All children and the young at heart are invited to the Holešovice Market Hall for Children’s Day on June 1st from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
The second edition of the celebration promises a packed program expanded with a gastro zone, artistic workshops, creative and sports activities, theater performances and even the PokéTour featuring your favorite Pokémon characters.
The musical group Bombarďák rounds out the line-up. The over thirty vendors, workshops, and artistic groups will ensure that everyone has fun this Children’s Day.
Building on the success of last year’s event, organizers are preparing creative workshops, experiments, games, and other experiences for you and your children.
Architecture, upcycling, physics and chemistry experiments, board games, DIY workshops, didactic puppet theater,
book publishing, art workshops, and physical activities all await children.
Over thirty carefully selected participants including Czech brands, lecturers, experienced professionals, and artistic enthusiasts are involved in the program. At Children’s Day, anyone can hold a saw in their hands for the first time, discover the hidden stenographer in them, start juggling, or do their first physics experiment.
“In addition, the various forms of creation often delight adults as well, so Children’s Day at the Market is not just fun for children, but rather a celebration of family and friendship. Family and friends together – that’s the best thing for children, isn’t it?” says Michal Tošovský, Programme Director of the Holešovice Market.
PokéTour in action
Children’s Day will also host a stop on PokéTour, an event where everything revolves around Pokémon. Children and adults, gamers, collectors, or simply enthusiasts will be satisfied.
You’ll be able to swap cards, play the Pokémon Trading Card Game, compete, and even buy cards.
More info about the Children’s Day
When: 1 June 2023
Where: Hall 13 and the adjacent corridor in Holešovice Market Hall (gastro zone)
Time: 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
The event programme is especially suitable for children aged 5-14, but all children are welcome.
Admission:
Pre-sale tickets: 80 CZK / person
Second wave of pre-sale: 110 CZK / person
On-site sales: 140 CZK / person
*Some other activities will be charged for (e.g. materials, etc.).
Tickets available here
Prague City Tourism is launching its summer marketing campaigns. The CZK 15.4 million budget is being financed for the second time from the tourist taxes paid by visitors as an accommodation charge.
The Enjoy Respect Prague and Stay in Prague campaigns are primarily aimed at an international audience, individual 35+ travellers, and families with children.
Domestic tourism, which has been on the rise in the capital over the last two years, will be promoted by the At Home in Prague campaign. Recent figures show that domestic tourists make up a quarter of all visitors to the capital, which was one of the most popular domestic destinations for Czechs last year.
“The summer season is one of the busiest times of the year for tourism. The newly launched marketing campaigns will serve as a springboard to welcome domestic and international guests to Prague, with visitor numbers increasing all the time,” said deputy culture and tourism minister Jiří Pospíšil.
“Our systematic marketing campaigns help to shape tourism in the capital in a way that we can control. The campaigns are clearly designed to motivate tourists to visit Prague who will spend more money, explore sites beyond the centre, and take a deeper interest in the city,” adds František Cipro, chairman of the Prague City Tourism board.
Three campaigns have been lined up for this year. Prague City Tourism has teamed up with Prague Airport and CzechTourism to launch the digital campaign Stay in Prague, which targets the European, American and Asian markets.
The At Home in Prague campaign concentrates on domestic tourism, which has been following an upward trajectory over the past two years, with Czechs accounting for a full quarter of all visitors.
This trend is confirmed by the Czech Statistical Office’s most recent data, covering the first three months of 2023, which show that more than 350,000 Czechs came to the capital. The main face of the campaign is the band Tata Bojs, who will feature in all the visuals and showcase the city’s bohemian soul through local artists and the people who live in Prague.
Alongside its support for domestic tourism, Prague City Tourism will also be continuing Enjoy Respect Prague this year. This is a campaign to educate visitors, in a relatable and accessible way, about the rules and culture underpinning how they should behave in the city.
The campaign includes outdoor and printed advertising to inform tourists, for example, that they are not allowed to be noisy or cause a disturbance after 10 p.m., and advising them where to park their rented scooters when they are done with them.
Croatia, the top foreign tourist spot for Czech travelers, is proving to be a more expensive holiday destination this year compared to the previous one.
The average expenses for an average Czech family have soared by several thousand Czech crowns. Nevertheless, estimations indicate that around one million Czech tourists intend to visit Croatia this summer, surpassing last year’s figure of nearly 850,000.
Tour packages have witnessed a substantial price surge of approximately fifteen percent, surpassing the usual single-digit increases seen in most other destinations.
Jan Papež, spokesperson for the Association of Travel Agencies, stated, “The accommodation costs provided directly by providers or through booking systems have slightly risen. However, the robust Czech crown helps mitigate a part of the increase.”
Since the introduction of the euro, food and accommodation prices have notably escalated, experiencing an increase of around twelve to fourteen percent, as confirmed by Jan Bezděk, spokesperson for the NEV-DAMA travel agency.
Grocery and service prices in Croatia have primarily risen by approximately twenty percent since January. This surge can be attributed in part to inflation exceeding 13 percent and the transition to the euro, leading merchants to round prices upward.
The cost of coffee has witnessed the most significant increase, with an average price hike of 6.44 crowns per cup. Beer and baked goods have also become pricier, while other beverages and food items have risen to a lesser but still noticeable extent.
Accommodation has also become more expensive, with hotel prices rising by around twenty percent. The same trend applies to private family apartments. Denisa, a Czech apartment operator on the island of Vir in Dalmatia, who preferred to remain anonymous, stated, “Last year, a typical apartment was usually rented for around 80 euros per night, whereas now it’s typically around 100 euros. We are maintaining last year’s prices, but we are an exception.”
Flight tickets have surged by approximately twenty percent compared to the previous year. However, the price increase for flights to Croatia is not as substantial. It varies depending on the date, destination, and airline carrier.
For example, flights from Prague to Split with Smartwings can still be found for just over 3,000 CZK. The connection to Zadar with the low-cost airline Ryanair is also popular, although the growing demand is making its impact felt.
- The government approved the purchase of 246 CV90 tracked infantry fighting vehicles for CZK 59.7 billion on Wednesday in the form of an intergovernmental agreement with Sweden. It is the largest army purchase in the modern history of the Czech Republic and one of the largest state contracts ever.
- Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský opened the Czech-Saudi business forum in Riyadh on Wednesday, emphasising the importance of future economic cooperation between the two countries. He described the current economic transformation of Saudi Arabia as a huge opportunity for the development of mutual relations.
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- The Czech national ice hockey team were beaten 3:1 by Canada at the World Championships in the Latvian capital Riga on Tuesday evening. The result means the Czechs finished fourth in group B. They will now face the United States in the quarter-finals in the Finnish city of Tampere on Thursday.
- CBD, HHC, and kratom could be added to a new list of “psychomodulatory substances”, which should be included in the upcoming amendment on addictive substances, Czech national drug policy coordinator Jindrich Voboril told journalists yesterday.The amendment should lay down rules for the sale and control of these substances.
- The Minister of Labor, Marian Jurečka, is working on increasing the allowance by 50,000 Czech korunas, bringing it to 350,000 korunas. However, debates are underway about shortening the duration to three years and determining eligibility.
If the Czech Republic held a referendum on leaving the EU today, 63% of Czechs would vote to remain, a fresh survey conducted in one of the EU’s most eurosceptic countries found.
The survey was conducted by the Europeum Institute and analytical agency STEM even though no such referendum is currently on the political agenda.
Indeed, Czechs are generally optimistic about the EU, with 56% of respondents expressing this opinion. Still, they remain sceptical about introducing the common euro currency, as less than one in five said they favoured adoption, the Czech News Agency reported.
Besides examining Czechs’ attitudes towards the EU, the survey also found that most Czechs still support welcoming Ukrainian refugees. According to Interior Ministry figures, there are currently some 325,000 in the country.
Still, Jaromír Mazák, director of the STEM research agency, believes that while support for accepting Ukrainian refugees has been stable over time, it is quite fragile.
“More than half of the public is concerned about the negative impact of migration from Ukraine on the quality of public services and the economy as a whole,” said Mazák, as quoted by the Czech News Agency.
The survey found that 44% of Czechs are willing to help even at the cost of a slight decline in their own standard of living.
In contrast, 67% of the respondents think the state does more for Ukrainians than it does for its citizens.
“In the long run, Czechs do not perceive Ukrainian refugees as beneficial. Only 28% think refugees from Ukraine will benefit the Czech Republic in the future,” Havelka said.
A new study conducted by language learning app Preply reveals the best European cities for raising children.
Placing as Europe’s fifth-best city to raise children, Prague’s high score is largely down to its great leisure and lifestyle prospects. The city’s high score in this category is thanks to the combination of the country’s paid maternity leave (196 days), the eighth longest in Europe, and Prague’s wealth of leisure/sports centres (per capita), and lower cost of living (37th).
The capital city also ranks in fifth place for the best ratio of museums to residents and its crime rates are among the twenty lowest (17th) among all cities analysed.
Fellow Czech city of Brno also features in the study, however, doesn’t rank as highly, placing as the 49th best city in Europe to raise a family.
The Czech Republic’s second-largest city suffers in comparison due to its poor choice of education attractions, parks and leisure facilities per capita.
Compared to Prague’s glowing attributes in the health and safety category, Brno also falls victims to its higher crime rate and high air pollution levels.
The capital of the Portuguese island Madeira, Funchal, ranks as the best city in Europe for raising a family. Other cities making up the top ten include Edinburgh (UK), Lisbon (Portugal), Galway (Ireland), Reykjavik (Iceland), Trieste (Italy) and Helsinki (Finland).
Analyzing over 130 European cities and their prospects across three categories – ‘Education’, ‘Health and Safety’ and ‘Leisure and Lifestyle’, contributing factors include teacher to student ratios, educational attractions and recreational spaces (per capita), healthcare accessibility, length of maternity leave, air quality and more.
Others making up “Europe’s Top 10’ include Trieste, Italy which ranks second overall but also in the ‘Education’ category and comes top for ‘choice of historical landmarks’.
Whilst UK city, Edinburgh, secures top marks (ranking 9th) thanks to its great educational prospects.
As the only country that features in the top ten twice, congratulations are order for Portugal, as the city of Lisbon ranks third-best in Europe thanks to its good score where air quality is concerned (5th). Reykjavik (Iceland), Galway (Ireland), Helsinki (Finland), Aarhus (Denmark) and Graz (Austria), complete Europe’s top ten cities to raise children.
About Preply
Preply is a global language learning marketplace, connecting 140,000 tutors with tens of thousands of students from all over the world.
Founded in 2012 and backed by some of the world’s leading investors, Preply is on a mission to shape the future of effective learning. Fueled by a belief that live engagement with a teacher is still the most effective way to learn a new skill, Preply is building a personalized learning space that will enable individual learners to reach their goals in the fastest way possible.
By examining the profiles of 1,000 CEOs from the Forbes list of largest global companies, Preply developed a ranking and index score of the best schools for the profession.
Icelandair is launching a non-stop flight from Prague to Reykjavik. Now the volcanoes, geothermal waters, and Northern Lights that attract thousands of tourists each year are at your fingertips.
If you travel this summer, you can even experience the midnight sun. Iceland lies over 2,500 kilometers from Prague but now you can travel there on a non-stop flight.
Iceland’s national air carrier, Icelandair, will launch a direct service between Prague and Reykjavik on Thursday, June 1st.
Flights from Václav Havel Airport will operate four times a week and will also make for speedier air connections to the United States. The route will be operated by a Boeing 737 MAX aircraft with a capacity of one hundred and sixty passengers.
The new route to Iceland will fly from Prague every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The line will also operate in autumn and winter after the summer schedule ends.
The airline has yet to release the days of the week flights will run during the autumn and winter seasons.
According to Jaroslav Filip, Director of Air Commerce at Prague Airport, the new direct connection will not only boost tourism to Iceland, but also provide an additional option to connect to other destinations in North America.
Passengers will be able to reach Boston, Chicago, Denver or Montreal in one transfer. The new route will also improve access to Greenland and Alaska.
“This is the first time we are offering scheduled flights to Prague, and we see great opportunities in convenient connections to and from North America. We can increase connectivity between the two markets and at the same time connect the people of Iceland and Prague,” Icelandair CEO Bogi Nils Bogason said at the launch of the new route in November.
According to Josef Trejbal, Director of Letuška.cz, there has been a growing interest in travel to Iceland for a long time.
“Now that it will be very convenient to travel to Iceland, we can expect a further increase in demand for tickets to travel there,” he added.
During the summer flight schedule, which will be valid until the end of October, there will be direct flights from Prague Airport to 152 destinations. New direct routes to Gdansk, Bilbao, and Dubrovnik have been added, and a direct connection between Prague and New York has been operating again since May.
New flight paths from the Prague Airport have been growing in recent years. Flying to destinations in Europe like Portugal, Greece, and the United Kingdom have become easier.
Even outside of Europe, routes to Egypt on Air Cairo and Oman on Muscat Air, are available.
Passengers beginning their journey in Prague can even fly as far as South Korea on a non-stop service. You can learn more about these routes at the New destinations and carriers page.
Prague Airport aims to handle 13.5 million passengers this year, CEO Jiří Pos said recently.
Last year, the airport handled 10.7 million passengers, but that number was still below the 2019 numbers, when the airport handled 17.8 million passengers. The airport expects to return to these figures by 2026.
Sparta Prague won a 37th Czech football title and their first in nine years following a goalless draw at FC Slovacko on Tuesday.
Sparta have a three-point lead over arch-rivals Slavia Prague with one match to go and a better record from the regular season, which makes them unbeatable.
Coached by Danish manager Brian Priske, Sparta have secured a spot in the Champions League qualifiers for next season.
The Prague side last won the title in 2014, with their first league trophy dating back to 1912.
The club was founded as Královské Vonohrady, or King’s Vineyard, in 1893. They became AC Sparta a year later.
The eternal rivalry between Sparta and Slavia, the ‘Derby S’ began in 1896 with a friendly match whose result is still disputed to this day.
Attracting working-class support, Sparta earned the nickname Železná, ‘Iron’, Sparta, because of their fighting qualities.
Klokani udělali důležitý krok k udržení čtvrtého místa ✅ pic.twitter.com/zQb1vp5ugs
— FORTUNA:LIGA (@fortunaligacz) May 23, 2023
- A defence cooperation agreement between Czechia and the US was signed in Washington on Tuesday by the Czech minister of defence, Jana Černochová, and her American counterpart, Lloyd Austin. The defence cooperation agreement creates an overarching framework to codify already existing cooperation between the two countries’ militaries.
- The UK’s Prince Edward arrived in Czechia on Tuesday afternoon at the start of a visit that is due to last until Thursday. One of the main points of his stay will be meeting Czech students taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award at Prague’s British Embassy.
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- From next year Czechia’s main public health insurer, VZP, will cover the costs of preventive examinations for the early detection of skin cancer. Until now, the insured had the option of paying for the examination themselves and then applying for financial compensation in return.
- The opposition ANO movement still leads in opinion polls, according to a Median election model released today. However, the party’s support dropped slightly in April to 31%, after several months of rising consistently. ANO, led by former PM Andrej Babis, is followed by the Civic Democrats (ODS) on 15%, similar to March.
- In the past six months, the average price of older apartments in Prague has dropped by 2.2% to 8.5 million CZK. However, the supply of these apartments on the market has decreased by 14%.In contrast, new build prices remained stable, with an average offered price of 9.7 million CZK.
There will be over 10,000 police officers drawn from all over Czech Republic to provide security during the Europa Conference League final in Prague on June 7.
It follows the assault of unarmed West Ham supporters by AZ Alkmaar fans last week. The heavy police deployment is a proactive move to prevent violence in the highlight game between the Hammers and Fiorentina.
UEFA has scheduled an emergency meeting in Prague on Friday. Scotland Yard, Italian, Czech and National Police Chief’s Councils of Great Britain will be in attendance.
It will be a follow-up to strategies in place geared towards beefing up security as threats during such matches are imminent.
The number of police and private security officers on duty in the city will outnumber the number of ticketed club supporters of West Ham and Fiorentina. UEFA gave these two clubs 4,890 legitimate tickets each.
The seating capacity of West Ham’s London Stadium is roughly 66,000, whilst Fiorentina’s Stadio Artemio Franchi holds 43,147 people.
Thus, there will be an estimated 25,000 fans in Prague who got tickets in the black market since the tickets were cheap.
However, a steel ring will be thrown around the Fortuna Arena, and anyone without a ticket won’t access the Slavia Prague stadium security perimeter.
The security teams are also keeping an eye on the availability of cheap alcohol near the stadium as is the norm with such events.
A Czech police chief said that they are proactively aware that there will be an incidence of violence between fans. Cheap beer will also be available which increases violence but they are ready to handle it.
“We have no confirmation, but we believe there will be problems of fighting between rival fans and we are confident we can keep it to a minimum,” Daily Mail Sport quotes the Czech police officer.
“There will be no stopping in the selling of beer, we will not be doing that. We know people will get drunk and be violent, but we are prepared,” he stated.
Therefore, a section of the Generali eská Pojiova Arena on Sparta Prague will serve as a fan zone where some ticketless spectators will watch the game on large screens.
Sparta Prague fans who are supporters of the final team will follow the final match on screens, from a second fan area at Prague Exhibition Ground.
As the swimming season kicks off in Prague, residents and visitors can rest assured that the outdoor swimming pools in the city are suitable for swimming, as they undergo regular monitoring by hygienists.
The Prague City Hygienic Station recently released the first results of this year’s water quality measurements, shedding light on the safety of various natural swimming pools.
Among the monitored swimming pools, namely Motol, Šeberák, Hostivař, and Džbán, as well as the concrete reservoir Divoká Šárka and two Prague biotopes – Lhotka and Radotín – hygienists have discovered reduced transparency in the waters of Šeberák, Džbán, and Hostivař.
The water quality assessments are conducted by taking water samples once every two weeks, except for the Divoká Šárka concrete reservoir, which is sampled once a month.
While the first measurement results from May 15th are already available, the sampling for Radotín and Lhotka biotopes will take place at a later date.
To evaluate the water quality, experts examine various indicators, including sensory observations of waste and natural pollution, as well as conducting microbiological, biological, and chemical laboratory analyses.
A five-point scale is used, with a rating of one indicating water suitable for bathing, while a rating of five signifies a bathing ban.
Based on the initial measurements, the Motol pond and the Divoká Šárka reservoir in Prague are currently rated at level one, indicating good water quality. However, Šeberák, Džbán, and Hostivař have received a rating of two due to reduced transparency.
Despite this slight deterioration, the water remains safe and poses no health risks. As a precautionary measure, it is advisable for swimmers to shower after swimming, if possible.
For detailed information regarding the quality of monitored bathing waters, the Prague hygiene station’s website provides the necessary updates and insights.
Tempers ran hot in Bohemia on May 23, 1618. Then, the Defenestration of Prague saw three Catholic officials defenestrated, or tossed from a window, by local Protestants.
Thanks to the grace of God or a pile of manure — depending on who you asked — the officials survived.
But the aftermath was catastrophic. The Defenestration of Prague was more than a spat between two religious sects. It encapsulated long-held and mounting tensions between Catholics and Protestants in Europe.
What’s more, its bloody aftermath would lead to the Thirty Years’ War, in which more than eight million people lost their lives to violence and famine.
So what exactly led to the Defenestration of Prague in 1618?
Long-Simmering Tension Between Catholics And Protestants
The years leading up to the Defenestration of Prague were largely defined by tensions between Catholics and Protestants. The two sects had warred for much of the 16th-century, as Protestantism spread across the continent and fractured the religious unity of the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1555, the Treaty of Augsburg established an uneasy peace between the two groups. It lay down the principle of cuius regio, eius religion, meaning a ruler could decide the religion for his land.
And though rulers of Bohemia — largely located in the present-day Czech Republic — were Catholics, they generally allowed Protestants to worship freely. Rudolf II, the Holy Roman Empire and King of Bohemia, even permitted freedom of worship in his 1609 Letter of Majesty.
But that’s where things get complicated. Though Rudolf’s brother, Mattias, kept the Letter of Majesty in place when he took power, he also named his staunch Catholic nephew, Ferdinand II, as King of Bohemia and his heir.
As the king, Ferdinand deeply desired to restore Catholicism as Europe’s only religion. He snubbed the Letter of Majesty and denied Protestants permission to build churches in the towns of Broumov and Hrob.
Local Protestants were furious. They gathered in Prague in May 1618, to see what the imperial advisors, or burgraves, had to say — and this led to the Defenestration of Prague.
How The Defenestration Of Prague Unfolded
On May 23, 1618, four Catholic deputies found themselves facing down an angry crowd of Protestants in the Bohemian Chancellery. The Protestants, led by Count Jindřich Thurn, demanded to know if the burgraves had advised Ferdinand to ignore the Letter of Majesty.
Though two of the burgraves pleaded their innocence and were released, the other two were not so lucky. Count Villem Slavata, Count Jaroslav Martinitz, and their secretary Philip Fabricius, were detained by the increasingly irate crowd of Protestants.
“You are enemies of us and of our religion,” Thurn declared. You “have desired to deprive us of our Letter of Majesty, [you] have horribly plagued your Protestant subjects… and have tried to force them to adopt your religion against their wills …”
To the crowd, he added, Were “we to keep these men alive then we would lose the Letter of Majesty and our religion, and all of us would then be stripped and deprived of our lives, honor, and property, for there can be no justice to be gained from or by them …”
Still, Martinitz and Slavata assumed that Thurn would do no worse than merely arrest them. They turned confidently toward the crowd.
“Since this concerns the will of God, the Catholic religion, and the will of the emperor,” Martinitz said, “we shall suffer everything gladly and patiently.”
But then the three Catholics were seized by the angry Protestants. As Martinitz, Slavata, and Fabricius screamed for help from the Virgin Mary, the Protestants forced them toward an open window.
Martinitz went flying out head first. Slavata clung to the window frame until someone hit him. And Fabricius was unceremoniously tossed out after them. All three men plummeted almost 70 feet to the ground below in a cacophony of “Jesus!” “Mary” and “God have mercy!”
But as the Protestants gathered at the window to peer down at their victims, they saw to their surprise that all three Catholic officials had survived.
Martinitz and Fabricius sprang up and ran away. Slavata, knocked out cold, was picked up by his servants and whisked to safety.
How did the men survive this first Defenestration of Prague? Catholics quickly claimed that divine intervention had saved the burgraves’ life. They insisted that the Virgin Mary must have heard the pleas of the doomed men and saved them.
But the Protestants said that the explanation had nothing to do with God. Instead, they declared that the three Catholic officials had merely fallen into a large pile of horse manure. The manure, apparently, had cushioned their fall and spared their lives.
Though no one died during the Defenestration of Prague, it did have a violent impact. The Catholic officials went immediately to Ferdinand to tell him what happened. And Ferdinand vowed to take revenge.
The Legacy Of The Defenestration Of Prague
The Defenestration of Prague acted like a spark in a dry field. Following the incident, a great chasm opened in Europe between Catholic and Protestant states. Bohemia soon erupted into open revolt, deposing Ferdinand II as king and crowning Frederick V, the Calvinist son-in-law of England’s James I.
Crisscrossing alliances, religious fervor, and century-old tensions tore through the land. The Thirty Years’ War would destroy cities, obliterate farmlands, and take more than 8 million lives.
Though the conflict staggered to an end in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, decades of war completely transformed Europe. Spain lost power. France gained power. And Bohemia didn’t escape unscathed.
Not only did Bohemia lose its status as a kingdom, but it also failed to maintain the religious independence that Protestants defended in the Defenestration of Prague.
Protestantism was stamped out and most people became Catholics. Even the Czech language was suppressed in favor of Geman.
The window-tossing incident in Bohemia left a mark in other ways as well. Technically, the Defenestration of Prague in 1618 was the “second” defenestration in the city’s history. (The first was in 1419). And one other may have followed in March 1948.
Then, a Czech diplomat named Jan Masaryk was found dead beneath his bathroom window at the Foreign Ministry in Prague. In a spurt of Cold War intrigue, some have claimed that he was tossed to his death — defenestrated — by Communist agents.
However, others state that Masarysk died by suicide.
In the end, the Defenestration of Prague marks a single moment that changed Europe forever. It was more than just angry Protestants facing off with Catholic officials — the defenestration both embodied European unease about new religions and heralded the violence to come.
And, if nothing else, the Defenestration of Prague has also kept the word “defenestrate” firmly in the world’s collective memory.