In Focus | All stories

Mountain Bike Action magazine has been published the US since the 1980s and has become a symbol of excellence in reporting on everything from the world’s best trails and adventure biking to technical reviews and tests. The magazine is on now on just its 3rd issue in Czech.

The City of Prague Gallery was given custodianship of the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace in Prague’s Old Town a few years ago. The gallery is finally ready to open the building to the public, and possibly make it one of its main exhibition and educational sites. Radio Prague headed over to the palace to speak with the team that is working on its new appearance.

The frightening and desolate border separating western Europe from the Communist countries for some 40 years is now being made into a new 10,000-kilometer long cycling path, full of unique natural and historical landmarks, going from northern Finland to southern Bulgaria. Part of the Iron Curtain Trail in the Czech Republic began to be marked out a couple of weeks ago. Radio Prague spoke to Daniel Mourek from the Partnerství Foundation who is the coordinator for the Central European part of the route and asked him about the background of the Iron

A one-of-a-kind instrument called raketon made its first public appearance three years ago in a museum exhibit, but this week it had its debut in a contemporary classical music concert, together with Prague’s Berg Orchestra. I had a chance to speak to Raketon’s inventor Michal Cimala and to composer Jakub Rataj who mastered this simple and elegant instrument and wrote the first orchestral piece that includes it. Both of them perform on the raketon as well by plucking, striking and touching its two strings with bows, mallets and even milk

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

The Prague-based Days of European Film Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. In addition the usual program of thought-provoking films from all over Europe, the organizers have introduced a new section of the festival and will hold special events in Prague to celebrate. The festival is starting this week, so for today’s In Focus Radio Prague caught up with the program coordinator, Zdeněk Blaha, and asked him about the highlights planned for this anniversary year of the festival:

Next Sunday, over 12,000 people will participate in the Prague Half Marathon, the precursor to the internationally renowned full Prague Marathon, which takes place in mid May. The man who has made possible these events – and many more runs around the Czech Republic – is Carlo Capalbo, an Italian businessman who has been living in Prague for over two decades.

A new documentary entitled Hledá se prezident (Looking for president) offers an insight into the first ever direct Czech presidential election which brought Miloš Zeman to Prague Castle. The behind-the-scenes film, which has just premiered in Czech cinemas, follows the candidates from the summer of 2012, when the campaign was just beginning, right up to the heated run-off vote in January. I spoke to the film’s director, Tomáš Kudrna, and first asked him about his choice of material that made it to the final cut.

The Czech Republic has been experiencing a sort of mini baby boom for the past six or so years, with one of the first generations of well-educated Czech women deciding to put off motherhood until their thirties. These mothers, who had held high-level jobs, travelled around the world and started their own businesses before having their first child, have initially enjoyed the government-subsidized maternity leave, but for many of them this benefit turned into a burden.

Visitors to the Czech capital may not know their names and roles, but puppets and marionettes are an indelible presence on the streets of old Prague. Some have even claimed that puppetry is one of the few original national traditions that the Czech Republic can present to the world.