Related articles
ArtsExhibition & detailed "guidebook" highlight Cubist architecture
The Czech Republic has many claims to fame but one of its greatest and most
curious regarding the arts is the country's unique history of Cubist
architecture, celebrated in an exhibition and recent new book named
"Czech Architectural Cubism". Both book and exhibit provide a
comprehensive and fascinating overview of the brief periods before and
after World War I, which saw notable Czech architects inspired by Cubist
principles. In fact, Czech architects were the first and only ones in the
world to ever design original Cubist buildings. A look at their legacy in
today's Arts. More
Current AffairsMucha's masterpiece may be in Prague by 2008
The Art Nouveau "Slav Epic" is considered the magnum opus of the
artist Alfons Mucha. But for decades the paintings have been housed
"temporarily" in a chateau in a small Moravian village which is
difficult to reach. The city of Prague has long wished to build a home for
the paintings, and a spokesman now says construction of a permanent gallery
could start in a little more than a year.
More
SpotlightProstejov's enchanting Art Nouveau house of culture
The house of culture in the Moravian town of Prostejov is one of the
country's best examples of the art nouveau style. Built by the famous
architect Jan Kotera, it celebrates its 99th birthday this Friday. Dita
Asiedu takes a tour around the newly renovated structure with the house of
culture director Alena Spurna:
More
Letter from PragueFarewell Vinohrady
There were the émigrés coming back, and us colonists of the early 1990s,
and there was Vinohrady, one of those magical districts of Prague. As it
was then. Vinohrady rises above the Old and New Towns. Its name simply
means The Vineyards, and once its slopes were covered with Royal vines -
appropriately facing the Castle crowning the hill on the other side of the
river. The Prussians bombarded from here in the 1750s, proving once and for
all that artillery had rendered the town walls redundant. Soon after they
were demolished and Prague started to move up the hill, and by the later
nineteenth century Vinohrady was being developed.
More
SpotlightFuture of precious plot in Old Town Square debated
Undeterred by the onset of winter weather, hordes of tourists swirl in
eddies around the Old Town Square—in front of the famous Astronomical
Clock, by the carts selling sausages and cups of hot wine, down the
passages lined with stalls crammed top to bottom with knickknacks and
gewgaws. It is a site that is as rich in art and history as it is bustling
with activity. This place is one of Prague's nerve centers, the beating
heart of the old city.
More
Current AffairsWar veterans protest "desecration" of military memorial
The National Memorial on Vitkov Hill in Prague is a structure hard to miss.
It is a severe rectangular building with no windows, accompanied by a large
statue of 15th-century Czech military commander Jan Zizka, astride his
horse, as if keeping guard over the city. Built in the 1930s, the memorial
was meant to house the remains of Czech soldiers who fought in foreign
legions on the battlefields of the First World War. A recent commercial
event in the - now scarcely used - building has prompted Czech war veteran
associations to raise their voices in protest.
More
Current AffairsNew book by Czech journalist looks back at 9/11 and more
This week, the world is remembering the victims of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks in the United States. To mark the anniversary, a book was launched
in Prague on Monday, written by Czech journalist Veronika Bednarova, who
actually was very close to the World Trade Center at the time of the
tragedy. In her book, whose title translates as "My American
Beauty" she gives her personal account of the tragedy but also much
more.
More
SpecialEast Tilbury: a Czech modernist Utopia on the Thames marshes
There is one corner of England that is forever Czech. If you drive through
the open, windswept landscape of the Thames marshes just beyond the
eastern suburbs of London, you come to a rather unlikely modernist Czech
Utopia. This is the small town of East Tilbury, built almost entirely in
the 1930s. When the great Czech shoe magnate, Tomas Bata, arrived here 75
years ago, this was nothing but farmland. It was the time when the Bata
shoe empire, which he had built up in the eastern Czech town of Zlin was
expanding fast, with a mission to "shoe the world". Tomas Bata
was building state of the art factories, and often whole communities, in
countries as far apart as Brazil and India. East Tilbury was one of these
towns.
More
SpotlightZlin - the town that Bata built
In this edition of Spotlight,we visit the south-east Moravian town of Zlin,
a city famous for its footwear and film industries as well as for its rich
heritage of folk culture and traditional music.
More
Current AffairsPrague's Stvanice to see extensive changes as recreational park
Prague's Stvanice is the Czech capital's largest island and a site with a
remarkable history. It houses a famous tennis court where tennis star
Martina Navratilova helped her US team beat Czechoslovakia in a legendary
match in the Fed Cup in 1986, and is also home to an original wooden
stadium - now an historic monument. It is there that Czechoslovak ice
hockey players won their first world championship title in 1947. Still,
Stvanice is not just about the past: this week city hall councillors
finally gave the green light for a project that should turn into an even
more important site in the future: a recreational area open to all.
More
+1
