AuthorMartin Hladík

In Prague on August 31 The wife of the President of the Republic organized a round table at Prague Castle dedicated to the capacity and personnel problems of providing primary care for children and adolescents in the Czech Republic.

Eva Pavlová wants to support this path with her husband, knowing that she cannot substitute legislative processes.

During her visits to the regions, the wife of the President of the Republic often spoke with parents, doctors, and representatives of cities and municipalities about the situation, which may turn into a real crisis in the near future. Areas her interest is the “Healthy Family” concept, therefore she invited representatives of all entities directly affected by ensuring the functioning of primary child care to help her find the cause of existing problems and define steps leading to correction. So, that the Czech Republic does not lose its unique in many ways and, until recently, extremely functional system, in which every child has its own registrar pediatrician who accompanies him until adulthood. This is in most countries, not even economically mature countries, is far from a given.

The roundtable was moderated by a first lady’s content team member, Lilly Ahou Král.

At the round table were:

MD Alena Šebková, chairwoman of the Professional Society of Pediatric Practitioners ČLS JEP and member of the ČLS JEP Board of Directors

MD Ctirad Kozderka, vice-chairman of the Association of General Practitioners for Children and Adolescents of the Czech Republic

professor MUDr. Martin Repko, Ph.D., chairman of the Association of Deans of Medical Faculties of the Czech Republic

MD Irena Maříková MBA, director of the Institute of Postgraduate Education in Healthcare

M.Sc. František Lukl, MPA, chairman of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic

Ing. Jan Bozděch Ph.D., mayor of Klenčí pod Čerchov

Josef Pavlovic, Bc., Deputy Minister of Health of the Czech Republic

Eva Holečková and Michaela Kopalová members of the content team

The round table discussed the causes of the problems. One of the main ones is the aging of doctors and the lack of new doctors coming into pediatric practice. “Already today, many parents, especially from smaller villages cannot find a doctor for their child who would register them, and they travel tens of kilometers to see him,” emphasized MUDr. Šebkova.

M.Sc. František Lukl, MPA, confirmed that from the point of view of the Association of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, which he chairs, this is a hot topic. “Primary medical care is an integral part of the infrastructure – in municipalities where job opportunities are decreasing, post offices are being closed and general pediatricians’ offices are disappearing, the quality of life is deteriorating, young people are leaving them for bigger cities and the countryside is depopulates,” stated Mgr. Lukl.

At the round table, it was said that to supplement the capacities and put into practice approx. 1000 missing general pediatricians is not possible from day to day. However, Eva Pavlová asked the present Deputy Minister of Health Josef Pavlovic for his office’s feedback on the possible implementation of the proposed measures and other solutions, which were discussed at the round table and which could be approached immediately.

Pictures : Department of Communication – President office

Photo: Office of Czech Government

Addressing a meeting of Czech diplomats at Czernin Palace, Prime Minister Petr Fiala highlighted Russia’s imperialist policy as the foremost security concern facing the Czech Republic and the democratic world. He said Russian attempts to recover its one-time sphere of influence must be stopped, no matter how costly it is, or how long it takes.

In the past, the annual consultations of Czech diplomats at Czernin Palace tended to revolve around economic diplomacy. This year they revolved mainly around the new security threat stemming from Russia’s expansionist ambitions. Prime Minister Petr Fiala stressed that Czechia must persevere in its efforts to help Ukraine win this war; no matter the cost or time it would take.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Between a third to a half of all art works for sale in Czechia could be fakes, according to the Art Report 2023. The report, which surveys the main actors in the Czech art world, including collectors, dealers, and experts, found that forgeries are considered to be the biggest problem currently facing the domestic market and that the number of forgeries, especially of works of modern art, has been on the increase. But how are forgeries uncovered, and how can you test the authenticity of a painting?

Verifying the authenticity of a painting is no easy task, but fortunately, nowadays we have a number of methods at our disposal, says Vítězslav Knotek from the University of Chemistry and Technology. In addition to the expertise of art historians and appraisers, there are also chemical methods.

“We can find out the composition of the pigment used in the painting. Some modern pigments did not exist in the 18th century, for example. And on the basis of that analysis, we can prove that the artist couldn’t have used pigments that were created after his death.”

However, chemical analyses are not preferred in the case of an irreplaceable work, as the analysis requires microscopic samples to be taken from the painting, which damages it and decreases its value. In these cases, X-rays can be used instead to penetrate under the painting and see if it has been painted over, without causing any damage to it.

See the rest here.

Authors: Anna Fodor, Martin Srb, Source:iROZHLAS.cz

Excessively high food costs have been driving many Czechs to do their shopping across the border in Poland or Germany. Reacting to the high profits posted by agricultural companies, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said he is glad the price of basic foodstuffs like milk, sugar, and butter is finally beginning to fall, and that others must follow suit. However, given the country’s dependence on imported products, there is little control over determining food prices due to a lack of internal competition.

I spoke with Dana Večeřová, President of the Czech Food Chamber, about the situation.

To start with, could you give us an overview of the situation with food prices here in Czechia?

“Currently, food prices are beginning to stabilize and price growth is slowing down. The problem with food prices was especially bad last year after the start of the war in Ukraine; the prices of energy, gas, and electric rose sharply. Depending on the type of product, production costs increased by 40 to 80 percent. The cost of agriculture materials needed for processing and packaging also increased, and so did wages. Unfortunately, the Czech Republic had and still has one of the highest energy prices in Europe, which of course has a big impact on the costs in the agriculture and food sector.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International

The Wallenstein Garden will host an outdoor concert Wednesday evening, with music being performed by the Prague Symphony Orchestra and directed by Czech conductor Jan Kučera. The show will present classical music and also the soundtracks of famous films. We spoke to the program coordinator Martin Rudovský about what’s in store.

Can you tell us about what’s in store tonight at the free concert in the Wallenstein Garden?

“It’s been our tradition since the 1940’s to do this concert in the Wallenstein Garden, but we re-established it again in 2014 with an annual opening of the season. The conductor for this season in the garden is Jan Kučera, and we perform mainly film, opera, and concert music.”

Is there anything interesting to know about the conductor of the show, Jan Kučera?

“He is really exceptional, he’s a completely universal conductor. An arranger, a very good composer, and a very good moderator of the show. He does many shows across the Czech Republic. He’s quite famous and we love him, he has no problem talking, conducting, and composing for these concerts, he’s a really special guy.”

See the rest here.

Photo: Tomáš Mařas, Czech Radio

Visitors to the Crystal Valley Week glass festival, taking place in Liberec this week, were wowed by the sound of an exotic-looking musical instrument that few people could put a name to. It was a Celtic carnyx made of glass, specially produced for the festival.

Czech glassblowers are exceptionally skilled craftsmen and in addition to creating breathtaking lights, vases and other glass installations for mansions, luxury yachts and palaces the world over they occasionally try their hand at a special challenge – a music instrument made of glass.

In this case it was an artistic looking Celtic carnyx. Ondřej Glogar is the only musician far-and-wide who knows how to play one. He explains what it is:

“The Celts used this trumpet-like instrument to summon each other to battle, or to communicate with each other in battle. The original instruments weren’t this big. This is 2.2 meters long, usually they were about 1.5 meters, so they would be easier to handle and carry around. Some Celtic warriors had them strapped to their belt together with a sword.”

See the rest here.

Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Tomáš Mařas, Source:Český rozhlas

Photo: Czech Bikes for Gambian Schools

When Roman Posolda set up his Bikes for Africa project in Ostrava in 2012, he had no idea how well it would take root in this country and how long it would run for. More than a decade later, the organization is still going strong, attracting new volunteers and expanding its vision. I spoke with Roman about where the project is heading and what inspired him to send bikes to children in Africa.

“It is something that is very much part of my whole life –it is not just about the starting date which was in 2012 when we registered the Bicycles for Africa organization in the Czech Republic. The following year we started sending bicycles to Gambia. But as I said, bicycles have been a big part of my life since childhood.”

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Anglo American University kicked off the 2023-24 school year with its second annual Community Day on Wednesday, inviting students, staff, faculty, and alumni to greet each other and cultivate meaningful relationships. The theme of this year’s event was “Unity in Diversity: Embracing the Diverse AAU Community”.

Addressing Diversity

In a panel discussion consisting of two alumni and two professors, each panelist described what Unity in Diversity should look like within the university and shared their own personal experiences regarding the topic.

“There are some perspectives that make it a point to silence or exclude other voices that don’t agree with them. That can happen on the extreme right, or on the extreme left. We’ve actually had a problem at AAU where conservative students were made to feel so unwelcome that they left,” Theodore A. Turnau, a professor at AAU pointed out during his speech, opening the panel discussion. “That’s not being a pluriversity that accepts a plurality of different perspectives,” he continued.

Professor Theodore A. Turnau during his speech on Unity in Diversity and how AAU can improve in the future.

The professors and alumni addressed past issues and grievances surrounding diversity in the university, and encouraged various solutions to a more inclusive and unifying approach for the future. A general focus of the panelists was the emphasis on respect for one another, and respect for one another’s differences.

“We have a lot of differences here, a lot of diversity, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t welcome each other. Having a welcoming attitude to people that are different, that’s what it means to live in a pluriversity–a Unity in Diversity; loving each other through our differences,” Turnau concluded.

Work hard, play hard

The event was accompanied by food, drinks and lively activities. Students gathered around a campfire in the courtyard to roast marshmallows and hot dogs, while others played Giant Jenga. The courtyard was eventually filled with students and faculty alike, facilitating discussion and developing connections and relationships. The interactiveness allowed for practiced inclusion among the AAU community in a light hearted and entertaining manner.

The AAU community was entertained with food, drinks, music, and activities.

Community Day was the opening event to a new school year, which began Thursday 31 August. With the values of respect, unity, and open discussion fresh in the minds of students, staff and faculty, AAU can begin the year optimistic about upholding and improving these values in the present and future.

 Text and pictures – Alexa Wandersee

A pile of ice piqued the interest of a herd of female Indian elephants. Tamara the elephant could pay attention to the ice cubes – which she scooped up with her trunk and munched with gusto – for the longest time. In the picture, Tamara stands on the right, Gulab in the middle and the smallest Lakuna on the left. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

Animals and visitors at the Prague Zoo could enjoy literally icy refreshments today. More than six tons of ice cubes cooled the exhibits and also the visitor areas, which was especially welcomed by the children. For Indian elephants, North American otters, and kea nesters, piles of ice became, in addition to cooling down, an impulse for games and activity.

A four-member group of kea nesters won the most of all animals with ice enrichment. In particular, this year’s two young of these cool-loving parrots licked the cubes and then had fun throwing them into the air. Photo by Tereza Šolcová, Prague Zoo

“The heat is not good for the number of animals or the number of visitors. That is why we are coming up with new ways to cool down the Prague Zoo area in addition to snails and ice cream. Today, we consumed six tons of ice in the zoo,” said the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek. “It cooled both selected animals and visitors.”

A pair of North American otters looked at the ice cubes somewhat timidly at first. However, after a short while, curiosity combined with a taste for the fish lying nearby won, and even the ice provided them with cooling on a hot day. Photo by Oliver Le Que, Prague Zoo

Prague Zoo offers all kinds of refreshments on hot days. In addition to restaurants and ice cream stands, people across the site will find air fresheners, a number of shady seating areas, and air-conditioned pavilions. By purchasing affordable electronic tickets, visitors can also avoid ticket offices and head straight to the turnstiles.

Ice cubes were especially appreciated by younger visitors. Already in the morning, dozens of children came to the pile of ice near the Children’s Zoo to cool off. Photo by Oliver Le Que, Prague Zoo

Pens, erasers, pencil cases and backpacks – all these items for school children have seen a significant price hike this year as parents prepare their children to return to the classroom in September.

New data reveals that it will cost roughly 3,000 crowns to equip a first grader with school supplies required for the year here in Czechia, and in some cases – it can cost even more. Czech stores that sell school supplies, like Globus and Albert, have recorded a ten percent increase on some essential school items.

A survey conducted by Sodexo from the end of July and beginning of August polled Czech parents on what they anticipated to spend on their children’s school supplies, and over 40 percent of parents indicated they expect to spend anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 thousand crowns.

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Stanislav Callas, Prague Shakespeare Company

This Saturday, the Summer Shakespeare Festival will be concluding in Prague, with a special performance of Romeo and Juliet in English. The performance will take place in the courtyard of the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague’s Malá Strana neighbourhood. We spoke to the director of the show, Guy Roberts, about what’s in store this weekend.

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

The Enjoy Respect Prague campaign that launched last year aims to encourage tourists to behave with more respect towards the city and its local residents, for example by supporting local businesses rather than buying tacky souvenirs, using public transport rather than hop-on-hop-off buses, being quiet after 10pm, and not littering. But the newest addition to the campaign may raise some eyebrows – posters asking tourists not to pay money to people in the city centre offering the chance to take a selfie with a snake, owl or parrot.

Your first question when you hear about this campaign may be, like mine: “Does this even happen in Prague?” But Barbora Scherf from Prague City Tourism, one of the organisations behind the poster campaign, says that although the problem is smaller-scale and less visible than drunkenness and litter, it is very much there.

See the rest here.

Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: Michaela Říhová, ČTK

August 21 marks the 55th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops. The crushing of the Prague Spring dashed people’s hopes of democracy and ushered in a long period of political and moral decline. More than 130 people died during the invasion and thousands fled the country in the years that followed.

See the rest here.

Author:Daniela Lazarová

Photo: Projekt Viskalia

Folk architecture is one of the cornerstones of regional and national identity, but it is rapidly disappearing. That is why ethnologists from the National Museum and Czech Academy of Sciences worked together with IT specialists from the Czech Technical University to create a virtual museum of folk architecture in Czechia.

For three years ethnologists studied and digitized collections of old photographs and plans of vernacular architecture from the 19th century to the 1950s. They went through roughly 30,000 photos, plans, and drawings, classifying each building according to regional house types. Where documentation was missing, they had to identify and locate the buildings and in many cases set off to inspect them.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová, source:Český rozhlas

Photo: Czech Tennis Association

Czechia’s Karolína Muchová lost to Coco Gauff in the Western & Southern Open yesterday in Cincinnati. The final match score was 6-3, 6-4. Despite the loss, Muchová managed to crack the Top 10 ranking.

It was a tough loss for Muchová since, after a major upset against Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals on Saturday, the title was within reach. When asked about the loss, Muchová said “when I woke up this morning, the first thing I said was ‘Ouch,’ I knew it was going to be a tough task to win, especially against someone like Coco.” Muchová also cited that she was a little tired coming into the match on Sunday, as the semifinal game was over two and a half hours long the day before.

Despite the loss, Muchová will make her debut in the Top 10 on Monday after fighting up the rankings from outside the Top 150. This makjes her the seventh player from Czechia since 2000 to reach the Top 10.

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Letna park is the second largest green space in the heart of the city, and there is something for every kind of visitor that the park has to offer. Skaters can shred by the metronome, children can play in the playgrounds, and friends can gather for picnics.

Author: Barbora Navrátilová

See the video here.

Hollywood film and TV productions have been on hold since the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union went on strike in July, two months after a similar move by the Writers Guild of America. Many international productions shoot in Czechia, so the shutdowns are a major concern to the local industry, which has already seen layoffs. I discussed the situation with Jason Pirodsky of The Prague Reporter.

“The impact has been really immediate, and quite devastating. There were three major Hollywood, or international, [TV series] productions shooting in Prague.

“One of those was The Wheel of Time, which has continued to shoot despite the fact that at least a couple of members of the cast are SAG-AFTRA members. So production on that has continued. I’m not sure if it has been affected in some elements, because of the cast members, but they’re continuing to shoot.

“The other two productions are Interview with the Vampire, for AMC, and Foundation, for Apple TV, and within days of the strike being announced both of those productions shut down completely.

“The impact there was in the range of a few thousand people, who went from having a full-time job to, overnight, not having that job.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

New numbers are revealing that Czechia is home to one of the most expensive real estate markets in Europe – it would take 13 gross annual salaries to purchase property in the country. This year, Czechia is falling behind Slovakia, the neighbouring nation taking the first place spot. We spoke to Petr Hána who works at Deloitte here in Prague about the market situation.

Czechia is the second most expensive country in Europe right now for real estate, it would take roughly 13 gross annual salaries to buy a property of 70 square meters – what is driving this increase?

“Czechia has been in this position for quite a long time. What is driving this is that we are quite a small market, with one dominant city – Prague, this is where the majority of transactions are taking place on the residential market. To be honest, we have very high price levels compared to other European countries, and also very low wages compared to other European countries.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

A new program being launched by the Ministry of Industry is hoping to attract more highly skilled workers to Czechia, but they don’t necessarily need an employment contract from a Czech company to lock down a visa. We spoke to Lucia Legáthová from the Expat Centre in Prague about what this move means for Czechia and foreigners wishing to relocate to the country.

Could you explain the digital nomad program being launched by the Czech government?

“The new digital nomad program has been launched by the Ministry of Industry, and it’s a program aimed at highly qualified workers, especially in the IT sector. The program is intended for citizens from just a few countries: Australia, Japan, the US, Canada, the UK, and Taiwan. There are two types of nomads who can join the program, it’s either for people who are already working for a foreign company and want to relocate to the Czech Republic, or people who want to work in the Czech Republic but as a self-employed person – so they would possess a trade license in the Czech Republic. The good news about the program is that it’s intended for close family members as well – so spouses and registered partners can join these nomads in the Czech Republic.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Jarmila Johnová, Czech Academy of Sciences

As Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia on the night from 20 to 21 August 1968, Czechoslovak Radio played an important role in keeping people informed of what was happening. The radio building was an immediate focus for the invaders, but remarkably, during the days that followed, radio journalists and engineers managed to carry on broadcasting, firstly from the building itself, and then from other secret locations around the city. One of the prominent voices on the airwaves was Jiří Dienstbier, who many years later reflected on the importance of those uncensored broadcasts at a time when the occupiers were trying to sow confusion in the country. To mark the anniversary of the invasion, we return to Jiří Dienstbier and his memories of that time.

See the rest here.

If you live in Czechia and are planning to get your bathroom or kitchen remodelled this year, you may just be out of luck. Companies and online portals offering the services of tradesmen are reporting a significant increase in demand, especially for jobs like home insulation, solar panel installation and roof renovation.

Libor Vlach is the owner of a Prague-based company that specialises in water, gas and heating installation and repairs. He says that he is fully booked until the end of the year and although customers call practically every day, his firm doesn’t have the capacity to respond to requests for minor repairs or emergency callouts.

And Vlach’s company VIP Instalace is not an exception. According to the online portal ePoptávka.cz, where customers can search for the services they want, demand for tilers increased by almost 7 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, and the demand for painters by over 12 percent. Otto Kočí, who heads the portal, says that they have seen a huge increase in demand for other kinds of services too.

See the rest here.

Authors: Anna Fodor, Barbora Kladivová, source:iROZHLAS.cz

Photo: Aotearoa Books

Helene Ritchie spent many years as a politician in her home city of Wellington, New Zealand. She has just written a book telling the moving story of her search for her family’s past. In 1945, Helene’s mother Lidi Hess, received a letter from a relative in Prague. It included a long list of names of members of the family who had been murdered in the Nazi death camps. Faced with the unimaginable scale of the tragedy, Lidi burned the letter, and went on with her life in her new country. It was only many decades later that she told her daughter how she regretted destroying it. This inspired Helene to try to piece together her family’s history, to find out who all these family members had been.

See the rest here.

Author: David Vaughan

I swam to that small coral reef almost every morning, but even after more than a week of my stay at the Red Sea I hadn’t made friends with its inhabitants. Dark, about ten-centimetre-long fish that shared it, didn’t show any intention to build a friendship. When I approached any of them, it would come out of the reef, spread its fins and with a threatening expression confront the underwater camera case. More than once it even attacked the glass covering the lens.

I identified these brave fish as dusky farmerfish (Stegastes nigricans), and I spent one afternoon studying papers dedicated to their research. The most interesting articles were signed by the Japanese biologist Hiroki Hata. He studied the dusky farmerfish first at the lagoon near Okinawa and later in other parts of the world. I don’t know how much time he spent with a snorkel under the water, but it had to be really significant. However, his research discovered fascinating knowledge about this fish.

There are hundreds of species of damselfish, and many of them defend their territories. They protect both their eggs’ clutches as well as the growths of algae they feed on. The dusky farmerfish, however, not only defend their part of the coral reef, but they are also with no exaggeration undersea farmers that take care for their undersea fields with unprecedented consistency. Mostly thanks to Hiroki Hata we know now, that although various populations of dusky farmerfish slightly differ in their farming activity, generally it is true that they diligently weed the growths of red algae of genus Polysiphonia. Another, particularly green algae, which tend to grow in their gardens, they consistently pull out and carry away, since the red algae are for them much more digestible that the green algae.

But that is not all yet. Thanks to quite simple experiments Hata discovered that if not for the care of dusky farmerfish, the growths of the red algae of genus Polysiphonia would quickly disappear under the onslaught of the competing organisms. And on top of that it turned out that in various parts of the world the dusky farmerfish grow several related species of these red algae, which don’t occur anywhere else but in their gardens! So, they are as dependent on their fish farmers as, let’s say, a cabbage is on the care of human farmers. This is something incredible!

I must tell you that after I had read all of this, the visits to the colony of dusky farmerfish became even more interesting for me, and I felt admiration for both the dusky farmerfish and Hiroki Hata.

Photo: Post Bellum

Fifty-five years ago, on the night of August 20-21, 1968, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia began, marking a definitive end to the hopes that the series of liberalising and democratic reforms that had taken place in the country in the 1960s, known as the Prague Spring, had brought with them.

The Prague Spring brought sweeping changes to the cultural and social life of Czechoslovakia, including the ending of censorship in June 1968 and open discussions about the political show trials of the 1950s. Some Western media outlets wrote that the developments in Czechoslovakia proved that socialism and democracy were compatible with each other.

See the rest here.

Author: Klára Stejskalová

A few months ago for an article in our magazine about Argentinian wine: Salud! World-class wines from Argentina I met Rodrigo Schmidt (a co-founder and co-owner of Productos Latinos, a company focusing on importing and selling wines from many countries in the Czech Republic ) at a new restaurant Gran Fierro at Myslíkova St. not far from Manes Water Tower and the Dancing House.

The unique design of the restaurant caught my attention and the menu looks nice.

This week we have a few friends who love to eat and have a special taste visiting Prague. The reservation system their web. was simple and friendly and after a few minutes, we got confirmation for our booking.

It was one of the hottest days in Prague, we chose to sit at the very nice patio. The menu is not big, but everyone can find something to eat ( even vegetarians ). We didn’t have big expectations from Argentinian food in Prague. Each of us orders something different after asking the waiter a few questions about the food.

We start with the Empanadas and starters: Grilled Argentinian shrimps, garlic slices & chilli, Tenderloin tartar & brioche, Empanadas caprese, Chorizo criollo and Empanada pato.

It was WOW, we couldn’t decide which was the best.

Then we order the main dish: most of us order the Vacio – flank steak with Chimichurri sauce and Padron peppers that come with homemade fries with provolone cheese or grilled vegetables, Homemade ravioli with figs, ricotta, goat cheese, cashew nuts and gorgonzola sauce, Green salad and Churrasco.

Very tasty and nicely served.

We were served white Malbec wine, cocktails, and water during the meal. We finished our dinner with coffee, Grilled pineapple and coconut ice cream on a kadaif mattress with maracuya sauce and Chocolate mousse, orange cream & mate ice cream.

The service was professional and friendly and still, we had our privacy.

The bill was 5000 Kc ( for 5 people ) before service 10%. ( not inc. wine)

It was a perfect dinner. Great food and wine, good service, a nice atmosphere, and a beautiful design.

We will go there again on the next occasion.

To make it clear- this is NOT a PR article. We paid for our dinner and the restaurant “Gran Fierro” is not involved in this article. It’s just our recommendation.

Article by M. Zisso

Photo: Juan Pablo Bertazza, Radio Prague International

Shooting began in Prague in 1983 on one of the most famous movies ever made in the city, Miloš Forman’s Amadeus, which later earned eight Oscars.

Forman’s extremely successful film was based on a stage play by Peter Shaffer, who also wrote the screenplay. Amadeus, the fictionalized story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is packed with music by Mozart himself and several other composers.

The film was shot on location in Prague and Kroměříž. US-resident Forman and DOP Miroslav Ondříček were able to shoot scenes in the Estates Theatre in Prague, where Don Giovanni and La clemenza di Tito debuted two centuries before. Other scenes were filmed at Barrandov Studios and the city’s Invalidovna complex.

See the rest here.

Photo: Kateřina Šulová, ČTK

Czech politicians have moved to quell anti-Ukrainian sentiment in the wake of two violent attacks against Czech women, which were reportedly committed by Ukrainian youths. President Pavel has warned against applying the principle of collective guilt and Interior Minister Vít Rakušan has assured the public that the growing number of foreigners in Czechia is not a security threat.

Last week police in Plzeň charged an 18-year-old youth with the rape and attempted murder of a 15-year-old girl. Although they did not disclose the nationality of the foreigner who committed the attack, reports on social media said he was Ukrainian. The wave of anger over the brutal attack on a teenager was further fueled by information on social media that the 16-year-old youth who had attacked and raped a woman in Prague’s Hostivař that same week was also Ukrainian. Although the police did not confirm the nationality of either culprit, the information spread like wildfire, re-igniting hate sentiments particularly among Czech Roma who are still up in arms over recent incidents in Brno, where a Romany man died, and in Pardubice, where a Roma was injured reportedly in conflicts with Ukrainians. Some of them claim that “gangs of Ukrainian youths” are roaming the streets and threatening the safety of Czech citizens.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Photo: Barbora Navrátilová, Radio Prague International

Prague was recently featured on the New York Times travel guide 36 Hours – where journalists give their best recommendations for local gems and places that tourists may not find in their guide book. I caught up with writer Evan Rail to talk about the process of putting his Prague guide together.

When you sat down to make the 36 Hours in Prague guide, how did you strike a balance between the “must-see” sites of the city and the other more local areas like Holešovice and Karlín?

“The premise of 36 Hours in Prague and the New York Times column itself is not to replace a guide book. In general, we think that the reader has a guide book or a list of important historical sites. So what we try to do instead is touch on some of those historical sites, but in a way that shows a different way of getting there then you might have gotten in a guide book.

“For example, we say, yea go to Prague Castle, but you might get overwhelmed by the crowds, so if you do – go to the Deer Moat, it’s really beautiful and quiet, and most people don’t know about it. It’s recently been reopened, and it’s probably not listed in your guide book. The southern garden of the Castle is also a little bit hard to find, but if you do get in there, you have wonderful views over the Old Town and Malá strana and you’re also away from the crowds.

“So it’s not so much about hitting all of those historic sites, it assumes that the reader knows about them, but it tells them about other sites they can see that aren’t common knowledge.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Via Czechia

Jan Hocek is an enthusiastic traveller, tourist guide and columnist, who has completed some of the world’s most challenging trails. In 2020, he created a comprehensive network of long-distance tourist and pilgrimage routes leading through the country, called Via Czechia. The trails cover some 10,000 kilometres, passing through the lowest and highest points in the country and offering countless opportunities to explore its natural and historical landmarks. When I met with Jan Hocek to discuss Via Czechia, I started by asking how he got the idea for the project:

“I have always been hiking and spending time outdoors. It is my passion and a part of my life. I also travel abroad a lot. In 2019 I was visiting Bhutan in the Himalayas to hike the Snowman Trek, which is supposed to be one of the hardest trails in the world. And that’s where the idea came to me.

“We had been in the mountains for about a month, far from civilization, so it was the ideal moment to dream about things and new ideas. So that’s how the idea came to me.

“When I came back home, I started to work on the system of hiking and biking, and also cross country skiing and water craft trails in Czechia.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

Petrin is one of the most popular parks in the city of Prague, attracting both locals and tourists. From the Petrin tower, to the beautiful fruit orchards, there is something everyone can enjoy in one of the cities biggest green spaces.

See the video here.

Authors: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Barbora Navrátilová

Photo: Martin Vaniš, Radio Prague International

Prague’s metro A line passes under Prague’s iconic monuments, has a uniform design and vestibules featuring figures of Czech kings. No wonder one its stations, Staroměstská, was ranked by the CNN among the most beautiful metro stops in Europe.

See the rest here.

Author: Klára Stejskalová

Photo: Kateřina Šulová, ČTK

The 20th annual festival of new circus and theatre Letní Letná opened in Prague on Wednesday night with a breathtaking water show. The festival offers over 100 performances in its jubilee year.

“Awesome, fascinating, incredible” such were the reactions of spectators to the opening Letní Letná show in Prague. Performed by Pompe Hedengren’s AQUANAUTS the show included three key elements – water, air and fire. The audience watched 32 acrobats suspended high above the water reservoir in Letenské sady, performing breathtaking creations as well as magic in the water performed by aqua belles from SK Neptun.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová, source:Český rozhlas

Photo: Barbora Němcová, Radio Prague International

The Krkonoše Mountains are a beloved spot in Czechia, but recently, they have become the focal point of growing concern amongst environmental scientists. Movement in the tree line boundary of the mountains is threatening the existence of other important ecosystems, as environmental scientist at Charles University, Dr. Jan Tumajer, explained to us.

Can you explain what is being observed on the tree line of the Krkonoše Mountains?

“The tree line is a very important ecological boundary that separates the forest ecosystems from non-forest ecosystems like herbs-and-shrubs-dominated ecosystems. This line is determined by low temperatures. Above the tree lines trees lose their dominance, they cannot survive and they cannot compete with the simple forms of plants like herbs or shrubs. And because the temperature is increasing, the tree line tends to respond to this situation. In the Krkonoše Mountains, because the trees were stressed by low temperatures for a long time – it is a cause limit of their distribution – the trees respond positively in their growth dynamics to the current increasing temperature trends. So the tree ring width that we are currently observing in the Krkonoše Mountains is unprecedented in the last few decades or even centuries. Basically the tree ring width really went up in the last twenty years and compared to the previous period the tree rings are very wide. This means that the rising temperatures are stimulating the growth of trees there – they grow better.

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Czech Olympic Committee

After 16 NHL seasons with the Boston Bruins, Czech-born David Krejčí announced his retirement from the National Hockey League on Monday. Krejčí played all 16 seasons of his professional hockey career with the Boston Bruins, developing a reputation of being a skilled and intuitive playmaker.

David Krejčí who wore the number 46 for a total of 16 seasons with the Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League announced his retirement on Monday evening. The 37-year-old’s departure from professional hockey has been described as a major loss by teammates and hockey commentators alike, as Krejčí had established himself as a ‘silent killer’ for the Bruins. Making his NHL debut in 2007, he racked up a total of 786 points, playing over 1,000 regular season games, and 160 playoff games.

While he may not have been as loud and vocal as other Boston Bruins superstars like Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, and commentators have noted that Krejčí did not receive as much credit as his other teammates, he was an essential centre-man who played up the middle, a critical part of Boston’s offensive line.

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Barbora Němcová, Radio Prague International

The news site Seznam Zpravy has questioned the moral integrity of one of the most successful managers in the health sector, the head of the prestigious Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) in Prague, suggesting that he had made millions from usury through a company controlled by a suspect individual. The prime minister has called for the claims to be investigated without delay.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

Photo: Martin Vaniš, Radio Prague International

Prague has long been one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, ranking in the top 10 of capital cities by visitor numbers and beating other well-known cities such as Vienna, Berlin and Venice, despite its relatively small size. Equally, the Czech capital has long suffered from tourist blight and overtourism, and is now trying to shake off its reputation as a cheap place to get drunk and party. I spoke to Jan Herget, head of CzechTourism, about swapping stag parties for symposiums, how Michelin stars could lure foreign tourists out of the capital, and why inflation might perversely be a good thing for Prague – and much else besides.

Tourist numbers have gone up since last year but still, less people are coming to Czechia than in 2019. Is CzechTourism aiming to get those numbers back to where they used to be?

“Sure, but if we look at the numbers from the second quarter, it’s pretty good, because it’s actually only 6000 tourists less. But if we look at the numbers in more detail, then we see that there is structural change – we see more Czech people, and many more people from surrounding countries like Poland and Germany. We are missing tourists from Russia, naturally, due to the war, but also from China and a little bit from Korea and America. But it’s going in a good direction, because thanks to the long-haul direct flights from Seoul and now from Taipei, it’s increasing and getting better and better.”

See the rest here.

Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: Roman Vondrouš, ČTK

No sooner was Robert Fremr nominated as one of three new constitutional judges when accusations began to surface about sentences he handed out pre-1989. Now he has made the decision to step down, although he had already been approved by the Senate. But questions remain about what this means for choosing another candidate and the pasts of other key figures in the judiciary.

The vice president of the Prague High Court Robert Fremr announced at a press conference on Monday that he would not be accepting the position of judge at the Constitutional Court.

He has been dogged by criticism since his nomination for the post, first, for sentencing three young men to prison in 1988 in a Communist rigged trial, then for sentencing over 170 people for illegally emigrating during the communist era.

He told reporters on Monday that he was turning down the role due to media pressure, as well as because of his desire not to let the public mistrust that had accompanied his nomination to jeopardise the credibility of the Constitutional Court.

See the rest here.

Author:Anna Fodor, source:Český rozhlas

Czech women remain conspicuously absent from most seats of power in Czechia. The country has never had a female PM or president and NGOs have repeatedly highlighted the lack of women’s representation in national politics. Moreover, female politicians are often targets of verbal abuse simply because of their sex. I spoke to Lenka Hrbková from Masaryk University in Brno to find out more about the challenges that Czech female politicians face.

“The typical types of attacks against female politicians are remarks about their appearance, intelligence but what is also pretty common is some form of sexualized violence, pornographic harassment and content, threats of rape, threats of sexual violence –attacks that are gendered.”

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

After several months of intensive preparations, on Monday 14 August Czechia submitted Basic Design Plan as necessary document before applying for Temporary Building Permit to the Osaka Authorities. This makes Czechia the second country, after South Korea, which has moved into this crucial phase of preparations. The Osaka Authorities have about 6 8 weeks to approve the documents.

“Based on a government decision from the end of June 2022, Czechia became the 125th country to sign up for participation in EXPO 2025. In October 2022, we signed the participation contract among the first nine countries and now we are the second to submit Basic Design Plan. This is an important milestone for obtaining a building permit,” says Ondřej Soška, Czech Commissioner General for EXPO 2025.

The process to obtain a building permit in Japan involves several stages, including the submission of a basic plan to the Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition, the organizer of EXPO 2025. The Czech representatives did this in early June 2023. Then on Monday 14 August 2023, they submitted the crucial Basic Design Plan which is a start of Application for Temporary Building Permit process – this is the longest stage, with the local building authority (Osaka Authorities) assessing in detail many aspects of each national project. This permit takes 6-8 weeks to be issued. During this time, the architects and designers from Apropos Architects, in collaboration with Tereza Šváchová, Nicola Slováková and the Japanese studio Kino Architects, will be completing the documentation so that Czechia can submit the final documentation to the Japanese authorities for the building permit during the autumn. This should then be issued within about 2 weeks.

“Our entire team is working very hard to prepare our pavilion on time and in the way we set out at the beginning of the project. We are aware of the rising prices of materials and labor in Japan, which, like Czechia, is struggling with inflation. However, we are doing our best to show the world a unique national pavilion, which is already attracting a significant amount of attention far beyond the Czech borders. We expect it to be one of the most interesting and distinctive pavilions of the entire expo,” says Commissioner General Soška.

„I’m so proud to be the Ambassador of Japan to Czechia today. The seriousness and diligence of the Soska´s hard working team inspires confidence to everyone. Czechia is leading. Because it’s the Original. We’ll continue to work together for successful EXPO 2025,” says Japanese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Hideo Suzuki.

So far, 153 countries and 8 international organizations have signed up to participate in EXPO 2025, while 56 countries or regions plan to build their own pavilion (type A). Other countries and organizations plan to rent pre-built premises from the organizers.

“We sincerely welcome the construction application from the Czech Republic. We look forward to visiting the wonderful design pavilion that represent the beautiful Czech culture. I sincerely hope that the 2025 World EXPO will further spread the beauty of the Czech Republic to the world,” says Mayor of Osaka Hideyuki Yokoyama.

About Czech pavilion at EXPO 2025

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

About Czech participation at EXPO 2025

The Czech Republic as an independent state will participate in the World EXPO for the sixth time. Ondřej Soška, who won the tender of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic last spring with his concept and theme “Talent and Creativity for Life”, has been the Commissioner General since September 2022. Czechia should present itself in Osaka not only with what the Japanese know very well and have long admired, such as Czech glass and classical music, but especially with Czech innovations, nanotechnologies, promising start-ups and regional talents.

More information can be found on the website of the Czech participation at EXPO 2025. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Photo: Barbora Kvapilová, Czech Radio

The Dvořák music festival is a popular annual event, but this year’s 67th edition brings an exciting new twist to the tradition – it takes place on a boat on the Vltava River. Visitors can listen to the music of Dvořák while blissfully floating along on the Florentina ship. I spoke with the festival manager, Lucie Strnadova about what to expect.

The festival is in its 67th edition, what is unique about it this year?

“This year the special event is a boat cruise along the route where Dvořák sailed before he left for the US. We arranged a seven-day boat trip, every day there is a different place, a different artist and different concerts. So it’s seven days of lovely music, art, and lovely weather on a ship.”

For those of our listeners who may not know who Antonín Dvořák is, maybe you can give us a little bit of background information on him?

“Dvořák belongs to one of our most famous composers, we are very proud to have him because through him we have a very large bond with the United States where he served as director of the Conservatory in New York. This year, we were honoured to have the US Ambassador and his wife visit our first concert on the 12th of August on board the ship, where we presented Dvořák’s most famous opera, Rusalka.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Ian Willoughby, Radio Prague International

British linguist Danny Bate divides his time between Prague and Edinburgh, where he is completing a PhD. Given his academic background, the 26-year-old has many fascinating things to say on the Czech language, which he himself is studying. But I also asked Bate – who, incidentally, helps shape Czechia’s “maturita” school-leaving exam – about his experience of living in the country to date.

You speak Czech, you have a Czech fiancée. Which came first, your partner or your interest in the language?

“The partner. Like so many people, it was love that brought me here. It’s often such a common story, I think it’s not very interesting for other people [laughs].

“But yes, my partner and I met in England, many, many years ago now. Essentially we both finished our degrees in the UK, and having run out of things to do, I came over to be with her in the Czech Republic.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Performances by Czech and international performers, students, and volunteers. Through their own bodies they interpret historical and contemporary facts about queer people and works in art history.

Liquid Queer Memoria is a performative study of the possibility of fluidity, i.e. the transience of the memorial, which deals with the history of queer culture. Queer history or herstory consists of a multitude of life stories and works of art. These stories form layers whose meaning is constantly changing due to paradigm shifts and, if you like, climate change.

Performing Artists:

Tomáš Samek, Tomáš Ruller, Vladimír Havlík, Jana Orlová, Ondřej Macl, Kateřina Olivová, David Helán, Miloš Šejn, Jolana Šturmová, Anna Kroupová, Michal Durda, Katarina Mamchur (UA), Sonya The Moon, Paulina Masenina, Viktor Fuček (SK), Saydie Vell, Alice Anna Červinková, Matěj Pšenička, Hana Magdoňová, Darina Alster, Martin Kámen, Martin Pondělíček, Rémi Diligent (FR), Oskar Noel Sara, Eve Miller (GBR), Tomáš Lorenc, Karel Vladyka a Mojmír Pukl

Curator: Jitka Hlaváčková

Technical solution of the documentation and video installation: Michal Kindernay, Pavel Havrda

Authors of the project: Darina Alster a Martin Kámen

Troja Château 22. 8. 2023 4 pm – 8 pm

What connection do artists such as ABBA, The Beatles, Queen, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan and Edith Piaf have with Czechoslovakia? Most of them never even performed in the country. However, Czech cover versions of their songs became huge hits in the former communist state. In many cases, domestic audiences didn’t even realise they were listening to cover versions, not being acquainted with what was going on beyond the Iron Curtain.

This practice of taking a world-famous hit from the English, French or Italian-speaking world and translating or completely rewriting the lyrics for a Czech audience had been a custom since the pre-war era of jazz and swing. And not only in Czechoslovakia – but perhaps more than in most countries, the practice was adopted with enthusiasm, and many Czechs, particularly of the older generation, still prefer their country’s own covers over the original versions.

See the rest here.

Author: Libor Kukal

Photo: Nachtigall Artists

The Prague authorities said this week they were opposed to a planned performance in the city by Russian opera star Anna Netrebko, citing her ties to the Putin regime. The venue for the concert is now set to negotiate with the agency handling the booking.

After weeks of discussion on the matter, the ruling coalition in Prague has stated that it is “unequivocally opposed” to a planned appearance in the city by the internationally renowned Russian soprano Anna Netrebko.

The city’s government had previously said it might ban the concert over her connections to the Putin regime.

The venue, the Municipal House, is operated by a city-owned joint stock company whose management must decide on the matter. It now plans to discuss abrogating the contract for October’s event with the company representing Netrebko.

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

I missed the first two mountain bongos this year – by that I mean I did not see them on the day they were born – but the third one was a Sunday baby and I managed to be there. I found it lying at the feet of his now 14-year-old mother Maureen, who was watching me attentively. Everything seemed to be running smoothly. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long.

Shortly after giving birth, Maureen had a partial prolapse of her uterus and it was necessary to give her a veterinary operation under anaesthesia. Unfortunately, Maureen was not well at all following the operation, she couldn’t eat, much less nurse her calf. The prognosis for both her and the calf – a female – was not favourable. Although the calf received milk, collected from Maureen during the anaesthesia, at the time our colleagues did not see bottle feeding her as a good option. This was due to the risk of digestive and, in particular, behavioural problems in adulthood.

It saddens me greatly to say, that, after a few days, Maureen died, and it seemed that this would seal the fate of her calf. But the little female fought for her life, successfully! Thanks to the fact that she was a full member of the herd, she had started drinking from both other females- the mothers of previous calves – prior to Maureen’s death, and one of them even took her on as one of her own. That made the difference: when the calf becomes part of the group, it largely eliminates the negative impact of bottle feeding, and this is how, we hope, we can save Maureen’s daughter.

The feeders arranged for a supply of goat’s milk, and we waited with bated breath to see whether the orphaned female would be willing to accept it, and, also, how she would be able to digest it. I think her willingness to accept this substitute is clearly evidenced by the photograph we took at the time and digestion also appears to be fine. What’s more, the calf continues to suckle profusely from both “aunts”.

At the moment, the calf is making a tentative start to grazing and is also consuming alfalfa, browse and hay. She has quite gone off the goat’s milk, but continues to suckle from the females, one of them in particular. So maybe we will see a happy ending after all…

Although the substance known as ayahuasca is illegal in Czechia, there have been some scientific studies showing that it could have potential as a treatment for depression. In order to test its therapeutic possibilities, Czech scientists have travelled to Peru to partake in the infamous ceremony and try out the drug themselves.

Western tourists seeking out spiritual experiences and altered states of consciousness have long been travelling to South America to take part in the indigenous shamanic ritual that involves drinking the infamous ayahuasca tea, which contains a psychedelic substance and can induce a trance-like state. But more recently, studies have shown that the drug might have uses beyond new experiences and a good travelling story to tell your friends – it could have potential for treating depression.

See the rest here.

Author: Anna Fodor

Although the pinecone has already switched from mother’s milk to adult food, it still rides on the tail of its mother, Run Hou Tang. Starting today, between 9 and 10 am, visitors have the chance to see this European unique with their own eyes in daylight. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

From today, visitors to the Prague Zoo can observe the female nutcracker Šiška and her parents in daylight. Newly, the night exposition of the Indonesian jungle will be shrouded in darkness until 10 o’clock.

The first nutcracker cub in Europe can now be easily seen not only as part of the current outdoor campaign, but also during the entire first hour of the zoo’s opening hours. “We cater to visitors who now have the opportunity to see the pods in full light. The new regime is also an attractive opportunity for photographers,” says the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek. “We had to adjust the course of the night exposure very sensitively; for a certain period of time, we moved the lights-out time by a few minutes until today, when it is already one full hour.”

The campaign with the first bred nutcracker in Europe filled public spaces throughout the Czech Republic. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

In addition to the trio of short-tailed nutmegs, visitors to the Indonesian jungle will also get a new look at other nocturnal inhabitants for the first time: hesitating owls, clouded voles, or flying bag squirrels. They can also take advantage of the purchase of a discounted electronic ticket, which allows them to avoid the ticket office and head directly behind the pods from the turnstiles.

These days, billboards and city lights with Šiška can be seen by people in the capital and in the rest of the Czech Republic. The campaign thus emphasizes not only the first bred nutcracker in Europe as a success of the Prague Zoo, but of Czech zoos in general. Its significance far exceeds domestic borders.

The first foal of the Převalský horse was born at the Prague Zoo on March 21, 1933. The founders of the breeding were the stallion Alki and the mare Minka. Source: Prague Zoo Archive

The female short-tailed pinecone has reached the age of six months and has switched from mother’s milk to adult food. Last week, therefore, the Prague Zoo declared the first born shellac in Europe to have been successfully bred. In connection with this historic success, there are many questions from the media and visitors, which can basically be summed up in one question: How is Šiška doing in the context of all the important breeding in the nearly century-long history of the Prague Zoo? We decided to provide an answer and compile ten of the most important ones.

Prague Zoo has been breeding cheetahs since 1933, the first cubs were reared in 1972. The female Brita proved to be an exemplary mother for the first time and gave birth to a total of 27 offspring over the years. Photo by Zdeněk Veselovský, Prague Zoo

“It was not a completely easy task, because in every similar list breeding, scientific, conservation and marketing points of view are necessarily mixed, but here I am presenting the result,” comments the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek, on the ranking. At the same time, he adds his wishes for the coming years: “And what awaits us next? What important breedings would we like for the future? I would like to bet on giant salamanders or barbels. However, historical achievements cannot be planned.”

In autumn, visitors to the Prague Zoo can also look forward to a photo exhibition dedicated to the most important breedings in the history of the Prague Zoo. It will also offer those interested the story behind each of these breeding successes.

Who doesn’t know the legendary Moja! The first baby gorilla born in the Czech and Slovak gardens today lives in Spain, but her daughter Duni is part of the gorilla group in Prague’s Dja Reserve – and if she succeeds, Moja will become a grandmother at the end of the year. Duni is currently pregnant. Source: Prague Zoo Archive

•  1933 Převalský’s horse – the first foal in the Prague Zoo
•  1937 Andean condor – second breeding in the world (first published)
•  1942 polar bear – Sněhulka – unique artificial breeding on a world scale (in 1947 Polarka – the first natural breeding in Czechoslovakia)
• 1972 cheetah – one of the first breedings in Europe
• 1989 Cape grebe – the first breeding in Czechoslovakia, the third in Europe
• 1998 crocodilian dracaena – the world’s first breeding
• 2004 lowland gorilla – Moja – the first breeding in the Czech Republic
• 2012 rusty-eared jay – the first breeding in world zoos
• 2012 Crowned turtle – the world’s first breeding and also the discovery of the method of reproduction
• 2023 short-tailed nuthatch – Šiška – the first breeding of nuthatch in Europe

The breeding of the female short-tailed pine nutcracker Cone is crucial not only because it was associated with a number of difficulties, but also because it is the first young of these unique scaly mammals bred in Europe. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

Recycling water from sewage treatment plants is a common practice in many countries with a warmer climate, including Texas, Israel or the southern European states. The purified water is used in industry, agriculture and even in households. A team of experts is now testing the possibilities of water recycling in Czechia:

In countries with a drier, warmer climate, water recycling has become an essential part of water management. Three years ago, the EU adopted a regulation on minimum requirements for water reuse. However, the regulation is not legally binding and has not yet been adopted into the Czech legal system.

See the rest here.

Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Michal Šafařík

Photo: René Volfík, iROZHLAS.cz

The head of the Czech police, Martin Vondrášek, has apologised after saying in an interview that women “very often” make up claims of sexual assault. However, advocacy groups says the force needs to do far more to reassure women.

On Monday the news site Aktuálně.cz carried a video interview in its Spotlight series with Czech Police President Martin Vondrášek.

Among other issues, the discussion focused on the force’s treatment of victims of sexual violence.

Mr. Vondrášek said his officers aimed to behave sensitively and avoid secondary victimisation. Then he made the following comments.

“The whole time I’ve been sitting here I’ve been wondering if I should say this… I guess I should, and I hope it won’t be taken out of context. But very often – really very often – women’s reports of sexual violence are made up. Very often… It’s happened to me in my work at least twice – two cases of fictitious rape.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Blanka Mazalová, Czech Radio

A travelling exhibition of photographs by leading Ukrainian war photographers, has currently opened on the premises of the Červený kostel church in Olomouc. The collection includes the winner of the 2022 World Press Photo Award.

The collection of photographs is a glimpse into the reality of present day Ukraine, bringing powerful testimony about the hardships of ordinary people and their struggle for freedom. At the centre of attention is the photo that won the main World Press Photo Award –showing rescue workers carrying an injured, pregnant woman on a stretcher out of a bombed-out hospital in Mariupol. Her baby was stillborn. Soon after, she too died. The exhibition’s curator Igor Malijevský says it is the most moving picture there.

See the rest here.

Authors: Daniela Lazarová, Blanka

What connection do artists such as ABBA, The Beatles, Queen, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan and Edith Piaf have with Czechoslovakia? Most of them never even performed in the country. However, Czech cover versions of their songs became huge hits in the former communist state. In many cases, domestic audiences didn’t even realise they were listening to cover versions, not being acquainted with what was going on beyond the Iron Curtain.

This practice of taking a world-famous hit from the English, French or Italian-speaking world and translating or completely rewriting the lyrics for a Czech audience had been a custom since the pre-war era of jazz and swing. And not only in Czechoslovakia – but perhaps more than in most countries, the practice was adopted with enthusiasm, and many Czechs, particularly of the older generation, still prefer their country’s own covers over the original versions.

See the rest here.

Author: Libor Kukal

Photo: Jaroslav Hoření, Czech Radio

Modlivý důl (Prayer Valley) near Svojkov in the Liberec Region is one of the most haunting spots in the Lusatian Mountains. The monolithic rock chapel created in one of the sandstone rocks of a former mine is an old pilgrimage site that has been dubbed “the small Lourdes”.

The history of this pilgrimage site goes back to 1704 when a local farmer placed a picture of the Virgin Mary on the rock face and prayed for a happy marriage and sons. Others followed his example and in 1760 one of the locals replaced the image with a consecrated picture of the Virgin Mary.

People came to ask for blessings and rumors of answered prayers and miracles began to spread. The pious Countess Cervelli from Svojkov ordered the erection of a wooden chapel and the picture of the Virgin Mary was moved to the chapel.

But not everybody was happy with the new pilgrimage site. The pastor in Sloup resented the fact that local believers often went to the forest chapel to pray instead of going to his church. In 1807 the church denounced the processions to the chapel as idolatry and ordered it to be stripped of its interior and for the picture of the Virgin Mary to be transferred to the church in Sloup.

See the rest here.

Author: Daniela Lazarová

photo: Zuzana Bönisch

In Prague on August 7, 2023

At the invitation of the President of the Republic, Petr Pavel, the President came to the Czech Republic for an official visit Filipe Jacinta Nyusi and his wife Isaura Ferrão Nyusi of the Republic of Mozambique. The presidential couple began their visit at Prague Castle in front of the Honorary Unit of the Castle Guard.

The visit continued with the introduction of the members of the national delegations and a subsequent meeting, an entry in the memorial book of the Prague Castle, an exchange of gifts and a private meeting of the presidential couples.

At the evening press conference, President Petr Pavel evaluated possible future cooperation:

“The Czech Republic can play a much more active role in Africa than it has so far. This fully corresponds to the new strategy of the Czech government for cooperation with Africa. We see its importance also in the fact that African countries often have no other alternative than to cooperate with Russia or China. The more such common options there are, the less room there will be for the negative influence of Russia or China.”

photo: Zuzana Bönisch

The presidents also discussed economic cooperation in the field of the defense industry, healthcare, transport or renewable energy sources. Tomorrow, the Mozambican delegation will negotiate with Czech companies about export possibilities.

Photo: Prague Civil Society Center

The Prague Civil Society Center, located in the heart of the city, works with various stakeholders across 18 different countries, helping civic groups and independent journalists grow their audiences and expand their reach, even those in nations under authoritarian rule. I spoke with Director of Partnerships and Communications, George Leech about the work they are doing.

“It became clear that working in the former Soviet Union to support activists, journalists, human rights defenders and change makers was going to become more difficult. So the American, Czech, and Swedish government, and two private organisations got together and thought ‘how can we support these change makers who are doing great things in former Soviet Union countries from abroad?’

So they put a tender together for an organisation that would be able to work outside the region but still work within the region.

“People in Need, a big Czech NGO won the tender to set up the centre, and they incubated us. So we’re born out of People in Need, and we have been fully independent as the Prague Civil Society Center since 2017.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Czech Foreign Ministry

Many tributes have been paid to senior Czech diplomat Martin Povejšil, who has died at the age of 62. Mr. Povejšil held several key posts in over three decades at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and his death is being described as an enormous loss.

Martin Povejšil, who died on Monday at the age of 62, joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1990. In over three decades there he held numerous important posts, including serving as Czechia’s ambassador to NATO, the European Union, Spain and Chile.

Though largely unknown to the general public, Mr. Povejšil was widely respected in foreign policy and security circles at home and abroad, and there has been a constant stream of tributes since the news of his passing.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

The Interior and Education Ministries have proposed a number of changes to the rules governing the language test required for foreigners to obtain permanent residence in Czechia. The proposal envisions an increase in the cost of the test, an end to the interior ministry footing the bill, and allowing a wider range of tests to be used as proof of Czech language knowledge.

Foreigners can apply for a permanent residence permit after five years of living in the Czech Republic or with a so-called “blue card” for highly skilled workers – but one of the conditions for being granted permanent residence is passing a Czech language exam at CEFR level A2. At the moment, this is a specific government-mandated exam, but the new proposal plans to expand the range of tests that applicants for permanent residence can use to prove their knowledge of Czech.

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Author: Anna Fodor

Mushroom picking and foraging forest fruits is something of a national pastime in Czechia. Indeed, Czechs harvested nearly 39,000 tonnes of forest fruits worth almost eight billion crowns last year, and six out of ten Czechs visited the forest at least once a month.

For most Czechs, the summer holidays are associated with spending time in the forest, collecting mushrooms and berries. They eat them fresh or store them for later, drying the mushrooms or pickling them in vinegar and processing the fruits into marmalades and jams.)

According to data from the Czech University of Agriculture, the amount of mushrooms collected last year increased by a quarter, while the amount of raspberries, blackberries or cranberries harvested fell by tens of percent.

Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný says it could be partly related to the bark-beetle calamity, but it is mostly due to the weather:

“In forests affected by bark beetle, certain types of berries can disappear for a certain period of time. But the key thing that plays a role here is the weather. Some years, you don’t get enough moisture or enough heat. However, if we look at the numbers and the trends over the long term, they remain more or less the same.”

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Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Tomáš Pancíř

The importance of dealing with and seeking out assistance for mental health has become more common over recent years, but regardless of the decrease in societal taboos, young people in Czechia – specifically Gen Z and Millennials, are dealing with high levels of stress in their everyday lives. I spoke with Tom Mertin, a psychologist based in Prague, about what he has observed in his practice.

A recent report from Czech Radio (iRozhlas) came out that indicates 32% of gen z and 31% of millennials in Czechia are feeling stress on a daily basis. From the work you do in your practice, are you surprised when you hear these numbers?

“Not at all, and I think part of the reason for these numbers is that more people are aware of their mental health, and more people actually would consider indicating that they have struggles when it comes to their mental health.”

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Radio Prague International

Conventional is not the concept when it comes to the new bistro in Prague’s Vršovice operated by couple Meggie and Nugy. The duo have created a space that brings together a fusion of the food they love from all cuisines, curating a unique dining experience for their guests. I spoke with the pair about the process of opening the bistro, and the ambitions they have for its future.

If you’re looking for a classic Vietnamese place that slings traditional bowls of pho, you’ve come to the wrong place. Mămăm bistro, the newly opened love child of Nugy and Meggie is offering up something new and special in Prague, a fusion of the couple’s beloved dishes that mixes every kind of cuisine – from Czech to Vietnamese. As Nugy explains, opening the restaurant happened quickly.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Filip Jandourek, Czech Radio

The World Scout Jamboree, an international meeting of Scout organisations from around the world which takes place every four years in a different country, was plagued by problems from the start this year in South Korea. Heavy rains, a lack of preparation, a heatwave and now an impending typhoon have caused delays, difficulties, the premature departure of some countries, and now a government-ordered evacuation of the campsite. But the Czech Scout contingent is still looking forward to the second half of the Jamboree, even after its planned relocation to Seoul, says one of its leaders.

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Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: e-Sbírky, Národní muzeum, CC BY 4.0

The 1983 World Championships in Athletics, held in Finland’s Helsinki, were the first edition of the competition – and proved the most successful ever for Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia took four gold medals in Helsinki, as well as three silvers and two bronzes, coming fourth in the overall medals tally.

Jarmila Kratochvílová was the most successful member of the national team, coming first in the 400 meters in a world record time of 47.99 seconds, and beating into second place compatriot Taťána Kocembová.

Kratochvílová took home another gold in the 800 metres, and also helped the relay team to silver in the 4×400 meters. Their time of 3:20.23 is still the national record.

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Author: Klára Stejskalová

Photo: Tomáš Černý, Czech Radio

The controversy surrounding the nomination of Robert Fremr to the panel of Constitutional Court judges has flared up once again. New allegations have surfaced that he may have knowingly served the regime in over 100 communist-rigged trials pre-1989 and lied about his past in Senate hearings.

The country’s communist past throws a long shadow and less than 48 hours before Fremr’s planned appointment, new information emerged suggesting that that in the years 1983 to 1985 Fremr had tried over 140 emigres, handing out verdicts in communist-rigged trials that stripped some of them of property and resulted in their families being persecuted by the secret police. Senator Hilšer told Czech Radio the Senate would never have approved his nomination in light of this information.

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Author: Daniela Lazarová

We had an interview with Robert Fremr in one of our past issues. You can read it here.

Photo: Czech Foreign Ministry

Czechia was among 40 states attending a meeting in Saudi Arabia at the weekend focused on a possible settlement of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Also present were China, India and Brazil, which has been seen by some as a sign of progress. Czechia’s representative at the consultations was Deputy Foreign Minister Jan Marian and I spoke to him following his return to Prague.

What was the message that you brought from Czechia to the meeting in Jeddah?

“First our support to Ukraine in general – this is what we’ve been doing since the second Russian aggression started – and full support for the 10-point peace plan of President Zelensky.

“And also we offered concrete areas of interest where Czechia could help in implementing the plan, such as nuclear safety and security, and the international tribunal or mechanisms for prosecuting Russian war crimes.”

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Author: Ian Willoughby

If you’re looking for the perfect place to spend a day in nature, the Botanical gardens in Troja is the perfect destination. Diverse plant life and magnificent views of Prague can be seen, making it the ideal place for plant lovers and families with young children.

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Authors: Barbora Navrátilová, Amelia Mola-Schmidt

The female of Chinese pangolin Šiska was half-a-year-old on Wednesday. We can consider her breeding completed – and we can add another item to the list of historical achievements of Prague Zoo, in this case in bold.

The breeding of Šiška is essential not only because it was associated with several difficulties, but also because it is the first pangolin pup bred in Europe. At the same time, it is necessary to highlight that these scaled mammals, living in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are highly threatened by illegal hunting and trade. After all, the attention given to Šiška in the world of zoos only highlights the importance of her breeding.

And if I mentioned recording in bold, I should mention the context, within which Šiska will be listed. Therefore, I tried to put together a list of the ten biggest breeding achievements of Prague Zoo since its foundation until today. It was not an easy task, because in such a list, breeding, scientific, conservation and marketing aspects must necessarily mix. Nonetheless, here is the result: 1933 – Przewalski’s horse – the first foal in Prague Zoo

1937 – Andean condor – the second breeding in the world (the first published one)

1942 – polar bear – Sněhulka – hand rearing, unique in the world (in 1947 then Polárka – the first parent rearing in Czechoslovakia)

1972 – cheetah – one of the first breedings in Europe

1989 – aardvark – the first breeding in Czechoslovakia, third breeding in Europe

1998 – northern caiman lizard – the first world breeding

2004 – western lowland gorilla – Moja – the first breeding in Czech Republic

2012 – rufous-cheeked laughingthrush – the first breeding in world zoological gardens

2012 – Brahmini river turtle – the first world breeding connected with discovery of the manner of reproduction

2023 – Chinese pangolin – Šiška – the first breeding of pangolin in Europe

And what’s next? Which important breedings we would wish in future? I would like to bet on giant salamanders. Or shoebills. However, historical achievements can’t be planned.

It proved to be an exciting weekend for the world of Czech athletics, as the country collected three medals, two of them gold in men’s basketball, archery, and ice hockey.

The 31st FISU World University Games wrap up today in Chengdu, China. The 12 day competition brings student athletes from all over the world together to compete in a number of sports and athletic categories.

On Sunday night Czechia took the gold medal home in men’s basketball. The squad defeated Brazil in a nail biting 69-67 win.

Top scorer Jan Zidek hit a game high record scoring 24 points and snatching 9 rebounds for Czechia, and Martin Svoboda followed with another nine points to seal the gold medal for the team.

It is the first medal in more than 35 years for Czech basketball.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Ian Willoughby, Radio Prague International

Regular blockades of the “magistrála” through road cutting across Prague have become a fact of life in the city, incensing some drivers. The protests are aimed at promoting the idea of a 30 kilometre an hour speed limit in the capital and are organised by a climate crisis activist group called Poslední Generace, or Last Generation. I spoke to one of its leading members, Arne Springorum, who is from Germany but has been living in Czechia for three decades.

Many people are concerned about the environment but few go into that field full-time. What was your motivation?

“It’s a step-by-step process, isn’t it [laughs]? I didn’t go into the situation I am in now from one day to the other. I’ve known about the climate crisis since the early ‘90s and had my head in the sand, like everyone else.

“Then when Extinction Rebellion was founded in the UK and I saw the pictures of ordinary citizens getting arrested I realised I am one of them – so I stepped up.”

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Author: Ian Willoughby

The foal, which Prime Minister Petr Fiala baptized together with the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek, is the first young Převalský horse, which was born in the paddock built by the Prague Zoo at Dívče Hrady in Radlice. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

This morning, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, christened the foal Převalský’s horse at Prague’s Maiden’s Castle. The moon mare got the name Barunka from him. Prime Minister Fiala is not only the godfather of the cub, but above all he patronizes the project of the return of these last wild horses to Kazakhstan, which is organized by the Prague Zoo.

“Rescuing Převalský’s horse has a huge tradition in the Czech Republic thanks to the Prague Zoo, which has always played a big role in it. I was personally present in Astana when Director Bobek signed the memorandum of cooperation between the Prague Zoo and the Kazakh Ministry of Ecology regarding the fact that we would participate in the spread of the Przewalski’s horse in the Central Asian region, specifically in Kazakhstan. Now I am happy that I can christen the first foal born at Dívče hrad, because in the future it is Barunka who will quite possibly head to the land of her ancestors, to the steppes of Kazakhstan,” said the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, at the christening ceremony.

The name Barunka, which was ceremoniously revealed by Prime Minister Petr Fiala together with Prague Zoo Director Miroslav Bobek and Deputy Mayor Hl. Jana Komrsková, City of Prague for the Environment, did not get the foal by accident. The Prime Minister recalled the symbolism of St. Barbora as the patron saint of children and also referred to Baroness Božena Němcová as a symbol of childhood and joy. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

According to his words, he chose the name Barunka because it meets the annually changing criterion of the initial letter with which the names of all born foals begin – this year it is the letter “B” – and also because it is a nice Czech name, which has a number of names for the Czechs importance. In that context, the Prime Minister reminded the patron saint of children St. Barbora and the character of Baronka from Babička Božena Němcová, who, according to him, represents joy, childhood and happy adolescence.

On the occasion of the christening, the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek, recalled that the Prague Zoo was and is participating in the reintroduction of Převalský’s horses to Mongolia in a significant way. After all, thanks to this, he is the holder of the highest award of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums WAZA Conservation Award. “After the successful reintroduction to the west of Mongolia, we are preparing to expand our project to the east of the country. But even before that, the return of Převalský’s horses to Kazakhstan will take place. In this context, I would like to thank Prime Minister Fiala, because thanks to his support, it is very likely that we will transport the first ‘rollers’ there already next year,” the director of the Prague Zoo, Miroslav Bobek, outlined the prospects for the future.

People can see the month-old mare Barunka in the vast paddock at Dívče hrady, managed by the Prague Zoo, together with her five-year-old mother Khamiina and five other horses. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

Meanwhile, a modern paddock and quarters for Převalský’s horses are being built in the Prague Zoo area near the upper station of the cable car. It should be open to the public next year. The exhibition will present them as iconic species of the Prague Zoo and other Mongolian fauna, e.g., manuals and steppe reptile species.

The baby penguin hatched on March 3rd and has shown a tremendous amount of tenacity. Thanks to the tireless care of the breeders, he survived being kicked out of the nest and today he already weighs over four kilograms. Photo by Tereza Šolcová, Prague Zoo

As soon as it hatched, it was already fighting for its life. The baby Humboldt penguin was kicked out of the nest by an aggressive neighboring couple already on the 19th day of its life. However, the apparently dead bird was saved by a team of breeders and today visitors to the Prague Zoo can observe it in the Penguin Pavilion exhibit.

“He’s a huge fighter, a prodigy. He spent two days in the care of the vet and then we literally weaned him off because he couldn’t go back to his parents. The bond between them was broken,” explains head breeder Jakub Mezei. “We fed him through a tube, then special instant porridge, then artificially digested fish. In less than two months, he finally switched to whole fish, which we feed the adult penguins.”

The parents of the little penguin are the male Dvojtečka and the female Mrs. Dvojtečková. The unique pattern of dots on the abdomen for each individual allows breeders to distinguish individual penguins in a flock of thirty. Photo by Tereza Šolcová, Prague Zoo

However, the breeders’ efforts could not end even with the transition to a regular feeding regime. After a long time in the breeding grounds, the little feathered penguin did not know the other penguins and was even afraid of them. He thought he belonged to the people. The breeders had to let him gradually get used to his fellows, but thanks to patience, they eventually succeeded.

Today, visitors can find the little penguin in the exhibit near the main entrance. It is easy to recognize him in a flock of thirty – although the young has already lost its down feathers, it still does not have the typical black and white coat and is Gray in color. It will fully acquire the form of adults only at the end of next summer. His gender is not yet clear.

“Whether it is a female or a male will only be reliably revealed by blood tests, the results of which we are currently awaiting. The baby does not yet have a definitive name. There are three of us in the team of penguin breeders and we call each of them differently – in the game there is Buřtík, Láska and Štístko. So we are ready for both gender variants and we also have a conciliatory middle gender in reserve,” adds Mezei.

Humboldt penguins live in the southern hemisphere, but their range extends to the equator – unlike other species, they nest in the tropical zone on the coast of South America, where the temperature reaches 30 °C. Therefore, domestic summer temperatures do not cause them the slightest difficulty. Photo by Tereza Šolcová, Prague Zoo

Visitors can get to know the young during the guided feeding of the penguins, which takes place every day in the summer from 11 a.m.

Prague Zoo has been breeding Humboldt penguins since the beginning of the 1960s and is one of their successful European breeders. In order, it is already the 135th cub of this species in the history of the Prague Zoo, but it stands out with its story.

Photo by Tereza Šolcová, Prague Zoo

2022 and the start of 2023 brought a great deal of concern around affordability and inflation for Czechs. But new data from the Czech Statistical Office shows that Czechs are feeling slightly more optimistic about their country’s economic situation, as Jiří Obst, head of its Business Cycle Surveys Unit explained to Radio Prague.

“The greatest increase in confidence about the economy is from consumers. For example, the share of households expecting a worsening of their overall economic situation in the Czech Republic for the next 12 months decreased compared to June. This is positive news.

“The number of households evaluating their current financial situation worsening also decreased over the last 12 months. Similarly to last month, the number of households fearing a worsening of their financial situation in the next 12 months also slightly decreased in July.

“So taken together, these are the positive pieces of information that have primarily caused the growth in confidence in the economy in July.”

See the rest here.

Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Khalil Baalbaki, Czech Radio

Some of the country’s biggest ever musical artistes, including Karel Gott, Helena Vondráčková and Waldemar Matuška, have recorded hits at Czech Radio’s storied Studio A.

Studio A is located not at Czech Radio’s historic building on Vinohradska St. in central Prague but at the station’s centre in the district of Karlín, from where the Praha and Central Bohemia regional stations are broadcast.

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Author: Klára Stejskalová

Photo: Ondrej Duffek, Archive of David Strauzz

David Strauzz is a mixed media artist who was born to Czech immigrants in Ontario, Canada. Since 2015, he has lived in Prague, where he came to public attention mainly through his large-scale murals. He also runs the MEGA Gallery, located at the Karlovo náměstí and Můstek metro stations, which promotes street art. I met with David Strauzz in his studio in the Pragovka Art District in Vysočany and started by asking him what brought him to the Czech capital in the first place:

“First of all, this year is the 50th anniversary of my parents’ departure from Czechoslovakia, so it’s a very important year for me in terms of who I am, what I am doing and where I am doing it.

“In 2012 I was living in Boston, where my wife was employed by Harvard University. Two months after we arrived, the marathon bombing took place. So that was our welcome to American culture, which was very not Canadian.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo: Alžběta Švarcová, Czech Radio

Jiřina Šiklová and Madeleine Albright are just two of the women who streets and green areas will be named after in a new Prague district called Smíchov City, after a City Council vote this week. While Albright was a US secretary of state, Šiklová was a communist-era dissident who pioneered gender studies in this country in the 1990s. I spoke to Lucie Přibyl, librarian at the Center for Gender Studies in Prague – which the academic created – about her legacy.

“She was a sociologist, publicist, writer, and she also dabbled in politics. She was also a dissident, and that was a big part of her legacy.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

If you’ve toured around Prague, you’ve likely visited the historic Prague Castle. But some tourists and even locals in the city may not be aware of the beautiful gardens that lie just beneath the castle walls. Five interconnected gardens boast beautiful flowers, fruit trees, and stunning views of the city from their many terraces.

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Authors: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Barbora Navrátilová

Photo: archive of Pop Messe

One of Czechia’s biggest alternative music festivals, Pop Messe, takes place in Brno this coming Friday and Saturday. The third edition of the event has a slightly different venue but, with names like Spiritualized and Young Fathers, boasts perhaps its strongest lineup to date. I spoke to Pop Messe’s founder Tomáš Kolar.

“It’s an adventurous music festival of popular music – and music that challenges the notion of pop music – kind of situated against an urban dystopian backdrop. That’s the festival in a nutshell.”

This year who are some of the biggest acts people can look forward to?

“The biggest acts are Young Fathers, who’ve just done a really storming show at Glastonbury for a huge massive crowd, and Spiritualized, which is a kind of a space rock band from the UK.

“Ireland are sending over a fantastic band called Gilla Band, formerly known as Girl Band. There’s also Hudson Mohawke from LA, a Scottish producer now living in LA.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Elena Horálková, Radio Prague International

With its monumental neo-classicist style and lavish interiors, Prague’s Petschek Palace was one of the most expensive buildings of its time when built in the 1920s. However today most Czechs don’t associate the palace with architecture but rather with its dark history as the headquarters of the Nazi secret police during the Second World War.

The Petschek Palace, known colloquially as “Pečkárna”, has stood near Prague’s main railway station for nearly a century. With its gray, stone-clad facade, the building has an imposing, almost fortress-like look common to many banks built in the early twentieth century.

Yet despite the palace’s grand style, many who pass by it on Political Prisoners’ Street will find the building easy to miss. Somehow, the Petschek Palace does not quite visually stand out among the many historical buildings of Prague’s city centre.

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Author: Vojtěch Pohanka

We’ve probably all taken back some sand or a shell from the beach as a souvenir from a holiday before. But what about a gecko or a turtle? According to Prague Airport customs officers, coming across illegal food items, plants or even exotic animals in people’s luggage is an almost everyday occurrence during the summer holidays.

Animals or plants on the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) list are the most frequent import violation at Prague Airport – there were 94 such cases last year. Igor Lenský from the airport customs office spoke to Czech Radio about the phenomenon.

“Some people bring stuff out of sheer ignorance – they just see the thing and like it, so they buy it or take it from somewhere while out on an excursion. Unfortunately, we also encounter cases where people try to import these things for commercial purposes.”

Most often, officials come across pieces of coral reef or protected plants such as orchids. But sometimes a customs officer can find an even bigger surprise during baggage checks. A striking example of this is a suitcase recently confiscated by customs officials that contained 64 snakes, five turtles and four geckos.

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Authors: Anna Fodor, Josefína Folprechtová

Along with its world famous sites, Prague Castle also boasts an unparalleled collection of historical fabrics. A new book details the 270 items in the valuable collection, which include pieces of garments from the tomb of Saint Ludmila, the first historically documented duchess of Bohemia.

For hundreds of years, Prague Castle has housed a collection of rare historical textiles from all over the world. Stored in a special depository, the collection comprises 270 remnants of precious fabrics from the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The most diverse ones date to the rule of John of Luxembourg and Charles IV, says archaeologist Milena Bravermanová, one of the authors of a new book based on more than three decades of research on the unique fabrics:

“They are incredibly rare textiles that were made in what were then the centres of the silk industry: China, Central Asia, the Middle East, Sicily, Spain and northern Italy.

“What was really surprising to me is that the collection was at least half Asian in origin, mostly Central Asian, which was a location where the most precious textiles were made.”

See the rest here.

Authors: Ruth Fraňková, Martin Srb

Photo: Petra Šnokhausová, The Museum of South Bohemia in České Budějovice

270 years ago, on 24 July 1753, Empress Maria Theresa issued a set of regulations on healthcare in Bohemia, initiating some significant changes in the health sector, including obstetrics.

Maria Theresa’s accession to the throne marked the start of a “cleaner” era. The monarch began to raise awareness about hygiene and issued a health code, which established bodies to supervise hygiene in various health facilities in order to combat the emergence and spread of epidemics.

The set of rules described included, for instance, compulsory training for midwives. It also encouraged honest behaviour and forbade drinking wine and other alcoholic beverages. Even though the prescribed regulations were not implemented everywhere, they marked a significant advancement in the health sector.

See the rest here.

Photo: Dana Cabanová, Jewish Museum Prague

After years of negotiations, the Jewish Museum in Prague has received a substantial part of a unique art collection discovered in 2018. Nearly 380 paintings and drawings by the artist Gertrud Kauders have been donated to the institution by her relatives. Unlike her famous contemporary Franz Kafka, Kauders remained completely forgotten for nearly 80 years. I discussed the discovery with the museum’s chief curator Michaela Sidenberg:

“We knew for a number of years about Gertrude Kauders from various lists of artist associations and exhibitions. Nevertheless, we did not know about her artworks because simply there were no artworks by Gertrude Kauders in any public collection.

“Only later we discovered the reason why it was so, and that was in 2018, when some of her paintings were discovered by the workers, who worked on the demolition of a house at Prague’s Zbraslav. That house once belonged to one of Gertrude’s friends who saved her works during the war.

“Gertrude actually transferred all her studio before she embarked on her last journey to the ghetto of Theresienstadt and from there immediately to the extermination camp of Majdanek. So this is where it had been hidden for all these years.”

See the rest here.

Author: Ruth Fraňková

Scientists are warning that 2023 could be the hottest year in the world on record, and heat waves are predicted to become all the more common each year. This summer, heatwaves have swept across Europe, as the El Nino climate pattern leaves citizens in sweltering heat, resulting in increased mortality and heat-related health issues.

If there’s one thing that has characterized the past few weeks here in Czechia, it’s the heat. In fact, temperatures of over 38 degrees Celsius have been experienced so far this summer. But this country is not alone in these scorching temperatures, as heat waves have been taking place on three different continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Professor Jan Frouz of the Environment Center at Charles University, says this extreme heat is caused by jet stream patterns that have led to the El Nino, a climate pattern we are currently experiencing this year.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Youth Included, a grassroots organization founded in 2013, has been providing opportunities and support for migrant youth in Prague. Managed by foreigners for foreigners, the organization aims to bridge the language gap and create a sense of belonging and community for individuals seeking to explore their talents, engage in projects, and integrate into Czech society.

Back in 2009, right after moving to Prague from Russia, Ekaterina Kokkalou started volunteering for different education-related organizations. Within a year, she joined the NGO sector in the city, and it wasn’t long before she decided to start a grassroots organization herself. By 2013, Youth Included had become a reality, Ekaterina explains:

“It’s quite unique because it’s managed by foreigners and for foreigners. And the reason was that in Czech NGOs, there is one very interesting specificity, that it’s always just in Czech, so that was the reason behind our organization. We wanted to have the possibility to open this world of NGOs to locals who don’t speak Czech. First Youth Included’s official language was English, and from 2018-2019 Russian also became an official language. This was also a big deal now because of the influx of refugees.”

See the rest here.

Author: Marina Vidal Rico

Photo: Kristýna Maková, Radio Prague International

Prague football club Bohemians 1905 surprised almost everyone when an unexpected fourth place in Czech football’s top flight last season earned them a place in the qualifiers for the Europa Conference League – their first European competition since 1987. The team, and hundreds of fans, are now in Norway in the town of Bodø, located just north of the Arctic Circle, to take on the local team.

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Authors: Anna Fodor, Adam Weidenthaler

Aerial view of the base in the Valley of Monasteries, with the South Monastery Creek in the background. Photo by Miroslav Bobek

Whenever we release in western Mongolia Przewalski’s horses transported from Europe, I experience a feeling of satisfaction. Of course… However, I had a similar feeling also last week, when we returned to the East of Mongolia, the Valley of Monasteries, after half a year. Upon our arrival, we found two yurts and a container serving as a warehouse and kitchen already standing on a hill above the confluence of the Hook River and the Southern Monastery Creek, with the necessary sanitary facilities located nearby. Finally, something tangible! Thanks to Ganbaatar, who has worked for us since last year, the base for the future reintroduction of Przewalski’s horses has begun to emerge in the Valley of Monasteries!

One of the remarkable July flowers of the steppe: dwarf daylily (Hemerocallis minor). Photo by Miroslav Bobek

One of the remarkable July flowers of the steppe: dwarf daylily (Hemerocallis minor). Photo by Miroslav Bobek

Despite the advanced summer the steppe around the base was still full of flowers: yellow poppies, daylilies or cinquefoils, orange globeflowers, purple irises, or discretely whitish cudweeds. In this steppe we gradually started selecting the most suitable localities for the building of the reintroduction station and particularly for two pairs of enclosures, in both cases one large, with an area of 30 to 40 hectares, and the other smaller, about three hectares. Such a task may seem trivial in an endless landscape, but appearances are deceiving. Each enclosure should adjoin the water but must not include too large of an area of wetlands. There should be no steep slopes inside, but preferably no absolute plain either; the horses need small hills, where they can cool in the summer, and shallow depressions to hide in the winter. All enclosures need to be easy to inspect and maintain. And so on, and so on… We alternated in walking through the landscape and coming back to the yurt to the picture of the landscape, which we composed from dozens of shots taken by drone. Lukáš Divoký and David Broda located more and more points in the terrain and inside they plotted them into the picture, where they also projected ever more shapes and locations of enclosures, and I am afraid that sometimes they were losing a hope that we would be able to place everything above the confluence of the river and the creek. But in the end, we solved this puzzle!

The electricity for the base in the Valley of Monasteries is provided by solar panels. Also, the Internet works here. Photo by Miroslav Bobek

Other Czech and Mongolian colleagues were simultaneously engaged in research works. To be honest, I will probably never forget the joy with which professor Battur brought me a test tube with collected ticks. The purpose of the research is not only to have the Valley of Monasteries perfectly mapped and to be as well prepared as possible for the reintroduction of Przewalski’s horses, but also to be able to assess the changes which their return will bring to the landscape step by step. But this is still the music of a rather distant future. Before that, there is a lot of construction work to be done, which will be quite a hard nut to crack in this deserted and hardly accessible landscape, over a thousand kilometres from Ulaanbaatar.

Miroslav Bobek

Photo: ČTK/AP/Uncredited

The new movie Barbie is currently doing incredible box office around the world. And the film’s male lead Ryan Gosling has delighted many Czech fans by saying that the way Barbie was made reminded him of the work of the pioneering 1950s and 1960s director Karel Zeman. But how does Gosling know the Czech filmmaker?

Among the promotional materials for the massive hit movie Barbie is a behind-the-scenes clip about the techniques used to make it.

In the short film director Greta Gerwig says she wanted the movie to look like a diorama at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

And Hollywood star Ryan Gosling – who is winning plaudits for his depiction of Barbie’s beau Ken – makes a comparison that has delighted many Czech fans.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

A foster pair of Cuban flamingos takes exemplary care of a young pink flamingo – both parents take turns caring for it. Photo by Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo

In the enclosure of Cuban flamingos in the lower part of the Prague Zoo, visitors can observe a few remarkable foster children these days. An experienced pair of Cuban flamingos took in a baby of another species – a pink flamingo.

“The egg was taken from the original parents to make sure it hatches. This is a common practice, as the clutch could be endangered by bickering adults or now also in high temperatures or, on the contrary, torrential storms,” bird curator Antonín Vaidl explains the decision. “After the chick hatched two weeks ago, we placed it under a more reliable pair, but it may be interesting that it is a different species of flamingos – Cuban flamingos. They are certified and, moreover, they went through an incubation period, so they immediately took on the replacement cub,” he adds.

You can find the popular flamingos in the Prague Zoo in two places in three species. In the Water Worlds and Monkey Islands exhibit, Cuban and Chilean flamingos inhabit the exhibit next to chabrak tapirs, pink flamingos can be seen on the opposite side of the exhibit unit near silver gibbons.

The second largest park in Prague’s city centre, the Wallenstein garden was built by Albrecht von Wallenstein and modelled after an Italian mannerist garden. Visistors can enjoy beautiful flower beds, fountains, and of course the famous peacocks who breed in the garden every year.

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Authors: Amelia Mola-Schmidt, Barbora Navrátilová

Photo: Alberto Pezzali, ČTK/AP

Czech tennis has just enjoyed an unforgettable weekend. Markéta Vondroušová became the first ever unseeded champion of Wimbledon in women’s singles, while Barbora Strýcová lifted the women’s doubles titles in her last appearance at the All England Club.

Markéta Vondroušová, who is 24, caused one of the biggest sensations at Wimbledon in years by lifting the women’s singles title on Saturday.

She was the first unseeded player to lift the title in the modern era. What’s more she had been dropped by her sponsor earlier in the year, had missed half of last season after wrist surgery – and felt she had zero chance on grass.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

Photo: Summer Festivities of Early Music

The annual Summer Festivities of Early Music get underway in Prague on Tuesday evening, bringing historical music to unique venues around the Czech capital. I discussed the event with its director Josefína Knoblochová and I first asked her about the opening concert by Germany’s Ensemble Polyharmonique:

“The ensemble Polyharmonic with its artistic director Alexander Schneider will perform in Prague for the very first time. They will appear in a vocal ensemble consisting of six members accompanied by basso continuo. Our opening concert is devoted to the muse Polyhymnia, because she is the muse of hymn singing and choral lyrics.

“The other muse of the evening will be Italian music, which inspired very strongly the musical culture of the 17th century in the west of Europe. So it means that this vocal instrumental program shows direct confrontation of Italian models with their echoes in Protestant Germany.”

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Photo: Steven B Studios

California-based author Ethan Scheiner discusses his new book Freedom to Win, centred on Czechoslovakia’s 1969 ice hockey wins over the USSR, and the riots that followed.

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Author: Ian Willoughby

An exhibition marking 100 years since the start of regular radio broadcasting in Czechoslovakia will get underway at the Czech Center in New York this coming Monday. The commemoration will also feature a concert, live broadcasting from the US to Czechia and interviews with influential figures and foreign reporters.

After Tel-Aviv and Bratislava, a travelling exhibition of Czech Centres entitled 100 Years of Czech Radio will be officially launched in New York this coming Monday. Organised in collaboration with Czech Radio, the exhibition will offer a glimpse into the past and present of the Czech public broadcaster.

Miroslav Konvalina is the head of Czech Center New York:

“For us in New York, it’s a very special event because radio has always been one of the most trusted sources of information, both in the United States and in Czechia, and played an important role in entertaining, informing and serving the audience.

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Author: Ruth Fraňková

Photo by Tomáš Fongus

President Petr Pavel and his wife Eva ended their trip to South Bohemia with rescuers at the Lipno reservoir.

The visit to Dolní Vltavica was intended to draw attention to the importance of volunteer work, prevention and education. During the second day of his visit to South Bohemia, the president and his wife Eva visited Černá in Pošumaví, where the mayors of the Lipno region discussed, among other things, the effects of tourism in the Lipno area. They also visited Český Krumlov Castle and the Passion Theater in Hořice in Šumava.

Photo by Tomáš Fongus

“During the negotiations, we alluded to the need to decentralize state power to those places where people know best what problems they have and also know their solutions. The state administration template rarely works for the specific problems of regions such as Lipno,” said President Pavel at the final briefing in Dolní Vltavica.

Photo: Juan Pablo Bertazza, Radio Prague International

Prague’s best-known attractions are familiar to millions around the globe. But now unconventional sights and secret corners of Prague, far from the usual tourist spots, are gaining online fame as a young generation of travelers seeks new experiences in the Czech capital.

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Author: Marina Vidal Rico

Photo: Katarína Brezovská, Radio Prague International

The Myslbek Palace on Na Příkopě street is one of Prague’s newest modern palaces. Constructed in the late 1990s, the building connects two historically distinct areas of Prague, the city’s main shopping boulevard and the Old Town behind it. In keeping with the tradition of the city’s older urban palaces, Myslbek is not just a shopping mall, as it incorporates art into its design and also serves as an exhibition space.

Located about halfway between Wenceslas Square and Náměstí republiky, the Myslbek Palace has only stood in the centre of Prague for some 26 years. It is thus a relatively new addition compared to the iconic palaces nearby, such as the Crown or Lucerna. Built in 1997, the Myslbek Palace was one of the first large modern shopping malls that cropped up in the centre of Prague following the Velvet Revolution. With its 17,000 square metres and six above-ground floors, Myslbek is now one of the unmissable landmarks of Na Příkopě street, the city’s main shopping boulevard. Interestingly, the building stands on the historical boundary that divides the Old Town from the New Town.

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Authors: Vojtěch Pohanka, Klára Stejskalová

Photo: Czech Radio

To celebrate Czech Radio’s centenary, its creative team wanted to highlight not only its vast historical archives, but also its future. And so the idea was born for Gott Forever, a project to recreate the speaking voice of Karel Gott, who passed away in 2019, using artificial intelligence. I spoke to Czech Radio’s creative producer Lukáš Sapík to find out more about the project, and started by asking: why an AI-generated voice?

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Author: Anna Fodor

Photo: Ethan Sheiner

Czechoslovakia’s victories over the USSR at the 1969 ice hockey world championships – just a year after Soviet tanks had rolled into the country – represent a famous moment in the country’s modern history. Those games, and the riots they sparked in Prague and elsewhere, are a central theme of Freedom to Win, a gripping, freshly published book by Ethan Scheiner, professor of political science at the University of California, Davis. I spoke to the author on the eve of its release.

What was the initial spark for the book?

“I have a long history of working on things other than Czechoslovakia and Cold War politics [laughs]; in my earlier life I was a scholar working on Japanese politics and elections around the world.

“I had always been a big sports fan and for some reason I thought I could translate that into a class on politics and sports. But then when I sat down to teach the class, in 2016, I suddenly realised, Oh my gosh, I don’t really know what I’m going to be doing here [laughs].

“As I got a few weeks into the class I got really stressed out trying to figure out content: What am I going to teach my students?

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Author: Ian Willoughby

The number of foreign workers coming to Czechia continues to grow, as new data compiled by the Czech Statistical Office shows. To understand these new trends, we spoke with Dalibor Holý, Director of the Labour Market and Equal Opportunities Statistics Department.

“The numbers of foreigners are growing gradually, and it’s because they are filling in the gaps in the labor market. We have a very low unemployment rate and growing wages, quicker than the western part of the EU. It looks somehow like a brain drain from Eastern Europe.”

Is it a specific kind of labor that foreigners are doing or is it a variety of work?

“There are two extremes. Blue collar workers which are in factories predominantly that have the same wages as Czechs. The second extreme is foreign managers and professionals, they earn higher salaries than Czech nationals, sometimes twice as high. It looks like a brain drain because it’s the ICT sector and high value added sector, and they are part of shortening the gap between Eastern and Western Europe.”

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Under the communist regime, Czechs were limited to say the least in terms of their travel destinations. Those who were able to get permission often went to the then Yugoslavia – and Croatia remains the leading summer holiday destination for Czechs. But how are travel trends changing in Czechia, and where are Czechs vacationing today? I spoke to Jan Papez, CEO of Marco Polo travel agency in Prague to find out.

“I’m the spokesman and Vice-President of the Association of Travel Agencies and Tour Operators in the Czech Republic. I’ve been in the business since 1991, when I established Marco Polo, and before I was a theatre director, which is a completely different position, but tourism is also a little bit like theatre.”

I’m curious since you started in 1991 – how has travel changed? I know under the regime Croatia became a very popular destination, how did that come to be?

“Croatia was only one destination that was open for Czech inhabitants during the communist period. You needed special permission, but if you got it, you could go to Croatia. We weren’t ready to go to other Western countries at that time, so there are a lot of traditions for Czechs to go to Croatia for beach holidays.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt

Photo: Colours of Ostrava

Colours of Ostrava is set to take place in the Moravian city on Wednesday through to Saturday, bringing together a wide variety of musical performances and other entertainment. We spoke to Jiří Sedlák, coordinator of the festival, about what to expect in this year’s edition.

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Author: Amelia Mola-Schmidt