The Friends of Czech Heritage: keeping you informed about our activities
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CZECH MODERNISM LECTURE A SUCCESS This very popular event took place with the cooperation of the Czech Embassy.The proliferation of what we now term 'Modernism' In the period following the First World War can be seen possibly at is most progressive in former Czechoslovakia. This flowering of a new national consciousness, expressed through contempor...
The resort town of Teplice nad Metují is situated in rolling forested country near the Polish border. The Baroque Church of the Virgin Mary has a historic hermitage attached to it, which is being painstakingly restored by a small local group of volunteers. In 2019 we helped to rebuild the walls following the restoration of the roof and we continued...
REVIEW Lecture by Milan Svoboda for The Friends of Czech Heritage, September 2022 'How the Czech Aristocracy Lost Their castles in the 20th Century;A Guide to the development of ownership of ownership of historic houses in the Czech Lands since 1918' One of the great pleasures of a visit to the Czech Republic is a tour of the castles and great coun...
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...
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...
