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Archaeologists have found rare medieval artefacts in the courtyard of a building on Loretánská St. in the Prague Castle complex that should in future house the Václav Havel Library. The excavations have uncovered human bones, ceramics and coins from the era of Vratislaus II of Bohemia. The protected building was purchased for the Havel Library by the wealthy businessman Zdeněk Bakala. Some conservationists have objected to the project, which has yet to receive a construction permit.

Over the last two years we have listened to sounds from the Czech Radio archives going back over eighty years. In this, the last of the series, we look at two of the big events of the last decade - the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO and then, five years later, to the European Union. We start with NATO, which the Czech Republic joined in March 1999 along with Hungary and Poland. In 2002 Prague hosted a major NATO summit, at which seven further Eastern and Central European countries were invited to join. At the summit, President Václav Havel gave

Musicians Bono, The Edge, Peter Gabriel, Sting and Yoko Ono have paid for a large tapestry in honour of the late Czech president Václav Havel which will be unveiled at Prague’s Václav Havel Airport next month, a spokeswoman for the airport said. The tapestry, designed by Czech artist Petr Sís, cost CZK 1.5 million, or USD 75,000. The artists have been invited for the unveiling which will take place on December 9, the spokeswoman said but it’s not clear if they’ll arrive for the occasion. The former Czech president, playwright and dissident Václav Havel passed away on December 18, 2011, at the age of 75.

While the split of Czechoslovakia happened quietly and almost unnoticed, the situation in Yugoslavia could hardly have been more different. There had always been close links between the two countries, and Czechs and Slovaks were deeply shocked as Yugoslavia sank into civil war. In an interview for Radio Prague in 1993, the head of the Euro-Atlantic Section of the Czech Foreign Ministry, Ivan Bušniak, pointed to some of the two countries’ historical bonds:

A miniature copy of the wax heart made in remembrance of the late Vaclav Havel is to be donated to the Czech-American community in Chicago; a Czech police officer is caught smuggling turtles from Hong Kong to the Czech Republic and, somewhat unusual garden architecture with a Soviet armoured vehicle in the front line. Find out more in Magazine.

The Prague Na zábradlí theatre will unveil a memorial plaque to the late former Czech Presiden Václav Havel, who was also a frequent collaborator. In the 1960’s Mr Havel worked in the theatre, as a member of the stage crew, actor, head of the drama department and playwright. The bronze plaque, which should be unveiled on December 18, was created based on the design by the “bad boy” of the Czech art scene David Černý. Mr Černý told the press that it is a classic memorial plaque and that it will be funny, but respectable. The theatre has been trying to gather the necessary funds to produce the plaque.

A memorial plaque to Zdeněk Urbánek, a writer, translator and a close friend of the late Václav Havel, was unveiled at the weekend at his Prague home. Zdeněk Urbánek, who died in 2008, was a significant figure of Czechoslovakia’s the anti-communist opposition, and it was at his house in the Prague district of Střešovice where the human rights manifesto Charter 77 began its journey.

Petr Hájek, the deputy chancellor to President Václav Klaus, has written that the Czech Republic’s first president, the late Václav Havel, “served as a tool of Satan” spreading “hatred and lies”. The highly controversial presidential aide – who in the past questioned the existence of Osama Bin Laden or questioned who attacked the US on 9/11 – made the statement in a new book to be published in November, Parlamentní listy reports. In Death in Velvet (Smrt v sametu), Mr Hájek reportedly does not hold back on his own boss, saying that many of the current president’s political aims were in shambles, arguing that democracy had been replaced by the rule of the media and charging that the political right had been replaced by a “Europeiste” (or pro-European) caricature. Petr Hájek is known for no shortage of controversial statements in the past, calling homosexuals “deviants” and mocking Darwinism.

Czechs in November, when the book is to be released, will mark the 23rd anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, in which Václav Havel played a key role.

The Czech Foreign Minister and TOP 09 chairman Karel Schwarzenberg has launched his presidential campaign at a press conference on Friday. The 74-year-old candidate expressed his wish to uphold the legacy of the late former president Václav Havel and defend freedom and openness. Expressed concern over the course on which the Czech Republic is heading and that he would like to see an improvement. Mr Schwarzenberg expressed his belief that the president should not be that much involved in politics, but said that as president he would like to use his power to effectively fight corruption.

The winner of this year’s Czech Press Photo is photographer Milan Jaroš of Respekt with his photo of people mourning ex-president Vaclav Havel on Wenceslas Square. A photograph of Mr. Havel’s widow Dagmar won in the People in the News category. And David W. Černý, a Prague based photographer for Reuters won in the Contemporary Issue category with a photo of a bar during the recent prohibition on spirits.