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One of the recipients of this year’s Gratias Agit Awards, handed out by the Foreign Ministry to those promoting a good name of the Czech Republic abroad, was Milan Kroupa, a Czech born businessman living in Canada. Mr Kroupa left Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and after making his way to Canada, he established his own cleaning company, which is currently offering services in all of the country' provinces. Besides that, Mr Kroupa supports a number of activities by Czech compatriot organisations and is one of the main sponsors of the Czech Studies Funds,

At a gala ceremony on Friday, the Czech Foreign Ministry handed out the annual Gratias Agit awards to 16 people, Czech expatriates as well as foreigners, who are promoting the good name of the Czech Republic abroad. This year’s recipients included former gymnast and legendary athlete Věra Čáslavská, Czech-Amercian writer and illustrator Petr Sís, and ballet dancers Jiří and Otto Bubeníček.

How to teach your children the Czech language and maintain it in an environment where everyone speaks English? That is a big question for the Czech expatriate community living in the United States. Marta McCabe, a Czech teacher who moved to North Carolina, decided to deal with the issue by establishing a Czech and Slovak School in the town of Durham – the first organisation of its kind in that state. I met Marta McCabe on her recent visit to Prague to talk about the Czech community in North Carolina and about the school she founded. But I first

Most tourists visiting the Czech capital converge on just a few spots in the city, crowding the streets along the so-called Royal Route that leads from through the Old Town Square to Charles Bridge – missing out on many other interesting places that Prague has to offer. Now, city councillors from the district Prague 7 have decided to change that. Last week they announced their plan to become the city’s new cultural district with an alternative to the Royal Route.

A former Red Army military training ground in Ralsko in North Bohemia has been declared the Czech Republic's largest geopark. The area, which has been left largely intact since the withdrawal of Soviet troops after the fall of the Iron Curtain, covers an area of some 300 square kilometres and offers an island of unspoilt nature just an hour’s drive from Prague.

This years’ Magnesia Litera Award for best blog went to Humans of Prague, a website featuring street portraits and interviews collected in the streets of the Czech capital. Established three years ago by Tomáš Princ, the blog has to this day featured over one thousand portraits and has attracted over 88,000 Facebook followers.

Could you be happy without alcohol? Have you ever had sex with a stranger? Would you participate in an uprising against those in power? These are just some of the nearly 150 questions covering a large range of subjects given to people aged 18 to 34 across Europe within a project called Generation What. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union along with national broadcasters, the aim of project is to offer a unique look into the mind-set and realities of life of young Europeans today. For the first time this year, the Czech Republic joined as

A new book, which has just been released by the PositiF publishing house, is mapping the phenomenon of the so-called Šumperák, probably the most famous family house design in Communist Czechoslovakia. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the house was replicated in towns and villages all over the country and to this day, there are an estimated 4,000 Šumperáks to be found across the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Photographer and art historian Tomáš Pospěch travelled around the country to map the phenomenon and trace the history of the popular house. Ruth

Over the past year and half, the Czech National Library has been carrying out a unique research project documenting books confiscated or dispossessed and brought to Czechoslovakia during World War II or shortly afterwards. Many of the books got lost, while others lay scattered in the archives all over the country for decades. Now, the National Library has uncovered at least part of the collection to map the books’ history and trace their original owners.

A recent comparative study by the World Health Organisation shows that some 80 percent of Czech schoolchildren do not get enough physical activity. As a result a growing number of them suffer from excessive weight and obesity. Czech children are also high on the list in alcohol consumption and smoking cigarettes and marihuana.