By Peter Casper

This week's Prague Post takes on the rather disturbing issue of illegal advertrising boards at Prague's Old Town Square. As Lenka Studnickova writes in her article, most of the boards are illegal but that's not slowing their growth. Posters - also illegal - cover the facades, garbage cans as well as lampposts and the metal barriers of provisional construction sights. And while the boards and posters promote cultural events and therefore serve the tourist industry, local citizens would prefer a more tidy neighbourhood. The City Hall claims that its up to the police to fight illegal advertising, the policy says its helpless due to insufficient laws and the advertising companies? Well, they argue that they have to use illegal methods due to lack of advertising space and the impossibility to do their business legaly. In a word - this is a fine mess. Prague's Mayor Jan Koukal calls for more restrictions against illegal advertising in the historical centre of our capital. Karel Zrout of the City Hall's transportation dept. confirmed that each day a dozen controllers hit the streets of Prague in search for illegal adds and most of all - their owners.

But the punishment for breaking the law is not very impressive - the fine of 1,000 Crowns is equal to 33 USD and bound to make little impression on the culprits. Statements that some advertisers face a fine of up to 500,000 Crowns will probably never be more than statements - which is quite typical for the country where law is usually at the end of its rope. As the Prague Post notes, the City Hall annually receives hundreds of requests, but permits only the boards that are leaned against the walls of businesses. Boards advertising cultural venues are allowed 48 hours before each performance. And while police officials have serious doubts about the efforts of their City Hall counterparts, Mayor Koukal objects that policemen must radically pursue those who misuse public space. In the long run, it will take more than a few words and a few days to change the situation to better. After all - advertising is big business and as one advertiser told the Prague Post: It's the most aggressive ones who win today.

While advertising in Prague's historical centre might prove a problem for the many months to come, there is a sport completely new to Czechs that's bound to do a lot better. Czechs are widely open to new ideas and it seems they might also be open to playing cricket. The Prague Cricket Club is so far strictly a foreign affair. As the Prague Post informs, the club's 40 members are from Britain and other cricket worshipping parts of the world like the West Indies, Pakistan and India. But the club is eager to recruit Czechs who are known to be excellent in technical sports. The Prague cricket team plays a match once in two weeks but weekly meetings of club members are held at a pub in Old Town every Wednesday. Referring to the tea and cucumber sandwiches that are served on game days, American Hal Bame calls cricket the facade of civilized behavior. But it's really just an excuse to drink all day long, adds the club's "token American". The club held its first two 11-a-side matches in mid-May against a visiting team that consisted of German and Austrian players. The Prague club won by two wickets despite the antics of Bame, who dropped his bat after hitting the ball. His fellow players recall being very confused, supposing it was something Hal used to do when playing baseball. In cricket however, you keep the bat when you run. Prague's first cricket club is sponsored by the British CODA Software company and it will play matches this Summer in the Czech capital and other Central European cities, concluded the Prague Post.

And to end with we once open this week's Prague Post where visitors to our ancient capital have a chance to unmask the origin of Prague's many bridges. Now we don't have time enough to feature the entire story and so, at least let's take a look at the names of these bridges. In the South, right next to historical Vysehrad we see the Railway Bridge from 1901 and we can do without explaining the name or purpose in this case. Further North, the Rasin Embankement is connected with the opposite Smichov by two bridges named after outstanding cultural personalities. Palacky Bridge from 1876 bears the name of Frantisek Palacky, historian and patriot who played an important role in the 19 century nationalist awakening of the Czech nation.

The giant Palacky monument on Palacky Square shows that this personality really dominates the neighbourhood. Just a little North we come across Jirasek bridge - finished in 1933 and called after that great author of "Old Czech Legends" and the father of the modern Czech historical novel. And just like the case with Palacky Bridge, even Alois Jirasek has a monument to go with the bridge. Next to the National Theatre we see the Legions' Bridge. It came to Prague together with the new century and it was finished in 1901. Called originaly First of May Bridge in honor of the annual Labour Day, it was renamed after WWI to Legions' Bridge to commemorate those who fought for Czech independence during the war. Renamed back to First of May Bridge after the Second World War, the name once again changed in 1990 when it was back to the Legions. Slightly confusing, unlike the story of Prague's oldest bridge. Charles Bridge was built in the years 1357 to 1383 on the order of King and Emperor Charles IV but it has only borne this ruler's name since 1870. Before it was always refered to as the Stone Bridge. The next on the list - if you keep to the North - is Manes Bridge from 1914 dedicated in fact to two generations of painters. Father Antonin Manes and his more famous son Josef were both great artists and they surely deserve to be honored. Under the Letna hill is the shortest of Prague's bridges, a fine piece of work from 1908, that was named after author Svatopluk Cech. Not far away is Sverma Bridge that was constructed in the late 1960s.

As the Prague Post notes, many city landmarks honoring communists were renamed after the revolution, but this bridge has kept its original name. The likely reason is that communist Jan Sverma died while fighting the Nazis in Slovakia in 1944 and he therefore had no doing in the events that followed the communist coup in 1948. To the North, we also have two bridges that stretch across Stvanice island. The Cubist concrete Hlavka Bridge from 1910 is named in memory of architect Jan Hlavka, the good benefactor of Prague's students and father of the Academy of Sciences. Next to it, the Negrelli Railroad Bridge from 1850, second oldest in Prague, still bears the name of its maker, Alois Negrelli from Switzerland.

Of the remaining bridges, most are called after the local neighbourhoods like the Liben Bridge, Troja Bridge, Nusle Bridge or the most modern Barrandov Bridge. The one exception is the Barricaders' Bridge called this way in honor of the brave Pragovites who defended this river crossing in 1945 against the fleeing Nazi SS troops and members of Hitler's infamous Gestapo, all of whom tried to escape the advancing Soviet armies as well as the anger of the Czech citizens. So that was a brief look at bridges in Prague, the last of today's items and I can only add the usual - that's all from the weeklies.