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John East of the 20th Century Society gave a fascinating talk about buildings constructed in the Czech and Slovak lands during the 20th century. The wealth of modern buildings dating from the 1920s and 30s in particular, was a revelation and demonstrated the confidence of the young Czechoslovak state as it developed its new identity. Though this pe...
FROM THE VILLAGE TO THE CITY : URBANISATION IN SLOVAKIA On 4th February 2020 Dr. Thomas Lorman of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies gave a very interesting talk to The Friends on the historical process of urbanisation in Slovakia. Photograph from left to right: Peter Jamieson, Chairman FOCH; Dr. Thomas Lorman, Central Euro...
The Friends held two very productive working parties at Červený Dvůr in South Bohemia at the end of May and beginning of June. The numbers were small but sometimes this can be an advantage, especially when doing semi-skilled tasks, as we were. The project was centred around the reconstruction of the two gatehouses, which formerly guarded the main c...
The first stop was the Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty, where we first viewed the Chapel with its remarkably intact Norman architecture. After coffee sitting outside the Hundred Men’s Hall the group enjoyed a tour of the Great Hall of the Hospital led by Barbara Peacock, one of the founders of The Friends. Lunch was at The Bell ...
In his talk, Dr Lorman explored how Slovak culture was initially characterised by its rural quality and alienation from the beginnings of mass industrialisation and urbanisation in Hungary (exemplified by the 1896 millennial celebrations in Budapest). He examined how Slovak national identity was then substantially (but not entirely) transformed by ...
Under Rudolf II Prague again became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Following the example of his Habsburg ancestors, he assembled an exceptional collection of works of art for which the imperial palace on the Hradčany was adapted. He patronised painters, sculptors, goldsmiths who flocked to Prague, and also men of learning including Tycho Bra...
Sir Jonathan Marsden gave a talk at the Embassy of the Czech Republic on Tuesday 14th May 2019, entertaining the guests with stories from behind the scenes of the Royal Sculpture Collection. He presented some of the lessons learned from working on a catalogue raisonné of European sculpture in the Royal Collection to be published by...
FRIENDS' LECTURE: BRITAIN AND BOHEMIA IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY On 5th March 2019 Dr. Mark Whelan, an historian of late medieval and early modern Germany and Central Europe who is currently working at King’s College, London, gave a lecture explaining how and why the English kings and senior clerics became involved in the early-fifteenth-century stru...
The project that we undertook at the Château of Vizovice in the week 8 - 15 September consisted of taking down an unstable brick boundary wall in the park, which had been rebuilt before the Velvet Revolution. It was set on a stone base, which had also collapsed in places. We cleaned all the bricks ready for reuse and rebuilt sections of the stone b...
A CELEBRATION OF CZECHOSLOVAK CULTURE IN WARTIME BRITAIN On 9th October 2018 Dr. Jana Burešová of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies at the University of London gave a talk at the Czech Embassy on the ways in which both Czech and German-speaking exiles from Czechoslovakia during the Second World War acted to promote knowledge...
