You can click on the envelope icon on the right beneath this text to subscribe to our activities listing.
For events and news from other organisations please click here, where we feature a broad range of Czech-related items on Facebook, regularly updated.
On 8th January 2019 the art historian Caroline Cannon-Brookes gave a fascinating lecture in the Czech Embassy, London, about the life of Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand II (1529- 1595) and the collections amassed by him. Born the second son of the future Emperor Ferdinand I and Anne of Bohemia, he was Regent of Bohemia for twenty years in the middle of...
The full extent of this project became apparent only as the work proceeded. We knew we were to clean out a disused mill and our combined team of Czech and UK volunteers spent a week clearing dirt and rubbish, which had lain undisturbed since the mill was last used in 1957. There was a tragic tale as the last miller was arrested and imprisoned by th...
There was local publicity in Žďár nad Sázavou about our recent working party in June. The front cover of this newpaper has the caption 'The British on their knees. They're fixing monuments'.
On Thursday 7th June 2018 after we met in the morning in the Marmaris Café, Chris Sumner, a landscape historian, took us on a guided tour of the Well Hall Pleasaunce opposite the café. Well Hall Pleasaunce was opened as a public garden jn 1933 and contains a rectangular moated island, the site of the long-demolished Well Hall, home in the 1520s of ...
Organised by The Friends, this was a unique opportunity to visit top historic sites in Bohemia and to meet the experts who look after them. Specialists from the NPÚ, the Czech National Heritage Institute, and others - accompanied us to Strahov Abbey, the Palace Gardens below Prague Castle, Konopiště Castle, the Château of Krásný Dvůr, Karlštejn Cas...
29th May 2018. Held in the Czech Embassy London, this was a hugely interesting lecture, full of little-known facts not only about the composer Dvořák but also the literary and the musical scene in Prague and the Empire in the 19th century. The title was 'Dvořák’s less familiar career: networking in the salons of Prague and the long road to operatic...
THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANCIENT BUILDINGS Our Chairman Peter Jamieson is giving a talk in the 2018 Spring Lecture Series: 'Conservation in a Far-away Country: Responding to a Turbulent Past' , date changed to Tuesday 27th March due to severe weather. The SPAB website explains: "Founded in 2007, the Friends of Czech Heritage brings togethe...
Miroslava Šusová of the Association of Protectors of Monuments has sent us news of the improvements at the château in western Bohemia, which had suffered serious neglect for many years until she, her son and local volunteers made huge efforts to bring it back to life. The Friends of Czech Heritage gave a grant in 2015 and since then larger funding ...
The issue dated 29th November carried part one of an article about the famous castle in South Bohemia, most recently owned by the princely Schwarzenberg Family and now in the care of the Czech National Heritage Institute. John Goodall, the magazine's architectural editor filled six pages with his treatment of the main castle structure. In the 6th D...
LECTURE ON 30TH JANUARY 2018 As our first event in the newly refurbished Czech Embassy, Daniel Spička, an architect by training who has been much involved in restoration work in the Czech Republic, gave a very well illustrated talk on the six restored Baroque-style castle theatres that have survived out of the 41 built between 1700 and 1850. After ...
