Panorama | All stories

People come to the South Moravian town of Mikulov, located right on the border with Austria, for many things – historic monuments, folklore, and wine. But only few would expect that the town boasts a large collection of contemporary art, created during 15 years of summer art symposiums. The Mikulov Art Symposium “dílna” or workshop concluded its 15th year at the weekend with an exhibition of this year’s works at Mikulov chateau.

In this edition of Panorama we meet some of those teaching and studying Czech at two of New York’s most prestigious universities. Our first stop is Columbia University, where Professor Christopher Harwood teaches both the Czech language and Czech studies. How do enrolments compare for both classes?

Old red and white trams are just as much a part of the Czech capital as Prague Castle or Charles Bridge. The metro is definitely faster and more comfortable, but it doesn’t offer the same views as trams do. Besides, the metro stops at midnight while trams can carry you home at any time of the day and night, that is of course, if you live close enough to the railway tracks. So, when did trams first appear in the streets of Prague? And what is it like to be at the controls of a tram?

The first New York Sokol opened its doors in 1867, only five years after the Sokol youth and gymnastics organisation was founded in Prague as an important element in the Czech National Revival nationalist movement. Sokol New York’s homely sports and social hall is on East 71st St in Manhattan. But that wasn’t the group’s first location.

One thing you can hardly fail to notice if you visit Prague is the number of dogs in the streets. According to recent statistics, nearly 40 percent of people here in the Czech Republic own a dog, which is more than in France, Britain or Germany. More than 20 percent of those who don’t have a dog yet are actually thinking about getting one in the future, suggests research by the Median agency. So, why exactly are Czechs a nation of dog lovers? And what do they expect from their furry friends?

What should you do when the heat, the dust, and the stuffiness of the capital all gets too much? Well, for this week’s Panorama, I left Prague in a bid to make my own ice cream. But before you start thinking that I swapped Prague for Pisa, or Palermo or Perugia, well, stop. My journey took me much less far afield. To the outskirts of Brno, to be precise.

Many in the Czech Republic, which is home to the first pilsner, believe Czech beer is the best in the world. In the past, Czech brewers shared their expertise with the rest of world and breweries in countries as distant as Colombia, the United States, Turkey and Venezuela were built by Czech engineers. In this edition of Panorama, we look at the art of Czech brewing today.

Astoria in the borough of Queens is where you will find the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden, a Czech pub and social centre which first opened its doors in 1919. Today it offers one of the very few large spaces for al fresco drinking in the whole of New York, a fact reflected in extremely long queues to get in during the summer months.

The sound of a golf club hitting a ball has become an increasingly familiar sound as more and more Czechs take to a new pastime – golf. Until fairly recently, most Czechs thought “handicap” only meant a disadvantage and “green” stood for nothing else but the colour. Not any more. According to a recent survey conducted by the KPMG agency, more than half of all the golf courses in post-communist Europe are located in the Czech Republic. While in the early 1990s there were only about 5 golf courses to choose from, now there are close to 80 of them.

Writers from all over the world gathered in Prague this week to recall the strange days of 1968. The Prague Writers’ Festival, which was originally set up to promote Central European writing abroad, attracted a larger-than-ever number of authors to the Czech capital – here to recall the Prague Spring of 1968, as well as what they themselves were up to, the year that shook the world.