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SpotlightA bit of Paris in Prague – the Bohemian coffeehouse Café Montmartre
Tucked away on Řetězová street in Prague’s Old Town, Café Montmartre
is one of the city’s oldest coffeehouses. While it looks rather
unassuming from the outside, the former cabaret has a fascinating history.
Famous writers such as Franz Kafka and Egon Erwin Kisch are said to have
spent many a wild night here, and Café Montmartre continues to draw
artists, writers and actors. We spoke to its manager, Iva Nesvadbová,
about the café’s history, its guests and its upcoming anniversary. More
SpotlightThe Prague Police Museum - an institution that explores the history of police and crime in Czech lands
Tucked away in a former monastery in Prague’s Nové Město, the Czech
Police Museum boasts a fascinating permanent exhibit exploring the history
of Czech police, the development of criminology, infamous murder cases and
much more. Sarah Borufka went along and has this report. More
SpotlightBoating along the Vltava river in Prague
Forget the Blue Danube, it’s the greeny-brown Vltava which is the watery
muse of artists and musicians in this part of the world. The Vltava is the
Czech Republic’s longest river, stretching more than 400 km. It is also
the main waterway through the Czech capital Prague, and has been most
famous in recent years for bursting its banks in 2002. The floods caused
billions of crowns’ worth of damage to the capital alone, and put the
city’s metro out of action for several months. More
Current AffairsGovernment renames airport after Havel, but botches translation
After three months of waiting and some sideline debates, the government has
agreed to rename Prague’s international airport after the late president
Václav Havel. While the Havel family and the tens of thousands who asked
for the change are pleased there has finally been some progress, a new
problem has arisen with the English translation of the airport’s name.
Christian Falvey has this report. More
SpotlightCycle path shows the hidden side of Žižkov
The rumbling railroad track that used to pass through Žižkov in Prague
was completely natural to the gritty-but-chic image of the 19th century
proletariat quarter. The main western entrance to Žižkov was arched by
three foreboding railway bridges, and the noisy, spray-painted cars passed
alongside Vítkov hill to the cargo station. Four years ago the trains
were
still rattling the plaster off that lower end of the neighbourhood, just
as
they had been since the late Industrial Revolution, and then the route was
cancelled for a higher-capacity alternative. More
One on OneLeoš Válka – founder of Prague’s DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
Leoš Válka is one of the founders of the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art
in Prague’s Holešovice district, which in just a few years has become
one of the most important institutions of its kind in Central and Eastern
Europe. Válka has a perhaps surprising background for such a significant
figure in the Czech art world: for several years he ran a firm in Australia
doing maintenance work on high-rise buildings. More
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