I just finished a very interesting book, Warrior of God: Jan Zizka and the Hussite Revolution by Victor Verney with Foreword by David Muhlena. Jan Žižka (1370–1424) belongs to the elite group of leaders who never lost a battle. He was a formidable figure whose life and military career was set amidst the whirlwind of...
Today we meet a Czech woman named Eliška Junková (aka Elizabetta or Elizabeth Junek), a pioneer in the history of motor racing. Known as the “Queen of the Steering Wheel,” Junková competed during the 1920s against Europe’s top drivers, and in 1927 became the first woman ever to win a Grand Prix race. She was...
Today we are taking a trip through history and looking at trams on Wenceslas Square. Why a trip through history? Because these days, you only see two trams at the square, and they act as a café, mainly for the tourists. The two historic Křižík trams serving as a cafe have been located roughly in...
Do you enjoy going back in time as much as I do? What if I could take you back to Šumava in 1929? You’d stay in the towns, see the Chod people, experience the marketplace, explore the forest, and learn about the mythology and folk tales. The Šumava mountain range stretches across south and west...
Today I am taking everyone on a nostalgic trip to a Czechoslovakia of the late 1960’s. The images come from a book entitled, Children of Czechoslovakia by Marcela Andrlova. It was published in 1969. On the back cover it reads: “Living at the crossroads of Europe, the children of Czechoslovakia and their parents are much...
There is a house in Prague which was said t have announced death. How? Because legend says the Prague bell rang on its own… At first glance, it looks like an ordinary house on Mostecká Street, which leads to Charles Bridge. It houses the U Tří zvonů pub, which got its name because it sat...
Today I wanted to share some illustrations by Jessie Mothersole from her book, Czechoslovakia The Land of An Unconquerable Ideal. This work of hers was inspired by a trip she took to the Czech Republic (then called First Czechoslovak Republic) in 1923 for a book she was asked to write by her London publishers. She...
On June 10, 1942 the Nazis wiped Lidice off the face of the earth. This June 10th marks the 80th anniversary of the horrific massacre of the men, women and children of Lidice – a little village west of Prague that was literally wiped off the map by the Nazis during WWII. The men were...
Today we are learning about the forgotten history of Elias Palme Glassworks. It used to be a famous factory, now it is a famous ruin, but the aesthetics of ruin also attract people and currently, this old historic property is for sale. So who was Elias Palme (1827–1893)? Back in the times of luster and...
Chicago’s working class were expecting a day in luxury and instead many of them experienced a terrifying and tragic calamity on the Chicago River. While most people are familiar with the Titanic (1) and Lusitania (2) disasters, many people have never heard of the Eastland Disaster (3). Counting passengers only, 832 perished on the Titanic....
In the southern part of Romania and along the River Danube, you will find six timeless Czech villages with an estimated 2,000 Czech inhabitants. These ‘Banat Czechs’ as they are called have been in the area for approximately 200 years, since between 1823-1828. They live in very ethnic and timeless Czech villages in the Banat...
While American children may nostalgically remember how handy their Swiss Army knife may have come in, certainly almost all Czech children remember their Czech fish knife. It was inexpensive, had a very nice shape, and it was easy to open, close and cut. Fancier multi-blade knives with additional equipment came much later. The so-called “Rybička”...
They slept that night in peace. The danger, they felt, had ended. Their democratic revolution would live. The Russians would not come in. As they slept, the chief of Czechoslovakia's secret police, who was scheduled to lose his job within a few days, arrived at Prague's new airport - to secure the field, he explained, for the arrival of an important Russian delegation. Within minutes, Czech and Soviet agents ringed the field, and airborne troops landed. At 1:00 a.m., the people of Prague awakened to the blaring of taxi horns and to news they could not at first believe.
Charles I (Czech: Karel III) was the last Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and King of Bohemia. He was born in the beautiful Persenbeug Castle in Austria in 1887, toward the end of Summer. Though his father was an Archduke and his mother a Princess, he was not in line for the throne until...
