The most prestigious Czech sporting event is almost here, as the 27th Prague International Marathon will take place on May 7. And the organizers have great news about this year‘s edition: Thousands of runners will set off on the world’s most beautiful 42 kilometres from the Wenceslas Square. “Compared to previous years, when the race start was at the Old Town Square, we have now managed to arrange with Prague representatives to start in the lower part of Wenceslas Square, at Můstek, which brings several advantages. The main ones are the strategic location and even more space and comfort for our runners,” said Carlo Capalbo, President of the RunCzech organizing committee, which has risen to first place in the number of races awarded with World Athletics Labels. RunCzech has been organizing marathon runs in Prague for over a quarter of a century. Due to this, the Czech capital has risen among the top 10 cities in the world in terms of race quality and popularity among people. And it is no wonder. A well-prepared event, a beautiful course and spectacular performances have become commonplace at the Prague International Marathon. This time the prestigious event will break out at the second-largest...
During a ceremony at NASA Headquarters in Washington Wednesday, the Czech Republic became the 24th country to sign the Artemis Accords. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson participated in the signing ceremony for the agency and Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of the Czech Republic. The Artemis Accords establish a practical set of principles to guide space exploration cooperation among nations, including those participating in NASA’s Artemis program. “We are living through a golden age of exploration. Gone are the days of one nation exploring the cosmos alone,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Along with our fellow Artemis Accords signatories, the United States and Czech Republic are setting a standard for 21st century exploration and use of space. As we explore together, we will explore peacefully, safely, and transparently.” Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Jennifer R. Littlejohn and Czech Ambassador to the United States Miloslav Stašek also took part in the ceremony “I see it as a historic signature. We are joining our likeminded partners in advancing peaceful, cooperative, and sustainable exploration of space,” said Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský. “Czechia’s space ecosystem has a lot to offer. We believe...
The Czech Republic has improved its position in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) media freedom index, now ranking 14th out of the 180 monitored countries, up from 20th last year. The report released today was the 21st annual study of its kind from RSF. Czechs still have the most positive view of Slovaks out of all national groups living in the country, according to the latest poll by CVVM released yesterday. Their stance on Russians has become more negative since 2020, while the view of Ukrainians remains almost unchanged. A total of 79% of respondents expressed a liking for Slovaks, followed at some distance by the Vietnamese (50%), Poles (47%) and Hungarians (33%). Retired footballer Petr Čech has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of England’s Premier League. The Czech, who is now 40, is one of the most successful goalkeepers in the league’s history, notching up 202 clean sheets in the competition, most of them with Chelsea. The first post-1989 rector of Palacký University in Olomouc, Josef Jařab, has died at the age of 85. Mr. Jařab was appointed in 1990 and remained in the post until 1997. He was an expert on US and UK...
On May 4- 6, the Czech gastronomy will witness a new chapter. The Makro Czech Gastro Fest will take place in Prague’s O2 universe, and it is the most massive event of its kind in the Czech Republic. The event aims to take Czech gastronomy to new heights of excellence. The O2 universe’s four floors will host the national round of the prestigious cooking competition, Bocuse d’Or, expert congresses on current gastronomic topics, and much more. The event will also feature cooking and bartending shows, new food tastings, pop-up restaurants, institutional catering sections, and a fresh market. Makro ČR wholesale company, which is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary of entering the domestic market, will organize the Makro Czech Gastro Fest festival, together with the Czech Gastronomic Institute. The first two days are intended for professionals from the gastronomy sector, while the third day is open to all food enthusiasts. On the last day, there will be an announcement of the winner of the national round of the Bocuse d’Or competition, who will then compete in the European round in Trondheim in 2024. The congresses during the festival aim to promote and acknowledge traditional domestic crops in Czech food culture. For...
Nearly all the spas in the Czech Republic will hold a celebration to open the spa season in May. This is usually linked to a number of cultural events and special programmes for visitors. Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary will be holding a ceremonial opening of the season from 5 to 7 May. The busy programme is dominated by the Parade of Czech King Charles IV on Saturday, with a tournament of knights, acrobats and dancers. Visitors can also look forward to famous film melodies performed by the Karlovy Vary Symphonic Orchestra or the Craft Fair for example. Fans of porcelain will be able to admire and also purchase products by the famous THUN 1794 porcelain factory at the Porcelain Fair in front of the Thermal Hotel. The Bishop Emeritus of Pilsen will perform the traditional blessing of the springs. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. at Mill Colonnade and will culminate at Hot Spring Colonnade. Sunday afternoon will belong to the Sinatra Festival, during which visitors will hear famous ragtime, swing and popular melodies. Františkovy Lázně Františkovy Lázně will open its 230th spa season on 20 May. The town has prepared a varied cultural programme, which will take place...
Like most countries, the people of the Czech Republic descend from multiple genetic groups, and about 90% of Czechs can be traced to other ethnic groups that migrated into the country. Genomac, a Czech firm specializing in genetic analysis, found that their country was about “half Slavic”, otherwise the Czech genome was a very colourful mix of different genes. They found that 20% of people they tested had relatives in another country they had no idea existed, and that some common genetic traits were rooted beyond the middle ages. It’s believed that the people of the Czech Republic are made up of: -37% Slavic peoples -25% Western Europeans, mostly French, German, and northern Italy. -9% Balkans -9% Semitic, (arabs and jews) -7% Germans and Scandinavians -3% from other random parts of the world -10% are “purebred” Czechs whose genetics are almost exclusively found in the northern Czech Basin (české kotlině.) The first known people in recorded history to inhabit the Czech Republic were in fact Celts, who have left behind a visible genetic legacy on the Czech people today. A genetic mutation called G551D which causes cystic fibrosis in Czechs and Austrians can be traced back to Celts. But the...
Over the past four years, more than 1,300 pubs have disappeared in Czech villages, almost fifteen percent of the original number. According to data from Plzeňský Prazdroj, which classifies villages with less than 5,000 inhabitants as rural communities, over 250 rural pubs closed down last year alone. Sugar prices in the EU have increased by 61% YoY, making it one of the most expensive food items. The Czech Republic saw the highest YoY increase of 98%. Experts attribute it to multiple factors, including a decrease in sugar production in Brazil and disruptions in global supply chains due to the pandemic. Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský met with his American counterpart Antony Blinken on Tuesday, the first day of Mr Lipavský’s diplomatic trip to the United States. The pair discussed strengthening bilateral relations, support for Ukraine, cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, energy security, and defence cooperation. The Czech pension insurance system ended the first quarter of this year with a deficit of 25.7 billion crowns, the biggest ever Q1 pension system deficit in Czechia. The government has stated that the current pension system is unsustainable and wants to present proposals for its reform this month. A monument commemorating the crash of an American military aircraft in December 1944 in the town of...
The Czech Republic is recognized as one of the least religious countries in Europe and potentially the world. The reason for this is commonly explained as the result of Communism. Suppressing religion is a tactic for the Communist regime, which was intended to fight against any organized power that could challenge them, such as the Catholic Church. However, the Czech Republic is a leader in secularism and non-religion among its neighboring countries, many of whom were also under Communist rule. Take, for example, our next-door neighbor Poland, which remains largely Catholic beyond the fall of Soviet influence. The only nearby country that comes close to the Czech indifference to religion is Estonia. While Estonia did fall under the Communist regime like Czechoslovakia, it is a sizeable distance away and has a vastly different history. Consequently, it is logical to conclude that you cannot merely point to Communism as the answer to why Czechs are not religious. So, what is the answer? As might be expected, there is not simply one event that changed the country’s religious views. Rather, many historians believe that a long history of anti-Catholic sentiments and rejection of organized religion led to the prominent atheism seen in...
The Czech economy probably pulled out of recession in the first quarter with slight growth driven by trade, preliminary data indicated, although high inflation continued to bite. Gross domestic product in the Czech Republic increased by 0.1% quarter-on-quarter, defying a Reuters poll forecast for a 0.1% drop. GDP shrank by a less-than-expected 0.2% year-on-year, the data showed. The Czech Republic is the first economy in central Europe to report first-quarter GDP data, but all have felt the strain of high inflation, driven by steep energy price rises last year. At the end of 2022, the Czech and Hungarian economies slipped into technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of declining quarter-on-quarter GDP. “So it is confirmed, the recession really ended (last quarter),” Komercni Banka economist Jan Vejmelek said in a Twitter post after the data. The Czech statistics office did not give details of the preliminary data but said external demand buoyed the economy while household consumption decreased. Updated data is due on May 30. Inflation has surged to double-digit rates across central Europe but looks to have passed a peak. Interest rates remain elevated and central banks are not in a hurry to ease policy until price growth is...
For the first time in history, more than one million Czechs may visit Croatia on vacation this year. In 2o22, slightly less than 850,000 people visited, the second highest number after 2017. Domestic travel agencies are already reporting a fifth to a quarter increase in interest in visits to the seaside country. Although prices in Croatia have risen significantly since last year, they remain lower than in the Czech Republic. Food costs, for example, jumped by almost 17 percent year on year in March, compared to 24 percent in the Czech Republic. Furthermore, the Czech koruna has strengthened significantly against the euro in the last year, which Croatia switched to this year. The koruna is at its strongest against the euro since 2008, making shopping in Croatia far more inexpensive than last year. The exchange rate against the euro was around 24.50 last summer, and it could be around 23.30 this summer. When we consider the aforementioned lower inflation in Croatia, it is more expensive than last year from the Czech perspective, but the year-on-year increase is notably lower than what the Czechs are used to from their home country. In March, Croatia’s annual inflation rate was approximately ten percent,...
A huge public park will be developed in the south of Prague. It will cover an area equivalent to ten Stromovka. The river floodplain on the confluence of the Berounka River and Vltava River on the southern edge of Prague covers an area of over 1300 hectares, which is almost 300 x Wenceslas Square side-by-side. The area is divided between five Municipal Districts and the town of Černošice. An international landscape-architectural competition was held by the Prague Institute of Planning and Development (IPR) to select a design team for this project. The winning team consists of three studios from Catalonia, France and the Czech Republic: EMF, Norma and Pareto. IPR Prague has received funding from the Norwegian Funds grant call “Bergen” for the project “Periurban park – a Tool for Reducing the Impacts of Climate Change”. This initiative will contribute to the planning of the Confluence Periurban Park, which will be the first of its kind in the Czech Republic. “The whole area is quite unlucky as it squeezed in a vise between a motorway, a train line and the Prague ring road. At the same time, however, we believe that a big park is already there, we just needs a...
The condition of pubs in Czech villages is incredibly alarming as more than 1,300 pubs have vanished in the last four years, which accounts for nearly 15 percent of the original number. In 2019 alone, over 250 rural pubs closed their doors, according to data provided by Plzeňský Prazdroj, which categorizes communities with less than 5,000 residents as rural. Although there were 8,929 pubs in March 2019, the number has decreased to 7,604 this year. These figures take into consideration only pubs and restaurants, excluding bistros and cafes. The reasons for the decline in rural pubs are diverse. The significant rise in input prices has adversely affected the gastronomy sector, especially the rural pubs have to decrease the customers” prices because they are open to any increase. Furthermore, many people in villages and smaller towns prefer drinking beer at home than go to the pubs, which has resulted in a difficulty attracting new customers for rural pub owners. Luboš Kastner reiterated that the revenues are increasing only for Prague’s restaurants and pubs, with a 36 percent revenue surge while there is a reduction in business profitability in rural areas. As many rural pubs are shutting down, people living in secluded...
Don’t have an account? Register
[swpm_registration_form level=”6″]
Already have an account? Log In
How Would You Like to Promote Your Business? PR ArticleDisplay bannersVideo productionNewsletter adsJob ListingsInfluencer Marketing
Your Email
We will come back to you within 24 hours with our proporsal
