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Czechia’s king of castles, Karlštejn, ceremonially opened new spaces for visitors this Friday after a major CZK 164 million reconstruction. They are the result of three years of work, which included the reconstruction of the imperial residence and the castle’s gothic cellars. An enclosed visitor’s centre has also been built and there are new exhibitions detailing the construction of the castle as well as the history of wine growing in the surrounding countryside.

Sit-ups, push-ups, long jump and beep test run — these athletic disciplines were used by the Czech School Inspectorate to measure the physical fitness of schoolchildren across the country. Compared to the same tests carried out 30 years ago, the results have shown a dramatic drop in children’s endurance.

Sloths, slugs, and starfish – those are some of the unlikely patterns that young textile designer Anna Šebestová draws as the basis for the prints on her clothes and accessories, which she markets and sells under her brand annanemone. Her bold designs have won her the attention of Prague Zoo and even the former mayor, Zděněk Hříb. I met her recently and started by asking whether she had always been drawn to the weird and wonderful.

A portrait of a Jewish woman called Anna Wotzilkova, who was born in South Moravia and died in the Holocaust, has been donated to the newly planned Mehrin Moravian Jewish Museum by her descendants, who now live in the United States. The painting was brought to Brno this week by her granddaughter Ann Altman:

On average, every Czech throws away roughly 70 kilograms of food a year. In an effort to get them to stop, economists have now calculated just how much money they are throwing away.

The small town of Vysoké Mýto, in north-east Bohemia, has been named Czech Historical Town of the year for 2022. The award, which comes with a one-million-crown cheque, honours those towns and cities that have excelled in preserving and renewing their cultural and architectural heritage.

Ploština was a small settlement in the Zlín region of Moravia. On April 19, 1945, close to the end of World War II, it was set on fire and many of its inhabitants were massacred by the Nazis for having supported the anti-Nazi resistance. A new monument has now been erected on the site of the tragedy.

Founded just a year after the birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Masaryk University bears the name of the country’s esteemed co-founder and its first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.   Over a century later, the university has established itself as one of the most reputable and distinguished higher-education institutions in both Czechia and Europe as a whole.

Czech scientists are collaborating on an international project, SMELLODI, which aims to digitise human scent. At the moment it is not yet possible to record a smell, send it halfway around the world and then regenerate it, but SMELLODI is trying to make that possible. And it could have real and beneficial applications in medicine.

Roadside hotels, run-down gas stations and snack stands, second hand bookstores but also vast forests, volcanoes and indie rock music. That is the Pacific Northwest seen through the eyes of Czech illustrator Jindřich Janíček in his latest book called Na západ severozápadní linkou or West by Northwest . The unusual travel journal is based on the memories of his and his wife’s two-week trip to Washington, British Columbia and Oregon and reflects his long-time fascination with North American culture and geography. Indeed the title itself refers to the famous film by Alfred Hitchcock called North by Northwest. When I met with Jindřich Janíček , I first asked him where this fascination originated: