The Old Town Square is for sure the most visited touristic place in Prague as well as the Charles Bridge. When you go through the Celetna Street to the world-famous astronomical clock, it is hard not to pay attention to the old houses around the square. As for me, one of the most beautiful buildings is the house placed on the address Staroměstské náměstí 552/16. It is called Štorchův dům and also sometimes you can hear the name “At the Stone Virgin Mary” or “At the Black Door”. These two names were used before the bookseller and publisher Alexander Štorch the younger bought it. From 1868 he started to work for his father, Alexander Štorch the elder, who was as well the publisher and the bookseller. But Alexander-son wanted more and so in 1876 he obtained the license and opened his own bookstore and antiquarian shop. From 1879 he also became a publisher. In 1896-1897 Štorch made a big reconstruction of the house, according to the project of the architect Friedrich Ohmann. The most important and interesting part is the frescoes made by the painter Ladislav Novák according to the designs created by Mikoláš Aleš. Interesting thing is that Aleš...
The world’s oldest men’s salon chain which has styled the likes of Duke of Edinburgh besides others in the British monarchy opened his first shop in Prague. The barbershop has been certified by Guinness as the oldest in the world and has received a royal warrant, meaning it’s officially recognized for providing services to the most senior members of the royal family. (Other companies granted this seal of approval include Heinz, Twinings and Burberry.) Truefitt & Hill has a total of 43 barbershop shops in the world from Chicago to Shanghai, but the one in Prague’s Vinohradská Street is the first in continental Europe. And after Brexit, the only one in the European Union. Behind the famous brand, there are two brothers: Tomáš and Petr Kuck and Šárka Kucková, the wife of the latter. In Prague, Brno, and Liberec they already manage the brands Gentlemen Brothers and Jiné Holičství for a total of six barbershops. Truefitt & Hill also offers a complete grooming range of 150 products for men which includes shaving products, fragrances, hair, skin & bath products, and shaving accessories. Talking about prices, you can have a haircut for CZK 790 and traditional razor shaving for CZK 690,...
The Mayor of Prague Zdeněk Hřib, recently said in an interview that “property owners would be barred from leasing out entire flats except when it was their own home and they were temporarily vacating it. Tourists demanding Airbnb rentals would be limited instead to single rooms in accommodation where the owner also lived.” The idea was the focal point of a scheme to “give Prague back to the people of Prague and mitigate the negative effects of tourism,” he added. He said Airbnb’s growth had turned the city into a “distributed hotel” and that failure to regulate it was “eating the city from inside”. “In the past, you could limit the amount of tourists in the city simply by approving a certain number of hotels of certain capacity during the process of building permits,” said Hřib. “Now in Prague, there is no possibility for the city to limit the accommodation capacity for tourists. The numbers are really critical.” Airbnb listed nearly 12,000 properties in Prague last year, according to Prague’s development institute IPR. The district encompassing the city center has lost nearly half its residents. Registered voters totaled 21,556 in 2017 from 36,862 in 1990. The number of Airbnb outlets almost tripled...
For those, who find troublesome to communicate in Czech in hospitals, Ministry of Interior and other institutions where nobody speaks English, there is a great opportunity to use the services of Intercultural worker from Prague 14 free of charge. Besides free translation and accompaniment to the needed place the Intercultural worker Mila Gasina can explain where an expat can find: Legal and Social counseling FREE of charge Help with the practical information in Prague Explain how NGOs work and what kind of support they can offer If you are wondering why it is all for free, the answer is because Prague City council devotes a lot of time and effort to help the foreigners to adapt to the new city and integrate smoothly so that they become a welcome part of the society. There is a big number of other support programs, which could be found on the Internet and an Intercultural worker is a person who can make an introductory course about them and guide you to the needed one. In order to use the services you should be either living or working at Prague 14 (Hloubetin, Cerny most, Ikea). You can find the contacts of the Intercultural worker...
Last year, the Old Town Hall recorded the highest number of visitors since 2017. In overall admission sales, December was also the best month of the year with almost 78,000 attendees. The last month of the year saw also a record in terms of the number of mTickets. Their number does not normally exceed 1,500 per month, but in December visitors bought more than 7,000 mobile tickets which are more and more popular since their introduction in 2016. “Not only the Old Town Hall itself saw record attendance, but the fifth year of the City Hall Wide Open 2019 has also had encouraging results. The City Hall remains one of our most important projects aimed at Prague residents and home visitors,” says Petr Slepička in charge of Prague City Tourism. The largest number of visitors to the town hall came from Italy, the United States, France, the Czech Republic, and Germany during Christmas. After the New Year, tourists came mainly from Italy, Russia, South Korea, France, and the Czech Republic. About Old Town Hall The core of the Town Hall was a Gothic corner house, to which the Prague burghers added an extra floor with council hall and a 70...
The City of Prague is planning to introduce an annual pass that serves as transit tickets and offer discounts and other deals for visitors. “Basically, it is similar to a tourist ticket,” said Michal Fišer, Operátor ICT General Manager. According to him, the card can be used as a public transit ticket, as a guide regarding Prague’s main sights and to attend cultural events. They should also be alerted to the latest offers or discounts on event tickets. Still under development by municipal Operator ICT (OICT), its official name has yet to be unveiled. Some cards already exist in Prague, but they are issued by private companies and have limited benefits. Approximately 50.000 people use it every year. Many European cities such as Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Vienna have been offering a tourist card for years. The card has also been in operation in Olomouc Region for years. Brno has a card called Brnopas that allows for free or discounted entry to cultural sites and events. Plzeň offers returnable transit cards for tourists. According to Fišer, OICT is ready to launch a ticket shop within 14 days so people can buy time coupons directly through the mobile app. The...
February is behind the door and many events & activities are waiting for you in Prague. Do not hesitate to share my weekly event calendar with your friends. January 31 Re-opening of YOLO Karlín. A new menu, 200 degustation portions for free, DJ, special drinks. When: 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. Where: Pernerova 42, Prague 8 January 30 – February 3 Public Sauna. Artistic exhibition at UMPRUM during Art semester winter 2020. Bring your own towel! When: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. Where: UMPRUM – Jana Palacha square January 29 – February 2 Future Gate 2020. Sci-Fi film festival, this year’s topic: “Cyber revolution”. Where: Kino Lucerna February 1 Free entry to National Gallery When: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. February 1 Pork feast at Dva Kohouti in Karlín. Pork delicacies and special beer will wait for you on Saturday. When: noon – 7 p.m. February 1 2nd SWAP in Langhans cafe When: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. February 2 Super Bowl a Tailgating at Dva Kohouti. There will be a playground, beer specials and you will be in charge of food as you can grill your own burger or sausage on the outside grill. When: Noon – 5 a.m....
“Masopust”, (also known as “fašank”), the time of carnivals which historically ended on Ash Wednesday, is the oldest continuous holiday feast in the Czech lands.
China Eastern Airlines will restrict its flights from Prague to Shanghai with effect from March, joining Hainan Airlines, which announced the closure of its direct flights from Beijing to Prague earlier last week. The carrier is currently operating five weekly connections between the two cities. China Eastern will scrap one of them as of March 1, keeping four other lines open. “Let us inform you that China Eastern Airlines is cancelling MU708 / 707 flights between Prague and Shanghai as of March 1, 2020,” the airline wrote in its statement. The flights have already been deleted from the reservation system. “At the moment we have no further information from carriers about the changes in the timetable. Of course, the situation may change for operational or other reasons, and these changes are always at the discretion of the airline,” said Prague Airport spokesperson Katerina Pavlikova. Relations between the Czech Republic and China took a turn for the worse last year after city authorities in Prague showed support for Tibet and demanded changes to an intercity partnership agreement with Beijing over a reference to China’s ‘one-China’ policy on Taiwan. Hainan’s website was offering direct Beijing-Prague and Prague-Beijing flights until Friday Feb. 28 when checked on Wednesday.
The Prague Wine Week is a unique festival of wines, wineries, and gastronomy. Selected Prague restaurants will prepare special degustation menus. For a whole week, wine lovers and professionals will meet in Prague restaurants, wine bars, and wine shops. Until Sunday, February 2, restaurants, wine bars, and wine shops throughout Prague will cooperate with award-winning wineries to create set menus accompanied by wine tastings that will give you the chance to savor a particular grape in its best light, or rather, with the best bite for prices that won’t break the bank (ranging from CZK 150 for no-meal options to CZK 450 for three-course options). In both Vinograf wine bars, you will be able to taste different sets of wines from the Mikrosvín Mikulov winery. U Dvou Pánů restaurant on Ovocný trh has prepared a four-course tasting menu combined with wines from the Spielberg winery. At Wine Not Wine Bar on Masarykovo nábřeží, the United Drinks importer prepared a wine tasting from Bodegas Escorihuela Gascon from Mendoza, Argentina. Mountfield offers Chilean wines from La Joya and New Zealand wines from Greyrock at the same bar. Both tastings will include great local tapas. Alifea importer will join the Prague Wine Week...
Walking through the Prague old streets you will find many houses which belonged to famous Czechs. One of them is for sure Vila Karla Čapka. The address of the building is Bratří Čapků 1854/30, 101 00 Vinohrady. Villa is actually a dual house, built for two brothers – Karel and Josef in 1923-1924, so they moved in 1924. The house was created by the architect Ladislav Machoň in the popular at first republic period in Czechoslovakia style named Czech art deco. The brothers played an important role in the First Republic history as Karel was a famous writer and Josef was an artist and a writer as well as his younger brother. In this house in Karel’s part from 1925, every Friday took part in meetings of personalities of political and cultural life. These meetings have become an established “institution”. Among Friday’s members was even President T. G. Masaryk. Karel’s part of the villa after his wife’s Olga death (she was also a famous actress) belonged to her brother’s family as the couple didn’t have children. Nowadays that part of the building belongs to Praha 10 district which administration works hard to establish a museum. Olga’s family saved the house...
In April the revitalization works on the lower part of Wenceslas Square will start. Residents of Prague, as well as visitors to the Czech capital, can look forward to a brand new modern public space. A venue for cultural events, new boulevards and walkways are just part of the planned work on the square. “The revitalization will start on the lower part of Wenceslas Square, roughly from Mustek to the Ambassador Hotel,” said Deputy Mayor Petr Hlaváček (TOP 09). He added that works next year will continue to the intersection with Jindřišská Street. Each side of the square will be lined with extended pavements with a double line of trees, complete with water drainage elements. The central section of the square will be free, ready to host seasonal fairs and other events. The concept was selected in an architectural competition in 2005. The aim is to completely redesign the area to meet urban-design and architecture requirements, including relocation of underground water, gas and electricity lines. Another part of the revitalization is the preparation fora possible tram line in the future. Work at the bottom of Wenceslas Square should be completed by the end of 2021. The aim is to carry...
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