Section Archive Spotlight
Welcome to Landek Park – the largest museum of mining in the Czech Republic
Two weeks ago in Spotlight we travelled to the centre of Ostrava, the
capital of the Moravian-Silesian region, where a new industrial heritage
site is going to open next year. Today we will stay in the area to visit
Landek Park, the largest museum of mining in the Czech Republic. More
A tale of two restaurants
Hrabal’s book "I served the King of England" makes working in a
restaurant sound very dramatic, and very glamorous. But the novel also
suggests that such drama and glamour belong to a time now long gone. To
find out whether this was true, I visited two of Prague’s most famous
restaurants, to talk to their owners about their work from day-to-day. More
The second life of the Vítkovice ironworks
In today’s Spotlight we travel to the city of Ostrava, the capital of the
Moravian-Silesian region and more precisely to the city’s industrial
centre Vítkovice. Its unusual skyline does not feature skyscrapers and
church towers but rather the tall and imposing structures of extinct blast
furnaces. Instead of demolishing them, Ostrava has decided to preserve its
unique industrial heritage and the whole complex is now being revitalized
and turned into a multipurpose cultural facility. More
Slavonice: a South Bohemian renaissance town off the beaten track
It is a very crisp autumn day here in South Bohemia. And I’m slowly
trundling towards Slavonice, which is in the very far south of this
country, right on the Austrian border. I’m in a modern-looking, but as
you can probably hear, rather shuddery sort of train. And I’m heading
towards this stunningly pretty Czech town, which I hear, in recent years,
has become something of an artists’ colony. So, I’m off to find out
more about that in this week’s Spotlight. More
Prague’s Ladronka park offers something for everybody
In today’s Spotlight we don’t have to travel too far. Just a
forty-five-minute tram ride uphill from the centre of Prague takes us to
one of the largest parks in the city. Not long ago, its greenery was
untended and the historic building in the middle of it was inhabited by a
commune of squatters. But after a recent facelift, Ladronka, as the park is
called, now offers something for everybody. More
Kurdějov, one of the oldest winegrowing communities in the country
South Moravia is well-known for its wine, which has been produced there at
least since thirsty Roman soldiers far from home began doing so in the 2nd
century. Move forward a thousand years or so, to the 13th century, and wine
trading had become one of the most profitable businesses in the region.
Those are the days that our destination for today stretches back to. More
A day at the races in Velká Chuchle
“What’s a ‘chuchle’” was my first question, a reasonable question
I think, when I first learned I would be going to see a ‘big’ one, many
years ago. In the end it seems, the name of the premier Czech horse racing
flat-track, Velká Chuchle, doesn’t have any literal meaning, but it is a
synonym for a lovely Sunday afternoon. More
Prague’s Malá Strana cemetery: a burial ground that’s dying out
Cemeteries across the country will soon fill with flowers and burning
candles when on All Saints Day people visit the graves of their loved ones.
But in Prague, there is one burial ground where few visitors are expected.
The Malá Strana cemetery was only in use for about a century, and it now
stands out as a unique monument in the middle of the dynamically developing
district of Smíchov. A group of local enthusiasts have now got together to
save this unique part of the city’s heritage. More
Kolín - more than just a railway junction
Surrounded by railway sidings and industrial estates, it's easy to get the
impression that Kolín is simply a town travellers pass through on the way
from the Czech capital to the nearby tourist-friendly Kutná Hora.
Nevertheless, anyone who gets off the train in Kolín and takes the trouble
to walk the short distance past the factories and business parks to the
city centre will find that it is a place worth visiting. More
Svitavy – the birthplace of Oskar Schindler
You are not very likely to wander into Svitavy by chance. Located on both
the major road and railway line connecting Moravia and eastern Bohemia, for
most people Svitavy is just a name on their itinerary. But if you do come
and take a closer look, you’ll find a little town proud of its past and
working for a better future. Once an important town for Moravia’s textile
industry, re-populated after the expulsion of Svitavy’s German speaking
inhabitants, it only recently showed its pride in perhaps its most famous
native personality – Oskar Schindler. More
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