In 2021, the Czech Ministry of Health received 196 applications for gender reassignment. This is a record number in the history of the country. Of the 196 applications submitted, the vast majority (131) were from women who had decided to become men. Czech law has allowed for gender reassignment since 2012. Initially, there were fewer than 50 applications a year but last year the figure reached almost 200, Czech Television said. Experts attribute this growth to the influence of social media, improved sexual education and growing tolerance in society. The costs of the surgery itself and the examinations are covered by state health insurance. Patients themselves pay only for some hormones and cosmetic improvements, such as hair removal or breast implants. The operation, open for people aged 18 or more, “requires a positive opinion from a Ministry of Health expert committee and, if the patient does not have full legal capacity, the approval of a court.” Anyone embarking on gender reassignment treatment in Czechia must be single, divorced, widowed, or, if a civil partner, their partnership must have been dissolved. If an individual is married or in a registered partnership, the registry office informs them that, if they do not...
The scientific research department at Masaryk University has spoken out about rising energy costs and the impact it has on work while asking the government for assistance. Scientific institutions across Europe are struggling with high prices, with some turning to their governments for assistance, as the research might be a highly energy-intensive activity. “For example, in the case of our institute, CEITEC at Masaryk University, the operation of instruments and technologies needed for science accounts for about 90% of the energy consumption in a given year. The energy crisis is, therefore a phenomenon that significantly affects us as scientific institutions,” said Nantl, in the letter. According to Nantl, governments should provide more sustainable funding for research institutions as these bodies are crucial in tackling global challenges, such as pandemics. In the Czech Republic, funding for research infrastructures from the Ministry of Education and Youth for 2020 to 2022 amounts to €80 million, with a further €120 million from EU funds. As Signe Ratso, acting Director of the European Commission’s DG for Research and Innovation, said at the ICRI 2022 conference organised in the Czech Republic on 19-21 October, the impact of the energy crisis on research infrastructures is one of the topics...
The Illumination Park is an amazing winter attraction – a multimedia walk in a fairy-tale land created by light and sound. These types of attractions have been known in American botanical gardens for years. Now they are becoming more and more popular in Europe. Located near the Džbán swimming pool in Prague’s Šárecké údolí, you can visit a unique light attraction called Lumina Park. It is a 1.5-kilometer-long light trail full of illuminated and sound sculptures based on the motifs of Alice in Wonderland. Many light attractions await visitors, including a red bus, colorful balloons, bicycles, magic mushrooms, stars and birds, which are exciting scenery for unique shots. The trail consists of 18 stations, built of 20,000 light points and 20 km of electrical installations, for which 120 floodlights were used. “Lumina Park is built on energy-efficient LED technology and meets all energy standards. Its daily consumption is 45 kWh, which is comparable to about two pizza ovens. At the same time, it has an attraction that produces its own energy, said ” Karolína Steinerová from Baloo & Groot, the communications studio for Lumina Park. Standard ticket is CZK 220 on weekdays and CZK 250 on weekends. Lumina park also...
“Prague is built of stone and lime being the largest city considering trade, from the royal city came the Russians and Slavs with goods and from the Turkish countries the Muslims and Jews with their merchandise”. With these words written in the year 965, the traveler and Arab-Jewish merchant, Ibrahim Ibn Yaqub, offers us one of the first historical testimonies of the Jewish presence in Prague. However, this record does not answer an important question: for how long the People of Patriarchs have been living in this city? Our guide Berschowitz showed us in the Jewish cemetery in Žižkov, the tomb of the famous rabbi and philosopher Ezekiel Landau, who lived during 1713-1793, and we were told about the long and dramatic history of this community, one of the oldest in Europe. Going back in time and retracing the history of the Praguian Jews is a difficult task because the historical truth shortly blends with the oral tradition, inevitably crossing over the vague and uncertain territory of legends. According to one of the many various stories, the visionary queen Libuše prophesied the arrival of a foreign people in Bohemia as being a favorable event that would have brought good to...
Several Prague landmarks will celebrate the Oct. 28 holiday by offering free admission or having guided tours. Czech Senate The Senate offers a tour of its main building – the Valdstein Palace (Valdštejnské náměstí 17/4, Malá Strana) and the Kolovratský palác, (Nerudova 193/III, Malá Strana). Both sites will be open from 09:00 to 16:00. Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament (Poslanecká sněmovna) The Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament also opens its doors to visitors. During the hour-long guided tour, guests will be able to see the main meeting room, conference rooms of various committees and other areas. Tours will begin as groups are formed. Where: Malostranské náměstí č.19 When: 09:00 to 16:00 Lichtenštejnský palác Guests will be able to explore the rich interior of the Liechtenstein Palace on Kampa Island, now used for state events and accommodation of prominent political figures. Where: Lichtenštejnský palác, U Sovových mlýnů 506/4 , Prague 1 When: the guides will be waiting for guests from 09:00 till 17:00 (the last guided tour will start at 16:00). The tour will last about 40 minutes. Obecní dům This building is inextricably linked with the upcoming holiday. It was here that Czechoslovakia’s independence...
October 28 is Independent Czechoslovak State Day, and most large stores over 200 square meters will close due to the law passed in 2016. Pharmacies, gas stations, and stores in airports, hospitals and train stations are not included in the law. Stores under 200 square meters, such as local grocery stores, can also remain open. Violators of the law can face fines up to Kč 1 million, and some fines have been levied in the past. This year is the 104th anniversary of the establishment of the First Republic of Czechoslovakia in 1918. There are a few celebrations planned, such as a ceremony at the National Monument in Vítkov at 10 am. Independent Czechoslovak State Day marks when the newly created Czechoslovakia broke away from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the closing days of World War I. Bohemia and Moravia had been ruled by Austrian while Slovakia was controlled from Hungary. Nationalist movements began in the middle of the 18th century. Despite some cultural and linguistic differences, Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia decided to join together. Secret talks to create the country took place with the support of the Allied forces in the US, Britain and France. The Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence was drafted in October...
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. Energy poverty is an issue that needs to be discussed at the European level and one cannot rely on national solutions only, the Czech Labour and Social Affairs Ministry and Industry and Trade Ministry representatives agreed at a conference on energy poverty. They said if EU member states proceeded separately, it would violate the single market. Czech conductor Libor Pesek, who was the music director and chief conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (RLPO) from 1987 to 1998, died on Sunday. Pesek received the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1996, on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II’s visit to Czechia. The Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, says he will attend an honours ceremony at Prague Castle on Friday’s October 28 national holiday despite the fact he does not like President Miloš Zeman’s selective approach to inviting guests. Over 5,000 people in Czechia have undergone gender reassignment, Czech Television reported on Monday. The number of Czech teenagers dealing with issues of sexual identity has increased in recent years due...
On 24th October 1942, Nazis executed 261 Czechoslovakian citizens in the Mauthausen concentration camp. Out of this number, 126 were men and 135 women. Whole families of parachutists, resistance fighters and their supporters died on that day. This was one of the most terrifying Nazi revenge similar to the assassinations in Lidice, Ležáky and Kobylisy, or tortures that went on in the Small Fortress Terezín, or in Petschkov Palace etc. “Everyone knows soldiers Gabčík and Kubiše, who killed Heydrich, but those who paid with their lives for helping them are almost unknown,” said Mikuláš Kroupa, who is the director of Post Bellum. The victims were mostly entire families, including children aged 14-17. They were taken to Mauthausen concentration camp from Terezín and murdered on October 24, 1942. In the room where they were sent for a supposed medical examination, they were made to stand with their backs to a wall marked with a height meter. They were then shot with a bullet to the back of the head through a hidden hole in the wall. The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in 1942 eliminated one of the most powerful military officers in Nazi Germany and an important figure in the rise...
Czech inflation, while likely to stay high until year-end, is near its peak and should not rise much further before dropping in 2023, central bank board member Karina Kubelkova said in a newspaper interview to be published on Monday. Kubelkova, who joined the board in July, said while a rise in domestic demand would signal the need for a further tightening in monetary policy, this was not materialising. “Latest data show that people are ceasing to spend and consumption is beginning to slow, and is even declining in some market segments,” she told daily Lidove Noviny in her first public remarks since joining the board. The bank halted a previous cycle of rate hikes under new Governor Ales Michl, who also took his post in July, and signalled rate stability for an extended period. The bank had raised its main rate to 7% by June this year, while inflation reached 18% year-on-year in September. Wage growth surprised on the upside in the second quarter, Kubelkova said, though she added she was not as worried as some of her board colleagues about a wage-inflation spiral, as she expected a compromise in wage talks between employers and unions. Kubelkova said the central...
Charles Bridge Museum together with the City of Prague is holding St. Martin’s celebrations on Thursday 11th November. The celebration will start at 11.11 am. On this day, Czechs traditionally roast a goose and at exactly 11:11 they open the first bottles of young wine, which are called St. Martin’s (Svatomartinské víno). St. Martin was a Roman Catholic saint, the bishop of Tours, who lived in the years 316 – 397. The most-repeated story about his life says that while he was a soldier, he encountered a scantily dressed beggar at the gate of the city of Amiens. He cut his military woolen cloak in half and shared it with the freezing man. The following night he had a vision of Jesus Christ, surrounded by Angels, and arrayed in the half of the cloak. As a consequence of the experience, he received baptism, left the army and became a monk. People in the Czech republic associate the feast with the onset of winter and snow. There are a lot of proverbs in Czech, which feature predictions for the winter weather. According to the most popular saying, the first snowfall of the season can be expected on this day since Martin may...
LGBT+ organisations are set to hold a rally named “Together Against Violence” on Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Wednesday, October 26. The LGBT+ groups say they expect up to 10,000 people to attend the event, where speakers will include Roman Samotný, the owner of the Bratislava gay bar Tepláreň, outside which two young homosexual men were recently shot dead. Musicians such as David Koller, Emma Smetana and Jordan Haj will perform on the stage. What happened The shooting took place at the entrance of the gay bar Tepláreň in downtown Bratislava. In addition to the two persons shot dead, a third person was wounded in the attack. The suspect was identified as 19-year-old Juraj Krajčík, the son of a far-right politician. Before the shooting, Krajčík had posted anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-Semitic messages on Twitter. Following the tragedy, thousands took to the streets of Slovakia to protest against homophobia in the nation. President Zuzana Caputova shared her views at the march, stating: “Hate crimes are an attack on the whole society, of which the LGBTQI+ community is a valuable member.” From legal discrimination to institutionalized hate speech While the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, known collectively as the Visegrád Group, are all members of the European Union and have...
If your day doesn’t start until you’re up to speed on the latest headlines, then let us introduce you to our new morning fix. The number of Ukrainian refugees who have received temporary protection status in Czechia has now passed 450,000. During the last week 3,288 more people were given these special visas, bringing the total number to 450,090, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Organisations representing sexual minorities are set to hold a rally named Together Against Violence on Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Wednesday, October 26. The LGBT+ groups say they expect up to 10,000 people to attend the event The Prague Sounds music festival kicked off in the Czech capital on Sunday with a concert by US group Snarky Puppy at the Lucerna Grand Hall. Eight other events are taking place in the festival previously known as Strings of Autumn. The ANO party will now announce their plans for the presidential election on Monday October 31, instead of next Wednesday as originally promised. The reason given is that leader Andrej Babiš is in isolation after testing positive for Covid-19. Czechia will change its quotas for employing non-EU foreigners as of November, making...
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