnErase Poetry – Stories from India performed in Hindi.
Tickets are on sale now for the Czech Republic’s very own slice of Edinburgh on the Vltava
To keep things as affordable as possible, the popular Prague Fringe Pass is available again for 1100Kč which saves the user 20 Kč on each ticket (as well as only paying a single ticket booking fee for the transaction).
Advance tickets are 250Kč (or 220Kč for students/seniors) and tickets purchased at the venue (selected venues only) are 300Kč – subject to availability. The Fringe is a cash-free Festival. All major credit cards are accepted.
Polar bears Aleut (front) and Gregor (back) getting to know their new home. In the Warsaw Zoo, they can now start the necessary reconstruction of the exposition there. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
Two polar bears from the Warsaw Zoo arrived at the Prague Zoo yesterday evening. Thirteen-year-old twins Gregor and Aleut came to Prague based on the recommendation of the European breeding coordinator of this species. Her decision follows the March departure of the Prague male Tom to Almaty, Kazakhstan, to find a potential mate. It was in his former exposition that the newly arrived brothers moved in. On Wednesday, May 22 at 11:30 a.m., the Prague Zoo will officially welcome them.
“The arrival of Gregor and Aleut is directly related to the fact that a new modern exhibit for polar bears will be created at the Prague Zoo, in other words, that we are prospective breeders of these animals,” said the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek. “Both bears are now getting to know their new environment. Visitors will be able to watch them from Monday.”
Aleut (left) and Gregor (right) were born on December 2nd at the Nuremberg Zoo to male Felix and female Vera and have lived in Warsaw Zoo in Poland since 2013. Although they are now adults, they are still very playful and have a close relationship as twins. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
The twins Gregor and Aleut were born on December 2, 2010 in the Nuremberg Zoo, but since April 18, 2013 they lived in the Warsaw Zoo. While Gregor is more powerful and the Polish breeders nicknamed him Grzes, his brother Aleut or Ali can be recognized by his taller stature and overall slimmer appearance.
“Thanks to the newly arrived bear brothers, the people of Prague and other visitors to our zoo have the opportunity to observe polar bears even while we are preparing the construction of the Arctic exhibit. It is here that these animals, iconic for the Prague Zoo and also very endangered, will find a new home. The Arctic, the construction of which should begin this year, will provide polar bears with first-class conditions for raising their cubs and will attract visitors from all over the world,” said the deputy mayor, Mr. City of Prague for the environment Jana Komrsková.
Gregor takes a bath in his new exhibit at the Prague Zoo and washes off the greenish stains he got during yesterday’s transport by rubbing against the Polish transport crate. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
The welcome of the two bear brothers, combined with a photo opportunity for the media, will take place on Wednesday, May 22, from 11:30 a.m. Journalists can be accredited by email at masek@zoopraha.cz. Visitors can look forward to a thematic gaming station.
Temporary barriers have been installed around the exhibition glasses since today, thanks to which the bears will get better used to the presence of dogs in the area – they are not used to them from the Polish metropolis. This temporary measure will not reduce visitor comfort in any way.
On Saturday, May 25, the Prague Zoo will open a new exhibit for hairy porcupines.
An aviary of East Asian birds was created last year at the place of their previous enclosure near the Sichuan pavilion, and so the group of these prickly rodents was moved to the hinterland.
Now the visitors’ favorite animals are returning in a new form. The modern exhibition will provide them with a structured outdoor and indoor space and visitors the opportunity to watch the porcupines at eye level.
The festive event will begin at 11 a.m. on the road between the Pavilion of Large Turtles and the Big Tortoise in the lower part of the zoo grounds.
Middle East Members Prioritize Innovation and Investments as UN Tourism Regional Commission Meets for 50th Time
UN Tourism’s Member States in the Middle East have looked to the future, coming together to focus on boosting investments into the sector and growing new products to build resilience and expand inclusivity.
International tourism reached 97% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2024
International tourist arrivals reached 97% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2024. According to UN Tourism, more than 285 million tourists traveled internationally in January-March, about 20% more than the first quarter of 2023, underscoring the sector’s near-complete recovery from the impacts of the pandemic.
UN Tourism Launches the Tourism Investment Guidelines for Jordan
UN Tourism has presented a new volume of its “Tourism Doing Business: Investment Guidelines”, this time with a focus on the investment potential of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
As Russia steps up its offensive in Ukraine, the country’s leadership is stressing the urgent need for more weapons and soldiers to hold the front. In an exclusive interview for Czech Radio, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov spoke about the military’s most urgent needs, the call to action for Ukrainian citizens abroad and the need to boost Ukraine’s own weapons‘ production capacity with foreign investment.
News from the frontline is not good. Russian forces have been making further gains in several places across the 1,200 km frontline and have intensified air strikes against both cities and critical infrastructure, making some pundits question whether Ukraine can still win this war. Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said his country is determined to win, but stressed the need for timely assistance from its allies.
Photo: CES on-line/Centrální evidence sbírek muzejní povahy
Fantastic Scherzo by the great Czech composer Josef Suk premiered at Prague’s Rudolfinum in 1905.
Josef Suk, who was born in 1874, was one of Antonín Dvořák’s favourite students and indeed married Dvořák’s daughter, Otilie Suková.
The composer and violinist was initially strongly influenced by Dvořák before finding his own voice. His teacher had died by the time Suk’s Fantastic Scherzo was premiered in 1905 by the Prague Conservatory.
Though Suk is known for intimate, expressive piano cycles, the Scherzo fantastique saw the Czech bring the concert hall genre, associated with names like Mendelssohn and Berlioz, into the 20th century.
A new exhibition opens on Wednesday evening at the Czech Center New York presenting Czech female opera singers whose careers brought them onto the stage of one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses – the Metropolitan Opera in New York. From opera great Emmy Destinn right up until contemporary star Magdalena Kožená, these Czech prima donnas performed under the batons of world-famous conductors and alongside other renowned singers, sometimes starring in the Met’s first productions of major Czech operas. I spoke to the exhibition’s curator, the head of the Antonín Dvořák Museum in Prague Dr. Veronika Vejvodová, in advance of the exhibition opening.
What’s the concept behind the exhibition – why female opera singers and why now?
“The exhibition aims to present Czech prima donnas who had the opportunity to perform in one of the most prestigious opera houses in the world – the New York Metropolitan Opera. The exhibition is actually a continuation of our collaboration between the National Museum and the Czech Centre New York. In particular the music exhibitions that the Czech National Museum prepared in the past few years for the Czech Centre were a big success in New York. We started with Dvořák because I work at the Dvořák museum, and the first exhibition was in 2014 with The New World Symphony. We brought the original manuscript from our collections to the Czech Centre New York for one week – it was something really special.
The town of Opava has a unique octagonal chapel, called the Swedish Chapel, which boasts a rare find. Its walls are covered with fragments of 15th century frescoes depicting the Apocalypse.
The octagonal Chapel of the Holy Cross –commonly known as the Swedish Chapel -was built between 1390 and 1394 by Přemek I, Duke of Opava and is now one of the last remnants of Silesian Brick Gothic architecture in the area. The art-historical value of the chapel increased with the discovery of a cycle of 15 wall paintings depicting the Apocalypse. They are embellished with ornaments and have German captions. Art historian Eva Malousková points out some of the images.
Conservationists are attempting to save a large-scale mosaic created by the famous twin sisters Jitka and Květa Válová in the late 1970s. The artwork, believed to have been lost, was discovered some time ago in a building, which is slated for demolition.
The identical twins Jitka and Květa Válová are widely considered one of the most distinctive Czech artists of the post-war generation. The sisters spent their whole life together, living and working in the industrial town of Kladno.
They mainly produced paintings and drawings, but they also created a couple of 3D objects, including a mosaic made of thousands of glass pieces.
Photo: Martina Kutková, Radio Prague International
The last years of Kafka’s life were associated with severe illness and numerous stays in sanatoriums. On this account, Kafka has often been described as sickly. However, as long as his health allowed, he exercised regularly, washed with cold water and generally tried to keep fit. In 1922, two years before his death, tuberculosis forced him to resign from the Workmen’s Accident Insurance Company. Following his doctor’s advice, he went to the mountains to get some fresh air, says David Stecher, director of the Prague Literary House:
“There was a big flu pandemic back then, and many people succumbed to the disease. Not everybody knows that Kafka also had the flu, but overcame it. However, he subsequently got infected with tuberculosis. He stayed in the Tatra Mountains for seven months, undergoing treatment. From there he went to Špindlerův Mlýn, where he stayed at the Krone Hotel, now the Savoy. That’s where he really started writing The Castle. Afterwards, he also stayed in a sanatorium near Vienna.”
The great Czech architect Eva Jiřičná has been living in the UK for many decades. But the biggest project in the 85-year-old’s career, a 1,000-apartment development, is set to go up in Prague. I spoke to Jiřičná on Monday at a presentation of Centrum Nového Žižkova, New Žižkov Centre, on which she collaborated with the UK’s Arup Group. Plans for the complex were first revealed five years ago, but they have been forced to change considerably since then.
Your original winning design had three towers. The resulting design now has one tower, which is a bit shorter.
Photo: Albert Meyer, Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Czechs contributed to the foundation of the International Olympic Committee and to the creation of Olympism as we know it today. One of the co-authors of the Olympic Charter was Czech Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský.
The origins of Olympism in the Czech lands date back to the last years of the 19th century. They are mainly associated with the Czech professor Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský. He was appointed one of the first 12 members of the International Olympic Committee at its Constituent Congress in Paris in June 1894.
Disappointed fans, crying children, angry parents: some of the scenes that could be witnessed at the turnstiles to hockey arenas in Prague and Ostrava when excited ticket holders realised the passes they had bought to the 2024 IIHF World Championship were fakes. The police have so far uncovered hundreds of cases and one person is being prosecuted.
Hockey fan Standa was looking forward to watching Czechia’s first match in the 2024 IIHF World Championship last Friday. He got a ticket for the game as a joint birthday present from his son, wife and daughter in April.
“The tickets were unfortunately sold out everywhere by then, so my son was searching desperately until eventually he found an offer on the internet. The official tickets cost CZK 4600 but he found someone who was selling their ticket for CZK 5000.”
The 2024 Ice Hockey World Championships are well underway in the Czech cities of Prague and Ostrava. The tournament, which brings together teams representing 16 nations, is held annually in alternating host cities. As the group stage of the tournament winds down, excited fans are anticipating who will play who in the quarterfinal matches in what has already been a competitive tournament. Here’s a quick rap up of what’s been going on.
Czechia trails Canada in Group A
Czechia is currently second in the Group A division, with a total of 15 points, trailing behind Canada who has 17. Czechia has only lost one game to the Swiss in overtime, with the game ending in penalty shots. But the Czechs could be carrying powerful new arsenal. Now that the Boston Bruins have been eliminated from the NHL playoffs, right winger David Pastrňák and left winger Pavel Zacha have returned to Prague and will be dressing for the national team. Martin Nečas from the Carolina Hurricanes has also reunited with his national teammates. Together, the three new additions to the Czech squad could prove to be a powerful advantage.
Photo: Klára Stejskalová, Radio Prague International
The making of glass and jewellery by hand, a tradition which has survived for hundreds of years in the Liberec Region, draws thousands of tourists to the area each year. Radio Prague paid a visit to the oldest still-functioning glassworks in Bohemia, the Novosad Glass Factory, nestled in the Giant Mountains in the small town of Harrachov. The nowadays privately-owned Novosad & Son was founded in the 18th century, or possibly even earlier, on the former estate of the aristocratic Harrach family and remains fully functional, with everything preserved almost exactly as it was originally.
The furnaces in Novosad have not stopped roaring in at least 312 years – not even the First or Second World Wars halted production in the factory. The first mention of the glassworks in the historical archives is from 1712, but it is clear from the records that they were founded even earlier.
The factory sprang up on the Jilemnice estate of the aristocratic Harrach family, which operated it until 1943, when they were forced to sell to Nazi Germany. After the communist coup of 1948, the glass manufacturer was nationalised and became one of the manufacturing plants belonging to the company Crystalex, which brought most formerly independent small Czech glassworks under one umbrella organisation.
Translations of short stories by the Prague German-language writer come out this week. Entitled Selected Stories, the collection is the work of Mark Harman, an Irish-born, US-resident academic who has been described as “the finest living Kafka translator” into English. From his home in Pennsylvania, Professor Harman discussed many aspects of the author’s work, including his distinctive style, his sense of humour and where he stands in the literary pantheon.
The novelist John Banville, no less, has called you the greatest living Kafka translator. How did your connection to Kafka begin in the first place?
“I used to hate the question ‘What brought you to Kafka?’ It was a rather defensive response. When people would ask me the exact same question you just asked me I would say, Well, there are scholarly, literary reasons – it’s none of your, beeswax, in a way [laughs].
Final preparations are underway for the 23rd edition of the Prague Fringe, which starts on Monday. Alongside an array of artists from around the globe, this year’s edition will also include a local company performing a play “by” fictional Czech legend Jara Cimrman. Founder Steve Gove discussed that booking – but first told me about a production by Shinehouse Theatre, a company from Taiwan.
“This is really exciting. It’s the first time we’ve had a theatre company coming from Taiwan, and it’s a proper, full-scale production.
“The application came in in August [for the show The Whisper of the Waves] and I thought, Wow, this would be quite the thing.
“So we were in touch right from the beginning and I said, Yes, yes, yes, this has to come. And we’re really, really excited about it.”
Also coming is UnErase Poetry from India, who I see have 1.2 million followers on Instagram alone. Who are UnErase Poetry?
“UnErase Poetry are a poetry collective from Mumbai. They are huge, even by Indian standards. They’ve got several awards from YouTube for their viewership and followers.
Every year, Czechs consume millions of chickens, leaving behind tons of feathers as a by-product. The feathers typically end up in incinerators or on landfills. Czech scientists have now come up with a way of repurposing this by-product – turning it into liquid fertiliser.
It is estimated that the Czech chicken industry generates about 100 million tons of kilogrammes of feathers each year. The waste is either incinerated, creating large amounts of CO2, or end up in landfills, where they take years to decompose.
Photo: Klára Stejskalová, Radio Prague International
A fresh Russian offensive targeted at Kharkiv puts Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Putin’s aggression under renewed focus. It may also increase the importance of a Czech initiative to provide large amounts of artillery ammunition to Ukraine, funded by partner states, which is set to begin next month.
Czech President Petr Pavel made world headlines in February when he said at the Munich Security Conference that his country could secure 800,000 artillery shells for Ukraine – if partner states provided the funding.
What became known as the “Czech initiative” earned international plaudits and was celebrated domestically as one of the most successful diplomatic efforts in the state’s modern history.
Though there have been some questions along the way about Prague’s ability to deliver, Czech leaders have repeatedly said June is when deliveries of the artillery procured under the scheme will begin.
H.E. Mr. Mateusz GNIAZDOWSKI the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland hosted a reception for Poland National Day and the anniversary of 90 years of relations between the Poland Republic and the Czech Republic.
The event took place at the beautiful Fürstenberg palace with a great view of Prague Castle.
The president of the Czech Republic Mr. Petr Pavel the first lady Mrs. Eva Pavlova, The Senate president Mr. Miloš Vystrčil, and many other politicians and Ambassadors attend the event.
Polar bears Aleut (front) and Gregor (back) getting to know their new home. In the Warsaw Zoo, they can now start the necessary reconstruction of the exposition there. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
Two polar bears from the Warsaw Zoo arrived at the Prague Zoo.
Thirteen-year-old twins Gregor and Aleut came to Prague based on the recommendation of the European breeding coordinator of this species. Her decision follows the March departure of the Prague male Tom to Almaty, Kazakhstan, to find a potential mate. It was in his former exposition that the newly arrived brothers moved in. On Wednesday, May 22 at 11:30 a.m., the Prague Zoo will officially welcome them.
“The arrival of Gregor and Aleut is directly related to the fact that a new modern exhibit for polar bears will be created at the Prague Zoo, in other words, we are prospective breeders of these animals,” said the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek. “Both bears are now getting to know their new environment. Visitors will be able to watch them from Monday.”
Aleut (left) and Gregor (right) were born on December 2nd at the Nuremberg Zoo to male Felix and female Vera and have lived in Warsaw Zoo in Poland since 2013. Although they are now adults, they are still very playful and have a close relationship as twins. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
The twins Gregor and Aleut were born on December 2, 2010 in the Nuremberg Zoo, but since April 18, 2013 they lived in the Warsaw Zoo. While Gregor is more massive and the Polish breeders nicknamed him Grzes, his brother Aleut or Ali can be recognized by his taller stature and overall slimmer appearance.
“Thanks to the newly arrived bear brothers, the people of Prague and other visitors to our zoo have the opportunity to observe polar bears even while we are preparing the construction of the Arctic exhibit. It is here that these animals, iconic for the Prague Zoo and also very endangered, will find a new home. The Arctic, the construction of which should begin this year, will provide polar bears with first-class conditions for raising their cubs and will attract visitors from all over the world,” said the deputy mayor, Mr. City of Prague for the environment Jana Komrsková.
Gregor takes a bath in his new exhibit at the Prague Zoo and washes off the greenish stains he got during yesterday’s transport by rubbing against the Polish transport crate. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
The welcome of the two bear brothers, combined with a photo opportunity for the media, will take place on Wednesday, May 22, from 11:30 a.m. Journalists can be accredited by email at masek@zoopraha.cz. Visitors can look forward to a thematic gaming station.
Temporary barriers have been installed around the exhibition glasses since today, thanks to which the bears will get better used to the presence of dogs in the area – they are not used to them from the Polish metropolis. This temporary measure will not reduce visitor comfort in any way.
Czech firms have increasingly been looking across the ocean at opportunities to expand to North American markets, specifically in fields such as IT. But what specific skills can Czech born businesses offer these already competitive marketplaces, and why is now a good time for expansion? I put those questions to CEO of COPS Solutions, Ondřej Dvořák.
“COPS is an international IT group, and we are mainly operating around Europe. I would say that on one hand we are an IT service provider to corporations, but we are also acting as a venture studio. We help start-ups upscale, and this coincides well with the plans we have to expand to the US and other markets.”
The third part of our video series on Czech Music Greats is devoted to the Fantastic Scherzo by Art Nouveau composer Josef Suk, pupil and son-in law of Antonín Dvořák, and the country’s only Art Nouveau Composer. The piece received its premiere at Prague’s Rudolfinum in April 1904.
The spa season has officially kicked off around Czecia with traditional ceremonies at the country’s many healing springs. Pictured here are girls in traditional costumes at a healing spring in Luhačovice.
One of the greatest Czech composers, Bedřich Smetana, known as “the father of Czech music,” died on this day, 140 years ago.
Bedřich Smetana (March 2, 1824– May 12, 1884) is one of the most influential figures in Czech music history, celebrated for his patriotic compositions and significant contributions to the development of Czech musical identity.
Born in the East Bohemian town of Litomyšl, Smetana showed a great talent for music from an early age, receiving his first music lessons from his father before later moving to Prague to study.
What really happens to your plastic after you’ve carefully sorted it and put it in your local recycling container (in Czechia, those iconic yellow bins)? According to many recent media reports, rather than being recycled, it likely ends up in landfill, an incinerator, or even worse, in the ocean or dumped in a field, as most of the plastic that people put in recycling containers is unusable using current recycling methods. But a new technology currently being tested in Czechia may provide hope of a solution.
Plastic recycling has been the subject of a lot of controversy in recent years, with information emerging that only 9% of the plastic ever produced has been recycled (MIT Technology Review, Oct 2023). A report by NPR from 2022 titled “Recycling plastic is practically impossible — and the problem is getting worse” sums up many of the headlines surrounding this topic.
Ferdinand Porsche was a Liberec-born genius engineer, who designed the first-ever hybrid car. He also contributed to the development of Volkswagen Beetle, which remained in production for 65 years.
Ferdinand Porsche was born on September 3, 1875 in Vratislavice, which is now a district of Liberec. His father was an enterprising craftsman who was also involved in local government and culture. He wanted Ferdinand to take over the family’s plumbing trade, but when he saw how technically gifted his son was and how ambitious he was, he did not prevent him from pursuing his dreams, says Lukáš Nachtmann, historian and head of the archives at Škoda Auto, which now looks after the Porsche family home.
Perhaps you’ve seen one in the Charles University Faculty of Law building – the old wooden ‘infinity’ elevator known as a paternoster. The vintage ride has become quite a tourist attraction, especially the one at Prague’s City Hall. But the influx in visitors poses disruptions to the work at the Municipal building and damages to the lift itself. From June, Prague City Tourism will be operating the paternoster at Prague City Hall, charging 250 crowns for a spin. Lenka Davidová, spokeswoman for Prague City Tourism told me more about the decision.
