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The Health Ministry has announced it is reintroducing a number of nationwide restrictions to contain the spread of COVID -19. As of midnight Friday facemasks will once again be compulsory at indoor events involving more than 100 people and public events will be restricted to 500 people starting next week. Meanwhile, City Hall has declared that Praguers will also have to wear masks when they visit the doctor or a pharmacy.

Czech artist Alfons Mucha, perhaps best known worldwide for his oft-imitated Art Nouveau posters, was born 160 years ago this Friday. He showed an exceptional talent for drawing from an early age, and went on to find fame and fortune in Vienna and Paris, before settling in Prague. There, he turned his paintbrush to the Slav Epic, a gift to the city – and indeed the Czech nation – that took him nearly two decades to complete.

The Daliborka tower at Prague Castle is known to most Czechs as a prison and the site of a well-known national legend. It tells the story of Dalibor of Kozojedy, a nobleman who was the tower’s first prisoner and earned the hearts of the locals through his violin playing. Other theories suggest there is a more sinister reason behind Dalibor’s association with the instrument. In this episode of Landmark Prague Stories, we explore the myth and reality behind the Daliborka tower.

The wellness trend of walking barefoot or 'Earthing' which aims to reconnect us with Nature arrived in the Czech Republic several years ago. Today it has some 3,000 enthusiastic proponents around the country and a network of barefoot tourist trails where you can try it out.

CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel is the title of an epic documentary recently released on Blu-ray by the UK’s Second Run DVD. Director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s self-financed project was sparked by his love for one Menzel film and grew into a unique, 448-minute portrait of the Czechoslovak New Wave. I discussed it with Mehelli Modi of Second Run, a large part of whose catalogue comprises lovingly curated classic Czechoslovak films.

The number of people fighting coronavirus infection in the Czech Republic crossed the 5,000 mark on Wednesday –the highest number recorded since COVID -19 first appeared in the country in March. Although the increase is driven by a number of local outbreaks the authorities are considering reinstating nation-wide preventive measures –such as bringing back compulsory face masks in enclosed spaces.

Petr Horálek travels the globe to observe and photograph solar and lunar eclipses, and delivers lectures in schools across the Czech Republic to encourage young people to cast their eyes towards the heavens. A few years ago, he became a Photo Ambassador for the European Southern Observatory, and even has an asteroid named for him (“6822 Horálek”). I spoke to him about his life’s work, shortly after NASA named his breath-taking picture of the comet NEOWISE – now closer than ever to the Earth – as “Astronomy Picture of the Day”.

Soon after Hitler came to power in 1933, Czechoslovakia began planning in earnest to build massive fortifications along the border, akin to the French Maginot Line, to sustain any first onslaught. Among the most famous is the Hanička Fortress in the Orlický Mountains. An imposing section of that fortress – code named Na Mýtině (“at the clearing”) – will soon open to the public for the first time in nearly five decades.

A new film about the late Václav Havel enters Czech cinemas on Thursday. Simply entitled Havel, the movie traces its protagonist’s journey from dissident to Velvet Revolution leader, while also depicting him as a flawed human being.

Latvia and Estonia have placed the Czech Republic back on their list of coronavirus “safe states” which means that Czechs can again travel to these countries without having to go into quarantine, Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček announced on Tuesday. Negotiations on a reciprocal travel agreement with Tunisia are underway and may soon be launched with Georgia, but Egypt and Turkey remain unsafe in the eyes of the Czech Foreign Ministry.