The unforgettable atmosphere of travelling by a steam train and unique views of the capital are worth trying! From the Smíchov railway station, the train goes to the Prokop Valley. The canyon in it reaches depths of up to 70 meters and it was created by erosion during the last million years. Up to the station of Rudná u Prahy, we go on the track nicknamed “Humpbacked”. From Hostivice to Smíchov, the train runs along the route of the former Buštěhrad line which exceeds an altitude difference of 150 meters. Thanks to its profile, the surrounding natural scenery, and two historical viaducts, the track has earned the name “Prague Semmering”. The name Semmering is derived from the very first mountain railway in Europe – built in the Austrian Alps in the 19th century. The final section of the journey allows you to admire the legendary Vyšehrad rock and the plain of Pankrác with modern buildings. From the railway bridge across the Vltava river, you will also be delighted with the city’s spectacular skyline crowned by the majestic Prague Castle. History In the years 1868 to 1872, the company Buštěhradská dráha had a section connecting the then-known Smíchov Common Railway Station and Hostivice...
A driver captured the crazy moment a Formula 2 car was seen flying down a motorway heading into Germany from the Czech Republic. Several videos went viral on social media as an F2 car was seen hurtling down a normal motorway road. The old Ferrari was filmed flying down the two-lane D4 motorway, between Příbram and Dobříš. The car heavily resembled an F2 chassis – but it is illegal to drive such vehicles on the motorway in the Czech Republic. Police have investigated a similar incident that occurred in 2019 in the same area. In 2019, the same car was spotted driving down the same section of motorway, which led to an inquiry. Officers managed to track down the owner of the Ferrari, but the suspect denied he was behind the wheel at the time. Subsequently, police could not prove their case as the driver was wearing a racing helmet that concealed identity, so no charges were brought against the suspect. And fortunately so for whoever was behind the wheel, as they avoided a fine and a one-year ban from driving. One account to post a video of the incident on Twitter was @F1_Images, who said: “Just a GP2 car in Ferrari...
On Sunday the 14th of August 2022, a Hawker Hurricane (OO-HUR) belonging to the Aviation Museum in Tocna near Prague crashed during it’s display at the Aviation Days in Cheb, Karlovy Vary Region. Sadly it was confirmed that the pilot was tragically killed in the accident. According to witnesses the plane suddenly lost altitude while turning and disappeared from sight. The plane has crashed into a family house but thankfully no one on the ground has been seriously injured. Petr Paces was named as the pilot who lost his life, he was a very experienced ex-Mig-21 fighter pilot, a flight instructor as well as the captain of the Boeing 737 airliner. Passionate about flying Petr Paces started flying gliders at the age of 14 before moving onto powered aircraft three years later. After school, he flew as a Mig-21 fighter pilot until 1992, leaving the army to join Air Traffic Control. Almost twenty years ago, he started flying the Boeing 737 airliners. He has also often displayed historic aircraft sharing his love for flying with thousands of people each year. Hurricane Mk. IV was one of the final variants of the Hawker-manufactured fighter, produced between 1942 and 1944. At that...
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. About 60,000 people joined the Prague Pride parade yesterday, crossing the city centre and reaching Letna Plain where the programme continued until the night, Prague police spokesman Jan Rybansky told CTK. . A pilot died after his aircraft crashed into a house during an air show in the Western Bohemian town of Cheb on Sunday. The pilot died and one person was injured, the Czech News Agency reported. A Czech Film Week gets underway in Israel on Monday, presenting the best of Czech and Czechoslovak films in cinemas in Tel- Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. The program will also mark the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Oscar-winning director Miloš Forman, Armenian national Norair Tsaturian, who shot at two men outside a shopping mall in Prague in 2016, was sentenced to seven years in prison on the basis of a plea bargain that the Prague Municipal Court approved today, court spokesman Adam Wenig has told CTK. The Czech Banking Association (ČBA) has improved its forecast for the growth of the Czech economy...
Just a few steps from the Prašná Brána in the heart of Prague’s Old Town on a street traditionally filled with bakeries is Kolacherie, a new bakery offering classic kolache with a modern twist. The owner, Oscar, never expected to open a bakery in Prague. But following pandemic-induced rent reductions on prime real estate in the center of the city—as well as an increasing movement towards centering authentically-Czech, aesthetically-conscious businesses in the historic district, Oscar saw an opportunity. The bakery and café—small, but cozy with a muted green interior that seamlessly blends into the centuries-old building—draws in tourists and locals alike. More importantly, it draws them back over and over again, relishing the pastries that are handmade every morning from high-quality ingredients and slow-risen dough. The kolache on offer is, broadly speaking, nothing new: it’s classic and employs the traditional recipe and methods that have been practiced by Czech grandmothers for generations. What is new is the savory kolache that Oscar has debuted after a trip to the United States. The smaller, square kolache sport ham and cheese, apple-brie, or a spicier jalapeño pastry. While savory kolache are seldom found in Prague these days, the concept has a long history...
The capital city has more inhabitants than the official census indicates. According to the analysis by the Institute of Planning and Development (IPR), there are about 300,000 more people instead of the official 1.3 million. The institute arrived at the number of residents based on anonymous data from mobile phone operators. During the day, hundreds of thousands more people will arrive for work, IPR director Ondřej Boháč told the Czech Press Agency. According to the Czech Statistical Office, however, the census methodology is different and its spokesman Jan Cieslar said the office is not familiar with the way the IPR reached its conclusions. “It turns out that there are about 1.6 million permanent residents of Prague, and if we include the residents of the Central Bohemian Region who commute to Prague daily for work, that is even 1.8 million people. However, only 1.3 million people have permanent residence here,” said IPR Director Ondřej Boháč. Boháč said the increase in population means greater financial demands on the city, which among other things, must provide public transportation, parking, apartments, doctors and daycare centers. “So even though infrastructure costs are logically rising, Prague is still losing out on tax revenue,” Boháč said. Available...
To start with, Volodymyr Zelensky was careful not to blame Russians for a war Vladimir Putin started. Appealing to them and speaking in his native Russian, he asked: ‘Do the Russians want war?’ He called on them to rise up to make Putin listen. But this did not happen. Zelensky appears to have decided that they do, in fact, want war. So he has now said that western countries should ban all Russian citizens from entering their countries on the grounds that ‘the population picked this government and they’re not fighting it’. His foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russians ‘must be deprived of the right to cross international borders until they learn to respect them’. His idea is gathering momentum with Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic, who have already banned the issue of all kinds of visas to Russians. Other countries such as Belgium, Denmark, Malta, the Netherlands and Slovakia are refusing to give visas to most Russian citizens – with exceptions for family members, students and workers. Finland has called on the EU to adopt a common stance and stop granting Schengen visas immediately. Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavský is proposing an EU-wide travel ban on Russian passport...
Oil shipments from Russia through a critical pipeline to Czechia resumed Friday after more than a week, the Czech pipeline operator Mero said. Czechia became the last central European country after Slovakia and Hungary to receive deliveries from the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline after a problem over payments for transit was resolved. Russian state pipeline operator Transneft said Tuesday it halted shipments through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Ukraine to Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. The northern leg of the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Belarus to Poland and Germany, was unaffected. Transneft cited complications due to European Union sanctions for its action on Aug. 4, saying its payment to the company´s Ukrainian counterpart was refused. On Wednesday, the payment was made by Slovak refiner Slovnaft after both Russia and Ukraine agreed to the solution. Slovnaft is owned by Hungary´s MOL energy group. But Slovnaft said the deal covered only shipments to Slovakia and Hungary and not to Czechia. Slovak Economy Minister Richard Sulik said the problem was caused by the refusal of an unnamed bank in Western Europe to transfer the money due to the sanctions imposed by the EU on Russia for...
Czechs frequently come to Poland to save money on a range of goods, especially for Czechs who live closest to the Polish border. “Each visit is saving us money,” Czechs living near the border with Poland tell the Polish Press Agency (PAP). In the village of Istebna in southern Poland, a convenience store parking lot is often occupied by Czech cars, with drivers coming from towns located 17 kilometers away. One Polish reporter saw Czechs mostly had their shopping carts filled with dairy products, meat, cold cuts, and carbonated drinks. Two Czechs, Vaclav and Jana, said they have been crossing the border since spring when Polish authorities lowered the VAT for many products. “We were told that the bargains will end in July, but Poles extended the discounts. We can still shop here,” they said. They are not interested in going to larger towns and instead only visit Istebna, which is closer. On social media, Czechs are exchanging information about where to find the cheapest products such as building materials, windows, business suits, gravestones, and pet food. The border town of Cieszyn is a place where residents of Český Těšín, the Czech part of the town, cross the border even for their...
French prosecutors have opened an investigation into Czech billionaire and former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, on suspicion of money laundering related to his purchase of villas in the south of France. France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), which is responsible for scrutinizing serious economic and financial crime, launched its proceedings in February 2022, according to Le Monde, after the businessman was mentioned in the Pandora papers — a massive leak of documents that exposed how the rich and powerful use offshore companies to hide their wealth. According to the documents, the former Czech leader failed to disclose a series of shell companies used to buy a multimillion-euro French property. Babiš denied he had done anything wrong or illegal and said that the revelations were targeting his reelection campaign, which later failed. French investigators are now focusing on how Babiš acquired his €14 million property in the billionaire haven of Mougins, which was purchased via a Monaco-based company owned by an offshore entity in the U.S. The entire setup was allegedly hidden from French authorities and could constitute money laundering and a tax evasion scheme, Le Monde reported. Karel Hanzelka, a spokesman for Babiš’s group Agrofert, said that “all our transactions took place in a perfectly...
Prague Public Transit Company (DPP) has published the results of an architectural competition for the design of the Depo Zličín metro station building for line B. It will be designed by the Czech studio Petr Stolín Architekt, and construction should start in 2026. Depo Zličín will extend line B from the original Zličín terminus and become the 62nd station of the Prague metro. According to the company, it will be above-ground and will be used primarily by drivers, passengers from suburban lines, and later also by residents of new apartment developments in the area. The construction of a parking garage is also planned. “For the first time in the nearly fifty-year history of the Prague metro, a solution for the station was sought in an international architectural competition. Next to the station, we will also build a new P+R parking garage for at least 600 cars. In the western part of Prague, an important interchange between automobile traffic and public transport will thus be created, which will relieve the center of unnecessary traffic. Thanks to this, passengers from the very edge of the city can get to the center by metro within about 30 minutes from parking,” said Adam Scheinherr (Praha Sobě), deputy...
The National Theatre in Prague, built almost entirely using money raised through public collections, was a world rarity. For some thirty years, people gathered funds “coin by coin”. The fire that destroyed much of it in 1881 was, therefore, all the more devastating. Because of insufficient funds for its construction, money was collected from all social classes. The foundation stone was placed in 1868, the historical date remembered as the beginning of this amazing edifice. Years passed and finally in 1881, the neo-Renaissance construction was opened for a first performance that took place in the honor of Crown Prince Rudolf. On 12th August 1881, when the last details were being retouched, a fire broke out and destroyed much of the new building, destroying the roof, stage and auditorium, including the decorations for the upcoming premiere of Smetana’s Libuše. The vestibule, foyer, loggia and a number of rooms, such as the archive, cloakroom and theatre office, were preserved. The event was considered a national catastrophe, but the Czechs didn’t stand aside. They started a new campaign for the reconstruction of the National Theatre. Rich and poor contributed and the result was the amazing one million florins gathered in 47 days. In...
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