Compact archive July 2006

Prague is world-famous for its beautiful architecture. Nevertheless, or maybe mainly because of the large number of cultural landmarks, some of them need renovation urgently. More than fifty valuable buildings necessitate financial resources to improve their poor state. Should the restoration of all the objects take place simultaneously, a sum reaching almost three billion crowns would be necessary.

The endangered landmarks include among others precious houses or parts of town’s crumbling walls. One of the threatened ones, Salmovsky Palace, is to be found opposite to the entrance into Prague Castle in one of the most glamorous squares of Prague – Hradcanske Square. Luckily, the renovation of this Classicist building, which will be turned into an art gallery at a cost of quarter of a billion crowns, will start next year.

The cause of the disturbing situation lies in the ownership of the objects. Either the owners are simply not aware of how precious their possessions are, or in the case there are more owners, it proves difficult or even impossible to arrive at an agreement how to save the landmark. Another reason may be speculation – the buildings are intentionally left to fall into disrepair so that they can be then rebuilt. Fortunately, this scenario seems to be only very rare.

“Summer in the town” project will have in August a part that will certainly be appreciated by all movie-goers. Namesti Miru in Vinohrady quarter will turn three times into an open-air cinema.

On three August Wednesdays (concretely 16, 23 and 30) the square will turn into a cinema offering very interesting films. The first film will be Stesti (Happiness) followed by Divoke Vcely (Wild Bees) and for the last evening the organisers planned Fahrenheit 9/11.

Given the lovely architecture of the buildings surrounding the square such as the Vinohrady Theatre or the dominant brick Neo-Gothic Church of St Ludmila in conjunction with the interesting programme, the open-air cinema does certainly need not fear a lack of interest.

In the case you would like to have a pleasant break in the middle of the week, it must be added that all of the films start at half past eight and the entrance is free.

The estimates of the number of people coming to Hradiste in Doupovske mountains for Czechtek 2006 were confirmed – altogether there were around forty thousand techno fans there. CzechTek thus became one of the biggest events of its kind in the whole Czech Republic. The participants travelled also from the neighbouring Austria, Germany and Slovakia as well as from further away – for example England or Italy.

During Sunday but mainly in the evening and throughout the night almost two thirds of all of the participants left. Practically half of the sound systems is gone as well. Nevertheless, the area is rented for one more week. Therefore, the party still continues for some.

Some of the interviewed people complained that the festival loses its atmosphere. Certainly without the secrecy about its location till the very last minute the festival is accessible in a much easier way. Therefore, some commented that some of the dancers would not have come, had CzechTek not been officially pre-announced. There were also observations that the festival attracted much more young people.

This year’s CzechTek will be remembered for its smoothness. Nonetheless, the doctors were rather busy treating almost two hundred injuries. The most serious seems to be the claim of a 17-year-old girl who fears someone might have abused her while she was asleep.

Divoka Sarka valley (free translation: Wild Sarka) was the location of the famous open-air theatre from the beginning of the last century. The tradition will be revived on Sunday 3 September, when the visitors will have the opportunity to listen to the soloists from the National Theatre performing their interpretation of one of the most famous operas by Smetana – The Bartered Bride.

The out-door theatre opened one year before the First World War and offered a possibility to combine a trip to a lovely nature park with an unforgettable cultural experience till the year 1922. It was very popular and offered varied programme including theatre performances as well as operas. Ten thousand viewers could take a seat and further eight thousand could watch the performances whilst standing.

This year’s performance of the Bartered Bride is not the first one since the tradition, aiming to bring life to the formerly unique area, started last summer. Nevertheless, this one was said to be very likely the last one. Therefore, the opportunity for all those who love opera or want to experience something unusual should not be missed.

Around two hundred students from forty different countries including Japan, China or The United States came to Prague to study the Czech language and culture. The jubilee fiftieth Summer School of Slavonic Studies organized by the Charles University will also include the fifth symposium about the Czech language.

The participants were divided into different groups given the level they are at. The beginners could choose the language they want to be taught in – for example English, French, German or another Slavonic Language. This suggests that there are both beginners, who are just starting with the Czech language, but also advanced students desiring to deepen their knowledge. The teaching staff consist of professors and will also include specialists from the Czech Academy of Science.

The motivation of the participants differs – some of them are children of emigrants or simply people with Czech roots who do not want to loose their cultural heritage. Apart from the language courses, lectures and seminars of choice, there will also be very entertaining cultural programme such as evenings with music and films or trips to different parts of the Czech Republic. The focus of the summer school is not only language but also literature, history and other aspects of culture.

Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses took place at Strahov stadium this weekend. There were altogether twenty thousand believers, who travelled to Prague from all over the world – there were reportedly eight thousand English-speaking members. Others came from Estonia, Croatia or for example Greece.

The programme of the convention included baptisms of approximately 150 new members – majority of whom were female. The baptisms took place in two pools since the whole body must plunge into water. There were also a lecture and a theatre performance.

An intense campaign took place prior to the convention during which the members tried to invite as many people as possible. This infamous missionary door-to-door work became associated with Jehovah’s Witnesses. With over six million followers worldwide they are often considered to be a sect.

One of the criticisms is that the organisation cuts the social links of the members with the outside world – the so called separation. Their infamous customs include refusal to take a blood transfusion under all circumstances. They also cannot own or even salute to national flag or to stand for national anthem. Jehovah’s Witnesses also do not celebrate birthday or holy days such as Easter or Christmas.

Incheba Prague will invest more than half a billion Czech crowns into the Exhibition Grounds till the end of the next year. The investment will be directed into the construction of a new exhibition hall with more than fifteen thousand square metres for presentation and exhibition purposes.

The works were supposed to be finished already by the end of this year but the company still lacks some of the needed documents to start the project. The building works thus had to be postponed. The hall will also require complementary infrastructure such as roads.

The current appearance of the grounds will be affected not only by the new hall itself. For example, the area around the famous Krizik Singing Fountain will also be altered.

Preparations for the thirteenth techno music festival CzechTek are reaching their peek. Most of the sound systems are by now positioned. Some of them are already playing the hard industrial electronic music, the rest is still being put together to play and produce light shows during the climax of the festival this weekend.

The situation this morning was rather surprising in a sense that there were only two to three thousand techno fans on the site whereas the expectations were much higher as was reported previously. The reason may be the change in the way the festival is being organised – with the aid of the state. All of the previous years were characterized by a great deal of concealment. Both the time and the place were kept secret until the very last minute and the information was spreading through secret web pages.

The visitors, many of whom are travelling from abroad, praise the festival for its uniquely friendly atmosphere and a sense of freedom. Some of the foreigners will not be able to enjoy the music, though. Police held up at the border people heading for the festival who had hashish and cocaine with them. The latter was meant not only for private use but also for further distribution.

Police do not want to be concrete about the numbers of policemen ready to go on duty. Allegedly, it is as many as will be needed. Fire-fighters will also be alert because, given the current hot weather, the meadows and forests are extremely dry. Any cigarette end could thus result in fire with possible catastrophic consequences.

River City Prague will be a complex of five modern buildings bearing names of big rivers. Its location is the bank of river Vltava (district Karlin) opposite to the Island Stvanice. Danube and Nile Houses are already finished and it was announced that construction of their Amazon counterpart shall start in the course of the coming few weeks. The finishing date was set as the year 2008.

The administrative building with seven floors and additional two underground stories should contain a restaurant, a cafe as well as fitness and parking places. The cost of the house, named after the largest river on Earth, was estimated as one bn crowns, which constitutes a quarter of the entire expenses for the River City.

Another part of the project, to be completed by 2010, is also a four star hotel Yukon Residence. It should offer accommodation in apartments mainly for long-term use. A footbridge to Stvanice island belongs to the building plans as well.

River Town Prague, formerly named and still known as “Holesovicka trznice” market, offers dancing courses tomorrow. In the case learning dances such as samba, merenga or disco dances belongs on your wish list, there is a great opportunity to try mastering the moves tomorrow.

There will be two time slots – one in the morning between 10 and 12 hours and the other one in the early afternoon starting at one o’clock and lasting for an hour.

This dancing course belongs to the cultural programme that takes place in the marketplace regularly since mid-July. The first of the activities and events for the whole family was a beach party.

The programme might help to change the image of the place which is also the aim of the new investor. The formerly chaotic market filled with Asian stalls will be transformed radically. It will be much cleaner and the stalls shall be also much nicer. Apart from the traditional market there will also be shops, restaurants and many entertainment and other free time opportunities.

Czech palaeontologists returned to Prague after spending almost one month in the area of Gobi desert, Mongolia. Their stay was a part of Expedition Gobi 06-09 and brought success. The experts discovered several skeletons of dinosaurs as well as hundreds of bones belonging to these primeval creatures in the valley Nemegt.

The discoveries are, for the time being, to stay in Mongolia but the scientists noted down their location carefully. The aim of the expedition, lasting till the year 2009, is to bring back to the Czech Republic a skeleton of a dinosaur. It should find its home in a new Prague museum devoted to history of the Earth. The museum will be associated with the famous Charles University – more specifically with its Faculty of Science.

There will be therefore future cooperation between Czech palaeontologists and their Mongolian colleagues so that the objective of the participants of the expedition can come true.

A special replication of a historical crane has appeared at the Prague Castle and immediately won a great deal of attention on the side of the visitors. The machine was built using traditional methods, tools and also materials – it is mostly wooden and the metal components were made by blacksmith.

It imitates cranes used during the medieval ages – more specifically its original would be found at the Castle (helping the craftsmen to built St Vitus’s Cathedral) under the reign of Wenceslas IV. The driving mechanism of the machine is rather simple – the energy was provided by human muscles helping to rotate the giant wheel. Volunteers had the opportunity to “go for a walk” and lift thus a burden weighing two hundred kilogrammes. In the future it will also be possible for the brave ones to be raised twelve metres and enjoy thus the Cathedral from bird’s perspective.

The crane belongs to the exhibition The Story of the Prague Castle and will be “in action” also on 7th and 14th August as well as on certain September days. Not only can you try to manipulate the crane but there will also be an opportunity to learn more about the way these machines were used in the middle ages. Afterwards the functional attraction will be moved to castle Tocnik to aid with the renovation works there.

This year’s festival continues with the tradition established by its five very successful predecessors that managed to gain thousands of fans. According to the initial plan the festival should have taken place near Lipno dam in south Bohemia. This intention could not be realized due to insufficient financial resources.

The festival thus moves downstream Vltava river to the very heart of Prague. The programme was condensed into one day and the opening of the event is planned on Sunday’s (30th July) afternoon.

The main stars of the festival will be Canned Heat from the US. Their blues-rock hits have earned world fame and their “Going Up The Country” is considered to be an unofficial anthem of the legendary Woodstock festival. The Czech music scene will be represented for example by 123 Minutes.

The cheapest tickets can be obtained in summer cinema on the same island for three hundred crowns. You will have to dig deeper into your pocket for a ticket “on the door” as it will cost one hundred crowns more.

Four hundred contestants representing seventy countries will compete in Prague from 2nd till 6th August for the title of the world champion in slalom racing. The competition returns to the Czech Republic after almost forty years.

The organisers count with an extraordinary interest of the public. The reason is that the Czechs have never returned from this competition without a medal. Therefore, the beginning of August in Troja offers an unprecedented opportunity to witness the victory of Czech representatives “at home”. Our most famous competitor will be Stepanka Hilgertova who won twice at the Olympic games – in Atlanta and Sydney.

Organizers thus decided to extend the capacity of stands and provide additional 300 places. Other “extras” awaiting the watchers and participants include a renovated boathouse, new gyms as well as restaurants and climbing walls. The evening opening ceremony takes place on Tuesday 1st August at Krizik Fountain and the programme includes Vangelis, Smetana’s Vltava and fireworks.

Given the fact that slalom racing is an Olympic discipline, this championship may be seen as a stepping stone which enables Prague to move closer to the organisation of the Olympic games themselves. Prague contemplates candidature for organising the games in 2016 or four years later.

More about the whole event can be accessed at the official pages of the championship.

Go Unplugged competition starts in Zlute lazne (“Yellow Spa”) today in the evening. A total of nineteen amateur music bands entered the competition. They will compete on successive Thursdays for the main prize of one thousand dollars. The winner will be also given an opportunity to release own CD. Furthermore, the band will also shoot its own clip.

The winner will be chosen by the audience of the concerts. Starting from today, every Thursday between 17 and 22 hours four bands will perform on the stage of Go Zlute Lazne. The music styles will vary and will include for example rock or jazz. The voting stops on 20th August and the final evening will take place four days later. If you would like to listen to possible future stars, you may be interested to learn that all of the concerts are free.

Repair of the longest embankment, measuring 1.3 kilometres, has finally reached, with the opening of the last section, its end. The cost of reconstruction of the waterfront, which celebrated its hundredth birthday, exceeded three hundred million crowns. The entire renovation lasted ten years and took place under the careful supervision of conservationists since the area is protected.

The opening of the embankment was accompanied by an exhibition of the objects found during the works. There were for example an iron, porcelain statutes, a broken cavalry sword or a massive brass shell and other weapons. Two hand-grenades were also discovered – one of them was luckily harmless but the second one caused evacuation and a pyrotechnist had to be called to deactivate it. The objects also included a mysterious 1.5 metres large decorative stone.

Other embankments are to be reconstructed in the future. Some people would appreciate if these parts of Prague could play a larger role in the city life and be for example dotted with lovely cafes. They might become a calm oasis in this way.

Queuing cars without any tension or swear words filled yesterday Letna plain. What may seem even more perplexing is that the vehicles queued voluntarily. The enigma disappears when we remind you about the event that was reported about recently – free check up for tachometers.

The vehicles had to drive through a shown track and keep the speed at 50 kilometres per hour. Most drivers were surprised to find out that their speedometers actually showed mostly 3 – 5 kilometres more than what was measured by the police radar. Therefore, keeping the speed at the allowed limit for the urban area ensured drivers were actually safely underneath it. The European norm gives the tachometers ten per cent tolerance but the upper limit is deviation of six kilometres per hour.

This opportunity was used by eight hundred cars which was for the organizers rather unexpected given the hot weather. They therefore decided to continue with measuring at the same place each whole Wednesday till the end of the holidays in the case the interest persists.

This measuring should not only be understood as a test of the functioning of tachometers. The drivers should trust their cars more and thus also keep eyes more on the road rather than checking the speed constantly.

Tropical weather, which has settled in Prague, acts as an irresistible invitation to spending one’s free time in or at least near water. One of the places where these cravings can be satiated is Prague’s beach along the embankment of Vltava river in the fifth Prague district. It is needless to say that beach definitely does not suffer from a lack of interest. Nevertheless, problems about its building permission have surfaced recently.

Next year should bring a pleasant alternation in a sense that the first town district also wants to have its own sandy beach. Its location should be the riverside Na Frantisku which can be found between Cechuv and Stefanikuv bridges. Sadly, you have to wait for this new bit of paradise till the next summer because the waterfront is still under reconstruction planned to terminate in September.

Prague municipality with Czech Airlines shared the costs of a new advertising campaign promoting Prague that has just appeared on CNN. The price of the campaign was six million crowns which is a very good deal from the famous channel broadcasting into many countries of Europe, Africa as well as Middle East. The likelihood it will bring success is enhanced by the fact that CNN usually presents countries rather than cities and Prague is thus bound to stand out. CNN actually offered to show two advertising spots (each lasting 30 seconds) for the price of one. The advertisements will appear 24 times per week for three months.

The city used the opportunity and targets with each of the two ads a different group of potential tourists. One of the spots is directed more at entertainment and shows Prague as a dynamic and friendly metropolis. The other one is more traditional and contains shots of the Golden Lane or Krizik fountain on the background of the historical panorama. The aim is to lure into Prague well-educated and wealthy tourists of all age groups. The participation of Czech airlines can be explained by the mutual benefit of a higher number of tourists coming to Prague both for the city and the airlines.

This campaign is first ever on such a massive scale and is believed to be a good marketing move that should increase the revenue from tourism. Every tenth tourists makes his decision to travel based on some visual representation of his future destination. Prague with Paris are the most dramatically expanding touristic areas and the increasing interest in Prague’s case is attributable mainly to Asian tourists.

Hot weather is almost synonymous with an invitation to go for a swim. Sadly, it is also associated with the spread of the dangerous water bacteria. River swimming places thus cannot be sure about the future quality of their water. Nevertheless, there is something quite certain – they make up for it with additional programme.

For example, Zlute lazne (free translation: Yellow spa) has a unique skating ring with artificial surface. It is probably your only chance to wear bathing suit and ice skates at the same time without asking for pneumonia. If you fear the looks of the passers by as you head off for your swim holding skates, you can borrow them at the place.

Fans of winter sports also had a chance to witness snowboardists and skiers jumping to Vltava river from eight-meter high yesterday. This was a part of Watermania 2006.

In the case you missed this event and truly love winter sports, you can try bobsleighs on a 800 meters long track in Prosek. For more than one minute you can enjoy summer “bob-sleighing” at a speed that can approach scary 60 kilometres per hour there.

Congress hall of the Czech National Bank is the place, where descendants of Czech nobility meet tomorrow. This event constitutes a part of celebrations organised to commemorate the anniversary of the dying-out of a royal dynasty of the Premyslids seven hundred years ago.

They will festively receive the commemorative coin issued by the bank you could read about two days ago. We thank this dynasty for the very establishment of the Czech kingdom.

The guests coming to the celebrations, which are going to last two days and are to take place in Palace gardens, bear famous names such as Schwarzenberg, Lobkowitz, Waldstein or Czernin. Czech castles and mansions lent for the occasion portraits of the Premyslids and other important royals to be exhibited in the Gallery of Ledebursky palace.