Skip to main content

The Friends of Czech Heritage: keeping you informed about our activities

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.

Friends' Lecture 20/09/22: How the Czech Aristocracy Lost Their Castles in the 20th Century

AristoMockup2

A guide to the development of the ownership of historic houses in Czech lands since 1918. A Lecture by Milan Svoboda on Tuesday 20th September 2022 at 6.30pm in the Czech Embassy, London. From the formation of Czechoslovakia, when the first president T.G. Masaryk abolished aristocratic titles, and his land reform deprived many estates of their main...

Continue reading
  1016 Hits
Tags:

Summer Outing to Rousham and Chastleton, 13/07/2022

Rousham House cJason BallardCC

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...

Continue reading
  780 Hits
Tags:

Visit to Tilbury and Bata Heritage, 22/06/22

BataTilbury220622 cFoCH

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...

Continue reading
  1222 Hits
Tags:

Lecture on Tuesday 17/05/22: Sir John Tusa - My Life with Bata

BataCompoRectFLAT cMark Surry CC et al

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...

Continue reading
  1175 Hits
Tags:

Lecture 26/04/22 by Dr Philip Mansel: 'The Bourbons and Bohemia'

07 Sychrov CzTo BinkStarVSMALL

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...

Continue reading
  1410 Hits
Tags:

Working Holiday: Restoration at Červený Dvůr, 21 to 28 May 2022/ 28 May to 4 June 2022

CD2019 cMSteibelt

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....

Continue reading
  953 Hits
Tags:

Working Holiday in Moravia: the World Heritage site at Žďár nad Sázavou, 4 - 11 June 2022

ZdarGroup2018 cZbynekVintr

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...

Continue reading
  831 Hits
Tags:

Wednesday 20/04/2022: Visit to Holland Park and the Czech Embassy

CzEmb cPJamieson

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...

Continue reading
  863 Hits
Tags:

Lecture 15/03/22: Legends of Czech Glass

CzechGlassCompoST cMHill

The 1950s-70s saw a renaissance in Czech glass design that re-established the Bohemian region’s global reputation in this area. From behind the Iron Curtain, skilled designers pushed the boundaries of 20th century glass design and produced unique art glass masterpieces that went on to inspire visually stunning, highly innovative and commercial rang...

Continue reading
  1324 Hits
Tags:

ZOOM Lecture on Wednesday 09/02/22 by Martyn Bond : 'A Castle in Bohemia, an Austro-Japanese Count, and the Future of Europe'

Coudenhove Kalergi in 1930 cUnknown ÖNB Bildarchiv Austria CC

Martyn Bond, a former foreign correspondent specialising in European affairs, spoke about Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, better known on the Continent than in Britain. Few anywhere know that the man whom Hitler damned in Mein Kampf as a ‘cosmopolitan bastard’ travelled on a Czechoslovak diplomatic passport for twenty years between the two W...

Continue reading
  1101 Hits
Tags: