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Prague’s wealth of traditional coffeehouses is a legacy from the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But even in today’s hectic time, grabbing a quick cup on the run is fortunately not the only option for coffee lovers in the Czech capital. Probably the best-known café in the golden city is Kavárna Slavia, or Café Slavia. We recently visited this traditional coffeehouse.

Standing atop of a small hill, with a tramline swooping around it, punctuated by a baroque Roman Catholic church on one side and a modernist Hussite church on the other, Rangherka, or the small Vršovice château, contains within its own story the history of the surrounding district as well. The original building was put up just as the then village of Vršovice began to grow and develop rapidly. Now, unlike the surrounding neighbourhood, it is a sad sight. The prominent neo-renaissance building is in ruins, with reconstruction having dragged on for

Nestled between busy Wenceslas Square and Prague’s number one tourist destination, Old Town Square, the House of the Black Madonna houses a small museum of Cubism as well as the only surviving Cubist café in the world – the Grand Café Orient, which was renovated between 2002 and 2005.

The Basilica of St. Procopius in Třebíč is one of only 12 places in the Czech Republic inscribed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. In this edition of Spotlight we’ll give you a taste of some of what makes the 12th century structure such a marvel.

Pankrác is a byword in the Czech Republic for the large prison that stands a little way outside the centre of Prague. The prison has been the focus for much of the worst and some of the best that has happened over the last 120 years. Appropriately, some mementos have been stored for posterity.

In this week’s spotlight, Radio Prague goes on a special tour with a Pragulic guide to look at a different side of Prague.

The border point of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria is the confluence of two great rivers, the Dyje, from the west, and the Morava, from which the region of Moravia takes its name. Along the rivers is a natural reserve of marsh forest and a bastion of Moravian culture called Podluží, or “under the marshland”.

The location of the Czech-Polish-Slovak tri-border can be described in a number of ways. Geographically, it’s in the Beskydy mountain range. Politically, it’s Silesia, the oft-forgotten “third” region of the Czech Republic, a strip of mixed Czech, Polish, German and Jewish heritage straddling the north-east border. 20th century conflict though renamed southern Silesia “Zaolzie”, a Polish-perspective place name that means “beyond the Olza River”. 21st century reality though has left the names Poland, Slovakia or the Czech Republic with little real

On the one hand, defining one’s territory is said to be a basic human trait, and on the other there is nothing that comes so natural to people - when given a say - as to defy a boundary and explore the other side. The Czech/German/Polish tri-border is an excellent example of this.

Borderlands are fascinating areas where cultures either meet and intermingle, or in some cases are cordoned off to coldly stare at one another. The Czech/German/Austrian tri-border has experienced both. Over the last century it went from being an imaginary line through the woods to a literal Iron Curtain and back again. What’s emerging here today is a cross-cultural region deep in the Bohemian Forest National Park.