Spotlight | All stories

For this week's Spotlight we travel to East Bohemia, to a small but very old town called Opocno, not far from the Polish border.

This week, we'll be visiting the town of Jihlava, which is located at the very border of Bohemia and Moravia, dividing the eastern and western parts of the Czech Republic. In fact, no-one knows which of the two regions it belongs to and town residents agree that it spreads over both of them. Jihlava has a population of 53,000 and its earliest written record dates back to the 12th century when it was founded thanks to the discovery of silver.

Castolovice is a little town with a beautiful rennaissance castle situated in flat wooded countryside in East Bohemia about 20km from the town of Hradec Kralove. The special atmosphere of the place strikes you straight away as you walk through the castle gate.

Southeast Bohemia's Landstejn Castle found south-east of Jindrichuv Hradec, close to the Czech - Moravian - Austrian border, remains one of the Czech Republic's most imposing structures. The famous Romanesque ruin, originally designed to protect Bohemia's frontiers as well as to guard an ancient trade route to Austria, was built in the early 13th century.

In this week's Spotlight, we visit the Ondrejov Observatory 35km south-east of Prague, where some 50 scientists are busy solving the mysteries of the universe. The observatory has been part of the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic since 1953 and houses the biggest telescope in Central Europe. It's open to the public every weekend in the summer from 9 a.m.

The development of stone castles was significant in the thirteenth century Bohemia - in what is today the Czech Republic. The Castle of Cesky Sternberk is a classic example: it is a long string of early gothic buildings and is wonderfully situated in the scenic countryside of Central Bohemia, southeast of Prague. It is also extremely unusual in that through the centuries it has been under the almost continuous ownership of the Sternberk family. The castle embodies eight centuries of Czech history and for me what brought to life early historical

In this fortnight's Spotlight we meet members of the Czech community in Stockholm, including people who emigrated from Czechoslovakia after the Soviet Invasion, and members of the younger generation. How did they find adjusting to life in Sweden? What about the language? Do their children speak Czech? And what are the best and worst things about life in the Swedish capital?

Last week saw the return of the annual Khamoro festival to Prague, an event of the highest calibre celebrating both Romani music and Roma culture. Over six days visitors were able to attend performances by bands from thirteen different countries, as well as photographic exhibitions and expert seminars on Roma identity and tradition.

For today's Spotlight we've come to the town of Lounovice pod Blanikem, pod Blanikem meaning "under Blanik", a mountain associated with some of the most colourful and famous of Czech legends. They say the story of the Knights of Blanik was first told to Charles IV by a blind young man, who was travelling through his kingdom.

This week's edition of Spotlight comes from Vysoka, some sixty kilometres south of Prague. Vysoka is now home to a memorial for the famous Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. A five minute walk away, lays the magical Rusalka Lake, where Dvorak drew inspiration for his famous opera of the same name and for over thirty more works for some two decades of his life. On the opposite end of the village sits Rusalka Villa, Dvorak's country house. At first sight, Vysoka may appear to be just a tiny little village in the Czech countryside but after taking a closer