Radio Prague International - Topic «History»

The Czech Academy of Sciences has announced an extraordinary discovery. One of the first prints of Rhinoceros, the famous woodcut by German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, dating back to 1515, has been found in the Academy’s library, where it has been stored since the 1950s.

After almost 80 years, the families of three former Czechoslovak soldiers who fought against Nazism and Communism may finally be able to bury their relatives. Archaeologists are searching for Vilém Sok, Miloslav Jebavý, and Karel Sabela, political prisoners who were executed by the Communists on July 18, 1949.

A new book titled “Executed for Political Reasons in Communist Czechoslovakia” brings to light the stories of nearly three hundred people executed between 1948 and 1989. The richly documented publication includes hundreds of period records and photographs, not only of the executed but also of their executioners, some of which had never before been published.  

Born in 1929, Dita Kraus lived through the horrors of the Holocaust and went on to build a new life in the young state of Israel. Her story — from a Prague childhood to Terezín, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belsen — became a lasting symbol of courage and resilience. She called Czechoslovakia and Israel her “two imperfect homelands,” forever linked by memory and loss. Dita Kraus passed away on October 18,...

A 3,000-year-old bronze vessel, one of the most remarkable archaeological finds in Czechia, will soon go on display at Pardubice Castle. It is the largest example of its kind preserved intact in Europe, and possibly even in the world. The exhibition space was designed by the famous architect Eva Jiřičná.

Archaeologists in Dašice in Pardubice have discovered the remains of a village dating back approximately three thousand years. The find comes from a rescue excavation at the site of a planned new logistics hall in the southern part of the town. 

The Vanished Bells (“Zaniklé Zvony”) project, a collaboration between Czech Radio and Wikimedia Czech Republic, has been launched online to preserve Czech cultural heritage. It focuses on recording and digitizing the sounds of historic bells, many of which are tied to early 20th-century Czech history, including those that were repurposed during the Second World War for the war effort.

Eighty-seven years ago, Nazi Germany, Italy, France, and Great Britain signed the Munich Agreement, leading Czechoslovakia to surrender its borderlands to Germany. Thousands of new bunkers called "řopíky," built to defend against the Nazis, became useless as they were mostly in occupied territory. Now some of them are for sale.

Archaeologists in western Bohemia have announced a remarkable discovery: around 500 gold and silver Celtic coins, along with gold and bronze jewellery, dating from the 6th to the 1st century B.C. The find is considered extraordinary not only in the Czech context but also on a Central European scale.

A new exhibition on Cosmas opens tonight in the Mirror Chapel of Prague’s Klementinum, marking 900 years since the death of the country’s most famous chronicler and author of Chronica Boemorum (the Chronicle of the Bohemians), the first written account of Czech history.

Several hundred sound recordings going back to the beginning of the last century have been discovered in American archives, opening a window onto the world of the Czech immigrant community at the beginning of the twentieth century.

At Lány Chateau, Czech archivists opened a long-sealed envelope thought to hold the final words of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. Instead, they discovered reflections written in 1934, when the first president was already gravely ill. The notes revealed Masaryk’s candid views on politics, mortality, and human weakness.

The Czech crown jewels, including the St. Wenceslas Crown, sceptre, orb, and robes used in the coronation of Czech kings, are on display at Prague Castle. This year’s exhibition designed by the famous London-based architect Eva Jiřičná, highlights their fate during WWII.

After borders opened in the early 1990s, churches in remote parts of Czechia became frequent targets of art-theft. Valuable statues and paintings were stolen, often ending up with resellers or in foreign auction houses. Now, decades later, some of these treasures are making their way back, among them the long-lost Baroque statue of Saint Ludmila, which was handed over to the authorities in Prague...

This year Czechs are marking 900 years since the death of the country’s most famous chronicler Cosmas, author of Chronica Boemorum or Chronicle of the Bohemians, the first known documentation of  Czech history. Many town halls are hoping that the celebration of his legacy could raise interest in a job no one wants.

A memorial dedicated to Czech pilot František Hekl was unveiled on Sunday at Loch Doon in Scotland. During the Second World War, he served with the 312th Czechoslovak Squadron of the British Royal Air Force (RAF). In October 1941, during a training flight, his plane crashed into the lake, and he did not survive the accident. He was 26 years old.

On Monday 25th, in the presence of the Czech Prime Minister and Ethiopian Minister of Tourism, the globally famous remains of the hominins Lucy and Selam were unveiled at Prague’s National Museum. The finders of the fossils were honoured guests at the ceremony, and Danny Bate from the RPI team was present too.

Kroměříž Chateau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Zlín Region, dazzles the country with its architecture and gardens – and now also with hundreds of amethysts, centuries old and recently discovered by accident by a researcher from Palacký University.

On August 21st 1968, people woke to find that the hopeful era of the Prague Spring had ended, as tanks from Warsaw-Pact countries rolled into the Czechoslovak capital. At a solemn ceremony outside the Czech Radio building, political leaders, including President Pavel, laid wreaths in commemoration.

NeverMore 68 is a festival that commemorates the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. Now in its fourth year, this year’s edition focuses on “The Foreign Perspective,” particularly how British international media, government officials, and civil society responded to the invasion. The exhibitions feature newly declassified documents, rare media coverage, and testimo...

On Friday 15th, the precious fossils of Lucy and Selam, 3.2 and 3.3 million years old respectively, landed at Prague Airport under strict security measures. They will be on display at the National Museum in Prague for two months, their first trip from Ethiopia to Europe.

Simon Rawlence, originally hailing from the UK, has been a resident in Czechia for many years, having contributed to the life of the country through organisations like the British Chamber of Commerce. During this multi-topic interview, Simon recounts his first interactions with the Czechs, the role of chocolate in the history of the Anglo-Czech Educational fund, and the story of Věněk Šilhán and h...

At the presidential summer residence in Lány, an envelope thought to contain the last words of first Czechoslovak President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk will be opened on September 19th. Current President Petr Pavel will attend the ceremony, revealing the contents of the never-before-seen letter.

Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský symbolically received a collection of art pieces from Jan Masaryk’s former London residence, on Thursday afternoon. The roughly 30 works of art were bought out at auction by one of Masaryk’s former secretaries, after his tragic death in 1948. Radio Prague International spoke to Ivan Dubovický, host of the ceremony and cultural anthropologist at the Ministry of Foreign...