May 2015 - The Friends were invited to attend the Leamington Music Festival Weekend this year because of the major Czech emphasis of the musical programme and the longstanding association of Leamington Spa with the Czech and Slovak nations. In between the superlative music making by various internationally-renowned Czech quartets, who provided a fe...

April/May 2016 - The Leamington Music Festival Weekend The 2016 Leamington Music Festival Weekend, which runs 29th April to 3rd May, celebrates the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the Martinů String Quartet and the thirtieth anniversary of the Guarneri Piano Trio, another leading Czech ensemble.  The principal venue for the Leamington ...

MUSIC RECITAL BY THE TRIO SOANE IN LONDON Thursday 19th May 2016 at 6.30pm in the Embassy of the Slovak Republic, 25 Kensington Palace Gardens, London W8 4QY. Event organised with the cooperation of the Embassy of the Slovak Republic Programme: Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Trio in E flat major No. 2, Opus 70 Antonín Dvořák - Mazurek in E minor, Opu...

April 2016 - The Chairman and Treasurer of The Friends of Czech Heritage had a meeting with H.E. Mr L'ubomir Rehák at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in London. The Friends have held many events at the Embassy over the years, and discussion revolved around the development of contacts and cooperation with organisations involved with Slovak herita...

The holiday: situated in Southern Bohemia, Červený Dvůr is an estate that was once the summer residence of the Schwarzenberg family and is now a sanatorium. Participants worked on the restoration of an 18th-century gardener's cottage on the estate and helped to recreate the formal gardens of the château. Tasks involved simple building work and no p...

Saturday 11th June to Saturday 18th June 2016 Participants worked on maintenance works of the Lower Cemetery (which was in fact never used for burials), built by a famous Baroque architect J. B. Santini-Aichel, so that it can be opened to the public. Tasks involved simple building work, some clearance and preservation work and simple terrain. No pr...

Friday 9th to Friday 16th September 2016 Participants made their own travel arrangements to Prague. There was a day-excursion to Karlovy Vary Meeting point: Participants were picked up at Prague Airport and travelled by minibus to Krásný Dvůr. Accommodation: in the local self-catering municipal hostel in the village - shared bedrooms, cost includin...

March 2016 - Lecture: 'Reuniting Fourteenth-century Prague: Charles IV and his Gothic Bridge' Dr. Jana Gajdošová of the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge gave a comprehensive lecture, copiously illustrated by photographs and plans, on the building of what is now called the Charles Bridge after the King of Bohemia (and Holy Ro...

Dr. Jana Gajdošová of the History of Art Department at the University of Cambridge gave a comprehensive lecture, copiously illustrated by photographs and plans, on the building of what is now called the Charles Bridge after the King of Bohemia (and Holy Roman Emperor) Charles IV, who commissioned the building of the bridge in 1357 to replace the ea...

February 2106 - Phase 1 Conservation of the Baroque choir stalls at the Abbey Church of Žďár nad Sázavou, a UNESCO-listed site , completed with the help of The Friends of Czech Heritage  The Friends have supported a number of conservation projects at this important abbey church, which was the work of Jan Blažej Santini Aichel. These have inclu...