MAY 2017 - COOPERATION WITH THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL AWARD The work of The Friends of Czech Heritage was cited as an example of how to encourage volunteering in recent publicity by the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. It featured current participants in the award programme in the Czech Republic at work on the Jan Hus Church, Smíchov, Prag...
The Friends of Czech Heritage: keeping you informed about our activities
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March 2017 - Mr John Martin is organising a memorial at Ightfield in Shropshire, commemorating the friendship between the Ellison family and the two Czechslovak parachutists Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš. These men flew home from England in 1941 to take part in the assassination of Deputy Reichsprotektor Heydrich in the following year. The film 'Anthr...
MARCH 2017 RELEASE - Lada Valešová, who is a supporter of The Friends, is releasing a CD on 3rd March: together with three song cycles, Valešová is performing the world première recording of a chamber piece for piano quintet and tenor, 'Fata Morgana' Op. 6 by Pavel Haas (1899–1944). The CD is available for purchase both as a phy...
January 2017 - Peter Kysel, our Treasurer, joined members, visitors and friends of the Rotary Club Prague International in the city. Peter is an experienced Investment Banker and Consultant and has been actively involved in the voluntary sector since 1986. Christian Noll wrote about the event on the Rotary Club's website: 'Peter explained that his ...
THE FRIENDS' WORKING HOLIDAYS IN 2017 Saturday 3rd to Saturday 10th June 2017. The Seventh Year of Restoration at Červený Dvůr, an estate that was once the summer residence of the Schwarzenberg family and is now a sanatorium. Participants will work on the restoration of an 18th-century gardener’s cottage on the estate and help to recr...
SEPTEMBER 2016 - WORKING HOLIDAY AT KRÁSNÝ DVŮR A group of UK and Czech volunteers spent a week working to restore features in the famous landscape park at Krásný Dvůr in western Bohemia, part of the Czech Republic. This is one of the first landscape gardens on the Continent in the English style, and was much admired by Goethe. In glorious, h...
August 2016 - A grant to Skanzen Chanovice Some building types get much more exposure when it comes to saving a nation’s heritage whilst others receive scant attention. Rural agricultural buildings especially belong to this group. They are often very rare because they are undervalued and many were destroyed in the days of rural collectivisation. Th...
July 2016 - A grant to St James's Church, Bedřichův Světec In the rural unsung areas of the Czech Republic small groups are trying to reclaim their local heritage. Like the Zámek at Čečovice and St Nicholas's Church at Petrovice, which we reported on in our last Newsletter, the local action group is restoring the church for community use. Although ...
July 2016 - A grant to the Probošt House, Vyšehrad, Prague Close to the Church of Saints Peter and Paul and the National Cemetery, the Probošt House, now occupied by a kindergarten, has within it some fine early-18th-century frescoes. These are ‘listed’ and have been conserved. The windows, replaced in the 1980s, were sub-standard and are now in ve...
July 2016 - A grant towards the adaptation of the Hussite Church in Prague Smíchov The Czechoslovak Hussite Church as an institution was founded on 25th July 1920 and gave Prague several significant and interesting buildings, mostly in the Modernist architectural style. Amongst these is the property of the Jan Hus Congregation in Smíchov, whose out...