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.
Immediately after the Velvet Revolution The Friends’ founders Ian Kennaway of the National Trust and Barbara Peacock, an architectural historian, started to forge contacts and organise a programme of co-operation with the Czech heritage professionals and experts at the National Heritage Institute (NPÚ). The long years of experience and exchange of ...
On Saturday 23rd July 2022, Mr. Jan Jůn, a Czech journalist living in the United Kingdom, died after a short, serious illness. Jan Jůn graduated at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Journalism of Charles University. In Czechoslovakia he worked as an editor in the newspaper 'Svobodné slovo', in the publishing house Avicenum. After emigration, he wa...
The Pheasantry, in the park of the Château of Červený Dvůr in South Bohemia, was one of our first projects. The Gothic-revival building forms an important feature in the park of the psychiatric clinic that occupies the château.We arranged a grant for the conservation of the roof and interior to facilitate its reuse for residential and creative acti...
Rousham is 12 miles north of Oxford, and Chastleton is four miles from Moreton-in-Marsh. Both are exceptional houses set in celebrated gardens, both have remained in the ownership of the same families for nearly 400 years. Chastleton was acquired by the National Trust in 1991. ROUSHAMThe landscape garden at Rousham should be a place of pilgrimage f...
The Friends' tour to the Bata Museum and former company town at East Tilbury was a great success despite transport problems due to the current strike. In gloriously sunny weather we were guided around the town by the enthusiastic volunteers from the museum. There was time for lunch and a visit to Coalhouse Fort overlooking the Thames before our ret...
Sir John Tusa - ‘MY LIFE WITH BATA’ John Tusa came to Britain in 1939 with his family at the age of three from Zlín in Moravia where his father had worked since the age of sixteen in the famous Bata shoe factory – a Bata baby. By the 1930s Bata of Czechoslovakia were the world’s leading manufacturer of footwear and factories were increasingly estab...
Louis XIV was a life-long enemy of the Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Bohemia, Leopold I and Charles VI. The armies of his successor Louis XV occupied Prague in 1741. Thereafter, however, the Bourbons became allies of the House of Austria. During the French Revolution the resort of Teplitz/Teplice in Bohemia became a residence of many emigrés, in...
Červený Dvůr is a historic estate that was once the summer residence of the Schwarzenberg family and is now a sanatorium. In 2022, participants will be helping to complete work on the two gatehouses, working on the facade, the plaster and the final coat. During the week there will be the opportunity to visit some of the region’s houses and castles....
The working holiday: participants will work on the site of the UNESCO pilgrimage church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora, designed by the famous Baroque architect J.B. Santini-Aichel. Tasks may include simple building work, painting and simple ground work. No prior skill is required. Volunteers will be working alongside Czech participants. Duri...
The visit was led by Peter Jamieson and Peter Ruback and started at on Kensington High Street outside the Design Museum. The walk celebrated some of the best mid-century and Brutalist buildings in an area best known for High Victorian architecture. We started outside the Design Museum which was formerly the Commonwealth Institute, by Robert Matthew...
