Czech leaders marked the 74th anniversary of the Prague Uprising at the Czech Radio building on Sunday, a focal point of the uprising in which Czechs took up arms against the Nazis. On May 5 1945, Czech Radio or Český Rozhlas formally turned against the Nazi German government occupying the country and called on protesters to openly oppose Nazi rule. It began to broadcast in Czech for the first time in six years, and by noon, when it was clear that Czech Radio would be attacked and attempts would be made by the Germans to silence it, then the service began to call for help. It asked for military assistance from resistance fighters and any other Czechs that could prevent the liquidation of Czech Radio. Some 30,000 people answered the call to take up arms against the Germans. For the next four days, Prague saw fierce street fighting which left over 2,000 dead. German bombers flew in on May 7 and bombed the city, causing the destruction of most of the Old Town Hall; the centuries-old building was almost completely gutted and had to be torn down. The top of the tower was also destroyed, and the damage was caused to the famous Astronomical Clock. The Germans’...
1st May is celebrated in Czech as “Svátek zamilovaných” (Love Day), known for couples, kissing under the tree in bloom. The tradition says that a girl should be kissed under a cherry blossom so she will stay beautiful all year round. Perhaps every Czech is able to recite at least a couple of verses from Máj (May), a famous poem written by the romantic poet Karel Hynek Mácha. The poem is a homage to the beauty of spring and tells the tragic love story of Vilém, a bandit, and Jarmila, the girl he loves. In the Czech Republic, the poem is continuously in print and often memorized and recited by children at school. Here you can read the first lines of the beautiful poem in English: Late evening, on the first of May— The twilit May—the time of love. Meltingly called the turtle-dove, Where rich and sweet pinewoods lay. Whispered of love the mosses frail, The flowering tree as sweetly lied, The rose’s fragrant sigh replied To love-songs of the nightingale. In shadowy woods the burnished lake Darkly complained a secret pain, By circling shores embraced again; And heaven’s clear sun leaned down to take A road astray in azure deeps,...
Have you ever wondered what lies behind the walls of Tyršův dům? Do you want to see Nádraží Praha-Bubny from a different angle? Are you up for an adventure in the middle of the city you thought you knew? Then Prague Open House festival is for you! Open House Prague festival will open the gates of 80 buildings. During the weekend of May 18–19, 2019, people will be able to see architecturally valuable spaces of historic palaces and representative villas, feast their eyes on office spaces designed in a modern style, or enjoy unforgettable views over the city offered by the rooftops of high buildings, all for free. The aim of the festival is to give the lay public some insight into the different historical eras of Prague’s architecture. “Exploring buildings, their architecture, and stories, is the first step for us to evoke people’s interest in the city and its public space,” says Andrea Šenkyříková, director of the festival. The event is being held with the help of over 300 volunteers. Regular and new participating buildings Aside from buildings that have participated in the past and have become very popular among visitors (e.g. Invalidovna, Hotel International, or the Central Telecommunication Building), 38 buildings will...
March 17, 1939 brought a revolution on Czech roads: the commander of the German occupation forces ordered a change-over to a right-hand traffic system with almost immediate effect. Interestingly, the changeover was first introduced in the provinces on March 17, and then just over a week later in Prague, on March 26. “Technical reasons” – a perennial Czech explanation – were responsible for the delay. And the switch to driving on the right is almost always associated with or blamed on, Hitler. But new research by a historian called Pavel Fojtik suggests while the Nazis did indeed enforce this change, it was going to happen anyway. In 1926 Czechoslovakia had signed up to a so-called Paris agreement, committing the country to going right at some unspecified time in the future. The day the change was introduced in Prague the authorities reported 26 accidents –including one road death when a pedestrian stepped into the way of an oncoming tram after automatically looking the wrong way. Dozens of small and big alterations were made on the go – such as doors on buses being moved to the other side. As the change took place, boy scouts stood by roads and streets with...
Eighty-two years ago today, on March 15, 1939, Hitler gave Czechoslovak President Emil Hácha a stark choice: accept becoming a protectorate or face destruction. After Hácha reluctantly agreed to give up his country’s independence the German army started moving in. It was the beginning of six long years of occupation. On September 30, 1938, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact, which sealed the fate of Czechoslovakia, virtually handing it over to Germany in the name of peace. Although the agreement was to give into Hitler’s hands only the Sudentenland, that part of Czechoslovakia where 3 million ethnic Germans lived, it also handed over to the Nazi war machine 66 percent of Czechoslovakia’s coal, 70 percent of its iron and steel, and 70 percent of its electrical power. Without those resources, the Czech nation was left vulnerable to complete German domination. No matter what concessions the Czech government attempted to make to appease Hitler, whether dissolving the Communist Party or suspending all Jewish teachers in ethnic-German majority schools, rumors continued to circulate about “the incorporation of Czechoslovakia into the Reich.” In fact, as early as October 1938, Hitler made it clear...
This year’s edition of the Prague IFF – Febiofest will bring a number of world famous names to the Czech capital, including the US film star Peter Fonda. The actor, perhaps best-known for his role in the cult film Easy Rider, which he wrote and starred in alongside Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, will attend the festival’s gala opening on 21 March. The Golden Globe winner will receive Febiofest’s Kristián award for lifetime contribution to world cinema during the ceremony. Peter Fonda’s programme to include Easy Rider screening and master class Peter Fonda will come to Prague for the very beginning of the festival. During his stay he will present Easy Rider, the film that kick-started the New Hollywood era in the laidback 1960s and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay. The actor, who is 79, will also introduce Outlaw Blues (1977), a romantic drama set behind the scenes of the country music business and Ulee’s Gold (1997), which earned him a Golden Globe as well as an Oscar nomination. Fans of the acting great will also be able to attend a master class given by him on Friday 22 March. French actor-director Louis Garrel brings...
Spectaculare Festival connects music with other forms of visual art such as film, theatre, video art, and photography. The aim is to present the latest trends in the field of audio-visual culture. The festival was founded in 2014 by Radio 1 DJ and music promoter, Josef Sedloň. What is the thought or creative process behind selecting acts for the Festival? Josef: “It’s very spontaneous, sometimes someone suggests me an act or I will listen to an unknown artist and I will bring them, or it could be an artist that has performed before and I’ve grown to respect their art so I invite them again. It’s so spontaneous, sometimes I’m inspired during the year.” Ewan: “Spectaculare festival has been so far a festival about music. Josef and Jakob and the other people from the team asked me if there was a dance performance or a live theatre performance that I would recommend. This gave me the chance to bring to the festival some artist that I had spotted during my travels.” Are you already thinking of next years acts? Josef: “Not Now, I also do music infinity which I run throughout the year, So I mostly prepare for Spectaculare in...
Petr Stuchlík (ANO) spoke about the need to build a new concert hall during the pre-election campaign. The proposal was also submitted to Spojené síly pro Prahu coalition headed by Jiří Pospíšil. “For the Prague Concert Hall, we will prepare an architectural competition. We want a really high-quality building; that’s why I estimate for it to take about ten years,” Hana Třeštíková (Praha sobě) told Echo24. “The new concert hall can kick-start the revitalization of Bubny-Zátory area. For example, it is possible to carry traffic on the surface and below it, how to access the river and how to behave against the existing infrastructure and development,” said Ondřej Boháč, Director at Prague Institute of Planning and Development. The need for a new hall was also agreed by former Mayor Adriana Krnáčová. The coalition cooperated on a proposal with architect Josef Pleskot: “We are a musical nation, and there is no concert hall in Prague or throughout the Czech Republic where large philharmonic music could be produced,” says Pleskot. If the new concert hall is to come in the future, Prague’s residents should evoke feelings like a similar hall in Hamburg. “We want Praguers to be proud like the Germans are proud of their concert hall....
The artists collective RAFANI is engaging Galerie NoD in a unique art project. For the occasion, the grounds of Galerie NoD will be transformed to a fully fledged private flat furnished with the group’s artefacts, available for rent by members of the general public, either local or visitors to Prague, for two or more nights, through mediation by Airbnb. The project, entitled RAFANI Art Apartment in the Heart of the City, is aimed at contributing in a novel way to the current public debate about the impact of short-term rentals on the character of residential urban neighbourhoods and on the availability of housing to long-time city dwellers. The flat’s occupants will receive an unorthodox guide of today’s Prague. The exhibition will incorporate a broad platform for discussion focused on the overall potential, social consequences and limitations of the sharing economy at large. The flat is a project mounted by the art collective Rafani, encompassing a month-long period. The flat has a separate bedroom with a twin bed, bedside tables, a wardrobe and a toilet table. The living room is furnished with a sofa and two armchairs offering an ideal angle for watching tv. The dining room is fully furnished to accommodate...
Prague Exhibition Center in Holešovice hosts a spectacular exhibition of one of the most famous animation studios, Disney’s PIXAR, since February 15th. Pixar will allow visitors to look at some of the world’s best animators under the hood, uncover the development of popular filmmakers, introduce unique sketches and practices to create a phenomenon over the last 30 years. Enthusiasts who visit the show will see how animated films are made and what goes into bringing the character to life. The exhibition also features a cinema called “Artscape”, where visitors see a special film in which the most famous animated characters meet on one screen. A great attraction is also a special device that allows you to see models of characters right in front of viewers. All this has been unavailable to millions of fans around the world and now Czechs have this unique opportunity. Pixar – 30 Years of Animation is an official travelling exhibition of significant studies. In 1995, the company introduced Toy Story to cinema screens, which was a breakthrough, and thanks to the film it completely rewrote the history of animation. It all started with a small group of enthusiasts, but thirty years of development and work created...
Restoration experts have been set an unusual task – to dismantle four towering pyramids made up of centuries-old bones from more than 40,000 human bodies, clean them up and then reconstruct them as before. The restoration project is aimed at preserving the bones at the Sedlec ossuary church in Kutna Hora. The project also aims to restore and strengthen the church building which houses the bones and skulls. The site also boasts a chandelier, a coat of arms and various other decorations made from every bone in the human body. “Many people find it weird today and come to see this as some dark spectacle, a house of horrors,” said Radka Krejci, in charge of operations at the local parish. “But we do not want it to be perceived like that, it is a place of reverence, a burial place.” The bones came from a cemetery adjacent to a monastery founded by the Cistercian order in 1142. The burial ground was enlarged during a plague epidemic in the 14th century. In 1318, about 30,000 people were buried here and more joined them in the 15th century during religious wars between Roman Catholics and the Hussites. The present appearance of the bone structures dates...
Jerry Agudogo was born in Accra, Ghana. He wanted to be a doctor for a long. So when he got a newspaper with an ad promoting a government scholarship to study in Czechoslovakia in 1984, he did not hesitate. His father was an appraiser and his mother was a midwife at a hospital where he now works. He always wanted to be a doctor. When he was due to go to a medical school in the capital, there was a coup in the country and the school was to be closed. “But there was an opportunity to apply for a scholarship,” he recalls in perfect Slovak. It was written in 1984 and he was given the opportunity to study newspapers in Czechoslovakia. From his own inquisition he knew about Charles University in Prague, so he was very pleased to go to Prague, only to discover at the airport in Ruzyne that he was going to study in Slovakia. First, he underwent a nine-month language course in the Slovak town of Senec, along with a number of other foreign students. In the medicine circle in Bratislava, he was the only foreigner, who studied in Slovak and the textbooks were often in...
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