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The most valuable of the Czech crown jewels, the St. Wenceslas Crown, is to go on display next year as part of events marking the 700th anniversary of the birth of Czech king and Holy Roman emperor Charles IV, prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka said on Wednesday after a meeting with President Miloš Zeman. The keys to the crown jewels are held by the president, the PM, the archbishop of Prague, the chairs of both chambers of Parliament, the mayor of Prague and the dean of the Metropolitan Chapter of St. Vitus Cathedral. The collection was last displayed in May 2013 to mark the election of Mr. Zeman.

Sunday is the Day of Czech Statehood, a national holiday that is held every year on St. Wenceslas Day. It was on September 28, 935 that St. Wenceslas, the Duke of Bohemia and today patron of the Czech state, was murdered by his brother Boleslav the Cruel. Some events are being held in connection with the holiday, including the official launch of an exhibition for children at the Hrzánský Palace in the Prague Castle complex entitled My State explaining a number of symbols of the Czech nation.

In a special programme to mark Czech Statehood Day, I am joined in the studio by Ondřej Matějka, who is the Deputy Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. He has agreed to help me explore some issues related to heraldry, meaning national symbols and the iconography of the Czech people.

People around the Czech Republic took part in masses and other events on Saturday to mark the day of St. Wenceslas (Václav), the country’s patron saint. Thousands of people attended a traditional pilgrimage held in Stará Boleslav, the small town near Prague where St. Wenceslas was murdered on September 28 907; the event culminated with a mass served by the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Czech Republic, Archbishop Dominik Duka. Saturday was a state holiday.

Historians believe that they have found a fragment of the last surviving holy relic of the Czech patron saint Václav, or Wenceslaus. According to the curator of the Prague Castle collections, Milena Bravermanová, a small gilded cross made of iron netting, which is currently on the Saint Jiří gonfalon, was most likely part of St. Václav’s banner. The technique used to make the cross is almost identical to the one that was used to make the Prince of Bohemia’s armor, which Czech scientists have been examining for the past few years. Saturday is a state holiday that marks the anniversary of Václav’s death in 935, when he was allegedly stabbed by his brother Boleslav.

The traditional Saint Václav pilgrimage has begun on Friday evening with the transport of the patron saint’s relics from Prague to the town of Stará Boleslav, where he was murdered in the 10th century. The majority of religious events of the celebration will begin on Saturday morning with a mass on Stará Boleslav’s Mariánské square, which will be led by the Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka. President Miloš Zeman will not be attending this year’s celebration, breaking with tradition set by his predecessor Václav Klaus, instead he will be celebrating his 69th birthday on Saturday.

President Miloš Zeman will not attend the national celebrations of St Wenceslas in Stará Boleslav on Saturday, breaking with a tradition established by his predecessor in office, Václav Klaus. Mr Zeman will instead celebrate his 69th birthday on that day, a spokeswoman for the president said. The celebrations mark the anniversary of the death of St Wenceslas, the Catholic patron saint of the Czech lands and founder of the mediaeval Czech state. September 28 is a national holiday in the Czech Republic. During his term as president, Václav Klaus regularly attended the festivities, using the opportunity to speak on issues of Czech statehood and the national identity.

Miloš Zeman has been sworn in as Czech president in a ceremony at the Vladislav Hall at Prague Castle. Mr. Zeman is the first directly-elected head of state in the history of the Czech Republic. After his swearing-in at a joint session of both chambers of Parliament, the new president inspected a military parade and attended a brief service in honour of St. Wenceslas, before having lunch with senior state officials. He was forced to sign the oath a second time, after the first copy was found to contain a typo.

Mr. Zeman, who is 68, has been one of the dominant figures in Czech politics since the fall of Communism. After turning the Social Democrats into a major party in the 1990s, he served as prime minister between 1998 and 2002.

A painting depicting the most famous fratricide in Czech history – the murder of prince Vaclav by his own brother Boleslav in 935 has emerged to see the light of day after gathering dust in an attic for close to 170 years. In this edition of Panorama we look at why the monumental work spent so many decades hidden from the eyes of the world.

Speaking at the St Wenceslas pilgrimage in Stará Boleslav on Friday, President Václav Klaus called for “more vocal defence” of national traditions. That would benefit the “inner unity” of the Czech nation and state and its prosperity, he said. The Czech president again warned against the decline of traditional European values brought about by the “integration experiment”. For his part, Plzeň’s Bishop František Radkovský asked people not to allow a new form of dictatorship to appear as a result of the ongoing moral crisis and issues with democracy.