At the time of the mass immigration of Czechs to America, in the midst of the 19th century (1), as Tomáš Čapek wrote, the first immigrants, as a rule, settled near seaside cities, near lakes and waterways and, later, also along the railroad lines. Thus, at the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, they formed colonies...
Houska Castle (Czech: Hrad Houska) is a Czech clifftop castle shrouded in dark myths and legends. It was originally constructed in the 13th century, between 1253 and 1278, during the reign of Ottokar II of Bohemia. The castle, which was built in the early gothic style, is located about an hour north of Prague on...
Josef Mařatka’s monument Praha svým vítězným synům (Prague to Its Victorious Sons) is the most famous monument constructed to honor the Czechoslovak Legionnaires. The independence of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed on October 28, 1918, by the Czechoslovak National Council in Prague and this monument was unveiled on the same day. In the center of the monument stands a...
Luby is a small town located in the Cheb District of the Czech Republic. It began as a small mining town but later became known as the center of violin making. During the 13th century the mining of cinnabar began in the town of Schönenbach (Modern day Luby) bringing hundreds of miners -and musicians- to...
Mariánské Lázně is a spa town located in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It is a relatively young town and was not even declared a spa town until 1818. At one time, Mariánské Lázně was a marshy valley but during the mid 19th century it was transformed into a beautiful city which...
Have you ever wondered what a 130 year journey of Czech playing cards may look like? We have and that’s why we’re sharing this post with you today. It all began with Jan Ritter. Jan Ritter was Czech. He was born in 1842 in (Nové) Kdyně, a town that traces its roots back to the mid 1200s....
At 93 years of age, retired Air Force General and Czech Top Gun Emil Boček, geared up and then sat down in a Spitfire, similar to the one he piloted on a flight 70+ years after he originally flew the airplane in World War II. Bohumil (Emil) Boček was born in Brno – Turany in...
In 1972 the last trolleybus drove though the cobblestone streets of Prague. On the following morning, after many years of trolleybus transportation in Prague, the trolleybus traffic finally came to an end. Today, the Czech capital offers various methods of transportation which include metro, tram, and taxi. The trolleybus era, however, is no longer alive....
This very special set of Czech hand painted playing cards from WWI which shows the motifs of old Czech legends. The playing of cards to pass the time is by far, the most widespread game that is documented in the diary entries of soldiers from World War I. This is evidenced by the number of preserved hand-painted...
I love to discover old things on the internet and give them new life by sharing them here. Searching around for wonderful things to curate and share with you, I was looking for Czechs, ie: Bohemians, and I stumbled across A Bohemian Art Club, an article originally written by Henry Russell Wray. Henry was an American painter, born in...
Today we are taking a peek at the history of Czechs and their connection to beets and the sugar that comes from them. The very first mention was written by 16th-century scientist, Olivier de Serres, who discovered a process for preparing sugar syrup from the common red beet. He concluded, The beet-root, when being boiled, yields a...
On this day in 1939, all the universities and colleges in Prague closed. 1,200 Czech students were arrested, and nine students and professors were executed. November 17th has since been known as International Students’ Day. On the 28th of October in 1939, the Medical Faculty of Charles University held an anti-Nazi demonstration to commemorate the...
In 1963, Ilona Wiss stood across the street from a villa situated on the corner of Pevnostní and Dělostřelecká in Prague, Czech Republic, with her mother and her brother. The villa, which her grandparents had built, was now property of the Czech government. As they stood before the villa, Ilona’s mother, Edith, told her children...
Czechoslovakia 1968 is a short documentary film about 50 years of history of Czechoslovakia, composed entirely of sepia toned archival footage. It was produced in 1969 and it focuses primarily on “Prague Spring”, also known as the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. A virtually wordless visual history of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1968, it is a collection of images...
