Spotlight | All stories

In this week's Spotlight, we visit the picturesque little village Svaty Jan pod Skalou, some thirty km southwest of Prague and only nine kilometres away from the popular gothic Karlstejn Castle. Despite a population of only 120, Svaty Jan pod Skalou, translated into Saint John under the Cliff, boasts a large number of beautifully preserved historical monuments. This, thanks to the efforts of the St. John Society, which was established by local inhabitants after the fall of Communism to restore and bring back to life the treasures, left unattended

Just a few weeks ago it looked like winter was on the run in the Czech Republic - now it is back with a vengeance. It happens that I'm visiting, the snow - covered town of Pelhrimov, a town I've been to before, but never like this. Tires spin hopelessly as an old Skoda car tries to pull onto the road; crowds stand huddled as they wait for a morning bus, and on the town's main square: boots crunch on the snow as locals cross in front of the famous rows of Baroque Burgher's Houses, like so many mysterious figures in something of a Breugal landscape.

I've come today to the industrial town of Kladno, around 25 kilometres west of Prague. The first recorded mention of Kladno comes from the middle of the 14th century when it was a village owned by the Kladensky family. Centuries later it was bought by the Benedictine monks from the Brevnov monastery, who were its owners until 1848.

When you ask Czechs to describe the North Bohemian town of Most, the most common answer is a grey mining town that expelled its entire native German population after the Second World War and offers few things to do or see. But fact is that Most, with its population of over 68,000, is today a thriving place that offers several noteworthy sights and plenty to do.

In this week's Spotlight we take you to one of Prague's most remarkable locations, Wenceslas Square, that expansive boulevard that features some of the city's most significant architecture as well as the most famous of all Czech monuments: a monument to the country's patron saint Wenceslas on horseback, that witnessed all the turmoil of modern Czech history: from the birth of the Czechoslovak state, to the Soviet-led invasion, to the fall of communism in 1989. A square that is also not without controversy: with far too many casinos and prostitutes

Last month, many Prague residents were surprised to learn that their very own Na Prikope Street, one of the most picturesque avenues found smack in the city centre, had finished 18th in a survey gauging the most expensive streets in the world, most sought-after by retailers willing to pay the highest rents. The survey, called Main Streets Across the World, prepared annually by real estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker, ranked avenues like Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and London's Oxford Street in the top five, as the most expensive

Just a stone's throw from Prague's Charles Bridge, on the Old Town side of the Vltava, stands the Clementinum, after Prague Castle the biggest complex of historical buildings in the city. Named after a church on the site dedicated to St Clement, the Clementinum was established by the Jesuits in the middle of the 16th century. After centuries as a college, it is now home to the Czech National Library and the main Prague weather station.

There's a picturesque little town of Nove Hrady in southern Bohemia, close to the Czech-Austrian border. The town dates as far back as the 13th century when a settlement developed around a sentry castle along a trail leading from Austria to Bohemia. Until the early 17th century, Nove Hrady belonged to the Rozmberk, or Rosenberg, family. It was almost razed to the ground during the Hussite wars and was damaged even more in the Thirty Year War.

In this week's Spotlight we visit the Czech military field hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. The commander of the hospital, doctors, nurses and other staff tell us about the conditions in which they work, what kind of work they do, how they get on with the locals (and each other) and what they have learned from the experience.

In today's edition of Spotlight, Dita Asiedu visits the little village of Hrcava. Hidden in the Beskydy Mountains in the Moravian-Silesian region, it is the easternmost village in the country. And although Hrcava lies at the end of a long and windy road uphill, it is well worth a visit as, once you get there, you find one of the most beautiful landscapes in the country with a breathtaking view of neighbouring Poland and Slovakia.