The City Hall of Prague 3 commissioned a project for the transformation of Jiří z Lobkovic Square near the Olšany Cemeteries. The whole process is calculated to be worth CZK 7 million and it will be executed by the architectural studio Perspektiv that won the competition for the square’s transformation last year. The decision was made by the city council earlier in the week. The square is located at the Olšanské hřbitovy tram stop and it includes a tram loop. According to the approved document, Perspektiv, the architectural studio that won, has to finalize and complete all the necessary documentation in the next four months. A playground and a fountain According to the winning design, the space will combine the features and the feel of the original square with a new proper park. The lush green area will be preserved in the middle, and it’ll be perfect for walking dogs or picnicking. Most of the square’s current trees will be left untouched. In front of the primary school bordering the square on the south side will be added a new space for children. It will be partially covered with parquet floors, a fountain and three playgrounds for kids of different...
The keynote speaker of this year’s SWCSummit, which takes place in Prague on October 5th and 6th, is computer engineering legend Steve Wozniak. Forty-five years ago, he stood side by side with Steve Jobs at the beginning of the Apple brand. Later, his groundbreaking desktop computer changed the development of the IT industry forever. Visitors to the event will not only see him live but will even have the opportunity to ask him a question. Tickets are available at swcsummit.com. However, due to the pandemic, SWCSummit’s capacity will be limited to a few hundred people, so early purchase is quite recommended. In addition to Woz’s performance, the program’s highlight will also be the traditional continental finals of the Startup World Cup. The victory awaits a startup that will rise from the pool of past regional rounds or associated startup competitions. The winner will be rewarded with an investment of $500,000 and the title “European startup champion”. This year, we are upgrading the prestige of the European finales to an even higher level than before as we broaden our portfolio and we also patronize various other competitions such as the Czech Startup Challenge, Creative Business Cup, PowerMOTION, and others. “SWCSummit thus...
The complete reconstruction of the Prague metro station Jiřího z Poděbrad starts today (September 1st), in part to replace the Soviet-era ‘Leningrad’ escalators, install lifts and provide barrier-free access to platforms. The last phase of repairs will be the replacement of escalators. Because the Jiřího z Poděbrad station has only one exit, after January 2023 it will be closed for 10 months and metro trains will not stop there The repair will cost DPP CZK 1.29 billion and the work should take over two years. New elevators will be put in for barrier-free access to the station. The first ones will take passengers from the train platform to the transfer corridor, and from there the other elevators will go up to Vinohradská Street. Most of the work will take place during normal operation, which will be interrupted only when the station ceiling is breached. Workers will also renovate or replace wiring and lighting, remove leaks, replace air conditioning and repair damaged parts of tiles. Geotechnical monitoring of the excavated work, ie monitoring of the subsoil, will also be performed. “The planned modernization is one of the largest we have undertaken in the last few years in terms of scope, length...
IKEA celebrates a milestone this week, 30 years since opening its first Czech store on September 5th in Prague on Budějovická. The grand opening took place at seven o’clock in the morning and was a big social event, which was also attended by the then Minister of Finance Václav Klaus. During the month of September, IKEA will offer special discounts, a festive menu, and birthday packages. “The store was often completely full and there were long queues at the box office. In the beginning, IKEA was perceived extremely prestigious on our market, important personalities and celebrities came here,” recalls Lenka Žižková, a university teacher and publicist who has long been involved in housing culture and design. “Czechs were visiting the store not only when they needed to buy something for the apartment, but also to get inspired and to improve their mood,” she adds. The chain moved from Budějovická in 1996 to its own department store in Zličín. In 1998, it opened a second department store in Brno, three years later in Ostrava, and the newest of the department stores, in Prague’s Černý Most, welcomed its first customers in 2004. Recently, IKEA has launched its English version of the website,...
“An extension of Prague’s public transport” – this is how representatives of Nextbike, the largest domestic bike-sharing company, talk about their upcoming project with the city administration. The project was put in charge of the organizer of the Prague public transport Ropid, who after the completion of the test phase will evaluate the interest of passengers and propose further steps. According to the city management, shared bicycles are a beneficial complement to public transport. “At short and medium distances, it is the most environmentally friendly individual means of transport,” says one of the representative. The aim of the project is to verify the interest of Prague public transport passengers in the use of shared bicycles and to offer Lítačka owners another possibility of transport in the metropolis over shorter distances. There are two main rental services: Rekola with 600 bikes and Nextbike with 700 bicycles. If you are interested in renting an e-bike, there are two operators with them in Prague: Bolt and Homeport. However, the idea of including shared bikes in the public transport system is already receiving criticism from Praguers. At the beginning of August, due to tariff changes, those passengers who were used to using one-off tickets when traveling by public transport...
The European Commission told the Czech Republic on Monday it would halt the payment of some EU subsidies until the country tightens its laws to guard against conflicts of interest. The EU executive concluded in an audit released in April that Prime Minister Andrej Babis was in a conflict of interest as final owner of a business empire, mainly under the Agrofert group of companies, that receives EU funding. Babis has repeatedly insisted he has not broken any laws, having moved his business holdings into two trust funds. But on Monday, the Commission said it would not reimburse any spending on EU projects claimed by companies held by trust funds for now. “As long as all the recommendations formulated in the (audit) report are not carried out, we are advising the Czech authorities not to declare expenses that are due for companies whose beneficial owners are trust funds. It’s a warning,” the Commission said. While spending by Agrofert is already not being reimbursed, the Commission feels the issue might be wider, an EU official said. “There is real concern that the risks that surfaced around Agrofert may be replicated with other companies,” the official said. The Commission also asked Czech...
Receiving packages from outside the European Union will become a little easier for customers and retailers in the Czech Republic. Czech Post (Česká pošta) has announced that it will cooperate with online marketplace Wish. The cooperation with Wish is an expansion of Czech Post’s effort to streamline the processing of shipments from China. Wish is a US-based online marketplace that brings together sellers and buyers. Sellers who list their products on Wish send the items directly to consumers, the platform does not stock the products or manage returns. Most products available through the app come from China and other overseas contributors. “After concluding an agreement with AliExpress in 2020, another business portal with which Czech Post will cooperate is the Wish platform”, said Czech Post in a press release. The cooperation is an effort to reduce some of the red tape associated with taxes and custom duties. New VAT rules The Czech Post cooperation with Wish is established after the VAT rules changed within the European Union. AliExpress recently began collecting VAT on its own and pays the tax to the European Union through the new Impost One-Stop Shop which the EU launched on the first of July this year. As of that date, shipments below 22 euros...
The Czech government will offer a booster COVID-19 vaccine shot from Sept. 20 to any previously vaccinated person, Health Minister Adam Vojtech said on Monday. The Czech Republic, a country of 10.7 million, has been one of the countries worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as measured by deaths per population, with over 30,400 victims. Nearly 1.68 million Czechs have contracted the virus, and many more are estimated to have caught it without being tested. The government’s coronavirus task force said on Twitter that the boosters were strongly recommended for people over 60 but would also be available for all who had completed previous vaccinations, either by a two-dose or single-dose schemes. The government will use Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for the boosters for those who completed a regular vaccination at least eight months earlier, Vojtech told a news conference shown live on television. As of Monday, 5.73 million people have received at least one shot of a two-dose vaccine, mostly from Pfizer/BioNTech, and another 197,254 received the one-dose vaccine made by Johnson and Johnson. Separately, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Czech Television the government will offer financial bonuses to general practitioners who convince more people over 65 to...
A Czech court has ruled in favour of Czech ticket seller Kiwi.com against Ryanair in a lingering dispute over Kiwi’s practices for handling passenger data. Ryanair had threatened to reject boarding passes issued by Kiwi.com, but that was unjustified according to Constitutional Court judge Kateřina Šimáčková. Ryanair took Kiwi.com to court over its handling of passengers’ personal data, which Ryanair claimed prevented it from contacting passengers in case of flight changes. The Irish carrier wanted Kiwi.com to be compelled to share more passenger data. But the Constitutional Court has now overturned an earlier ruling by the Regional Court in Brno (and then upheld on appeal at the High Court in Olomouc) which had instructed Kiwi.com to adjust information according to Ryanair’s terms and conditions, and to share customers’ email and residence addresses as well as their payment details. The Constitutional Court ruled that the earlier judgement ran contrary to the freedom to conduct business. Ryanair wants travellers to book tickets only on the Ryanair website, and not through third parties, stating that this is the only way that consumers are guaranteed the lowest rates. However, Kiwi.com believes it should be allowed to sell Ryanair tickets, both individually and in a composite trip. It also uses...
Religion can play a key part in integrating into a new culture for many foreigners. Often, immigrants arrive in the Czech Republic knowing few others from their homeland, and religious communities fill the role of providing an ethnic and cultural haven needed during the transition and inevitable culture shock. The majority of Czechs are not religious, but while the census somewhat reflects the population accurately, an element of governmental distrust pushes some to lie about their religious preferences on official records. Regardless of what the true statistics are, Prague has a selection of places of worship to fit most denominations. The list below is by no means exhaustive, but highlights just a few of the organizations available. Catholicism St. Thomas’ Church- Josefská 8 Catholicism makes up the largest percentage of religious Czechs at a mere 10%, so many churches extend their services to the more devoted expat community. St. Thomas’ has daily services throughout the week and Sunday masses can be found at all times of the day and are conducted in either Czech, English, Spanish, or Filipino. My American friend was in Prague for a semester and regularly attended the 11am English mass and now she recommends it to her...
Švanda Theatre is a theater in Štefánikova street in Smíchov. It continues the long tradition of the previous theater based in this building and its surroundings. The first theatre company which started performing in the garden of an old house „U Libuše“ on 1 October 1881 was the originally touring theatre company of Pavel Švanda from Semčice. This theatre group also performed on the summer stage „V lesíčku“ (at the barracks on the opposite side of the square), and after 1891 in the newly built wooden Arena on the Smichov’s embankment “Hořejší nábřeží” where they had performed until they finished their activities in 1934. The first building was designed by Smichov’s architect and developer Josef Záhorský. There was a major transformation in 1900 when the theatre entrance was built right from the street instead of the garden. The works also involved space conversion of the stage and auditorium realized by the developer Šimek. More adaptations followed in 1908, 1910, 1914, and later in the period of 1918 to 1920; a radical reconstruction of the front façade of the theatre was done according to Ladislav Machoň’s project in cubist style and the building became the main feature of Kinsky square. The most remarkable part of the building in...
When one says the Czech Republic, most people will recall some architectural landmarks. And also a beverage that has the longest tradition in the Czech Republic – beer. Recently, breweries have been experiencing a boom, which has also given rise to microbreweries, looking for new ways in this tradition. We will show you where to go on a trip along a beer trail. Krkonoše Beer Trail The Krkonoše Mountains can be found in the north of Bohemia. The Krkonoše Beer Trail, open until the end of September, connects the most beautiful and the highest parts of the Krkonoše Mountains and excellent beer. The Krkonoše Beer Trail offers visitors a mountain hike that is about thirty kilometres long, with four stops where you can enjoy beer from five local microbreweries (Hendrych Brewery – Friesovy boudy, Pivovarská Bašta with its Krkonošský Medvěd beer, Trautenberk Brewery, Pec Brewery, and Penzion Andula with the Fries beer). South Bohemian Beer Trails In South Bohemia, you can hike or cycle along six beer tourist trails. They include, for example, Budvar in České Budějovice, Samson, Dudák in Strakonice, and a whole range of microbreweries. Six beer trails offer the opportunity to taste different beers and see the nearby tourist destinations, such as the Orlík Chateau, Vyšší Brod Monastery or the Šumava National Park....
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