The Friends of Czech Heritage: keeping you informed about our activities
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On 22nd October 2015 Eva Jiřičná, a renowned architect, who was born in Zlín but has lived and worked in England since 1968, gave a fascinating talk on the development of Zlín into a major centre for industrialised shoe manufacture. This occurred largely through the efforts of Tomáš Bat’a, the son of a Zlín shoemaker, who left school at a very youn...
The Friends of Czech Heritage held a garden visit in Surrey on 18th September 2015, organised by one of the founders of The Friends, Ian Kennaway. It started with Painshill, a beautiful 158-acre 18th-Century landscape garden, including the restored crystal grotto, historic planting, a collection of North American trees and shrubs, and spectacular v...
The Friends held a lecture 'Lednice/Valtice - Bringing the UNESCO-listed historic gardens in Moravia to life', given by Ing. Přemysl Krejčiřík PhD and Kamila Krejčiříková PhD, photo below. Ing. Kamila Krejčiříková Ph.D., assisted by her husband Přemysl, gave a very interesting lecture at the Czech Embassy, London, on the work they, as experts in la...
The Friends held a lecture 'HAVEL - a life' by Mr Michael Žantovský, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the UK and biographer of Havel, on 5th March 2015 at the Embassy of the Slovak Republic, London. Václav Havel, an intellectual, playwright, philosopher and President, was a key figure of the 20th century and Michael Žantovský was one of his clos...
The Friends organised a lecture in the Czech Embassy, London, 'Kilián Ignac Dientzenhofer (1689-1751) - Architect and Master Builder in 18th century Bohemia' by Caroline Cannon-Brookes, art historian, former lecturer at Leeds University, held on 5th February 2105. The event was organised with the co-operation of the Embassy of the Czech Republic. D...
Friends' lecture in London, organised with the support and co-operation of the Embassy of the Czech Republic The Velvet Revolution 25 Years on: An Émigré Perspective The Friends held a lecture evening by Dr. Katya Kocourek, formerly of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies at University College London, who gave an absorbing and original ...
John Mucha, grandson of Alphonse Mucha, gave a fascinating talk to a large audience at the Czech Embassy about the fate of the Mucha family during the Nazi Occupation of Czechoslovakia and then under the Communism, and how Mucha’s own collection of his work was preserved under those regimes, and later largely made available for public display. The ...
Summer 2014: We were a mixed party with ages ranging from early 20s to mid 70s and included students, a retired architect, social workers and a food store manager. We helped to lay the drains, built walls and excavated a cellar to provide storage, with a particular focus on the Mauricovna, a building in the grounds that we are helping to rescue. Ou...
The title might have sounded disconcertingly academic but Dr. Martin Brown of the American International University in London delivered a thrillingly pithy and persuasive analysis of his subject. He came he said, not to discuss the events of 1945-46 but the lengthy debate about the transfer or resettlement of populations in British political, diplo...
In the Czech Embassy, London, the architectural historian Dr Irena Murray-Žantovská gave a lecture on the Strahov Monastery in Prague, entitled 'The Building and the Book'. The hall was filled by an audience that included experts on painting and art history. Photos: anti-clockwise from left, Dr Murray-Žantovská; the lecturer with Barbara Peacock, a...
