See what’s coming up on on the BCSA’s Events Calendar.
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March 2020
The story of Czech beer as told by Zdeněk Kudr
It is an understatement to say that the Czech Republic has a strong beer culture. Famous for being the birthplace of pilsner, the Czechs drink more beer than anywhere else in the world. Brewing methods remained traditional until the fall of communism after which most of the larger breweries were bought by overseas companies who modernised production methods. In recent years a new breed of microbreweries has sprung up offering a variety of traditional styles. Zdeněk Kudr is a co-founder…
Find out more »BCSA “Get to Know You” Social Evening
This is an opportunity for anyone interested in the British Czech and Slovak Association (members, supporters and friends) to meet, eat, drink, chat (maybe practise your Czech or Slovak) and get to know each other in a relaxed and informal setting. Anybody with Czech or Slovak connections or interests is welcome Join us and have a fun evening meeting friendly people. Food and drinks are available from the newly opened Bohemia House. We will be in one of the rooms at the Czech…
Find out more »Chodník cez Dunaj ( A path across the Danube)
A tragic story depicting two young friends (one Slovak, the other Czech) in the period after the wartime Slovak State and Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia came into existence. An employee of the Slovak railway company, Viktor Lesa, a Slovak, regularly delivers post to the railway station in the border town of Ludendorf . With the impulsiveness of youth, he intentionally misdirects an important mail delivery. After the Gestapo shows up in the town, he is forced to flee across…
Find out more »July 2020
Covid-19 conditions and Brexit
Zoom online webinar Nick Archer, British Ambassador to the Czech Republic, shared his perspective on living through and adapting to Covid-19 conditions. The event concluded with a Q&A session. He felt that Prague was a very good place to be, especially as the Embassy and residence has a large garden. Its location in Malá Strana has the advantage of few inhabitants and at present benefits from the absence of the usual blight of tourists. The Czech Republic’s proximity to Italy…
Find out more »November 2020
Ambassador Nigel Baker webinar
Circumstances prevent us from holding our special 30th anniversary dinner this year but you can meet our keynote speaker from the comfort of your home on Zoom. It also offers an opportunity to say a fond farewell to L’ubomir Rehák, the Slovak Ambassador, who is leaving his post in London for Moscow and to welcome his successor Róbert Ondrejcsák. At the end of the programme, the winner of the 2020 BCSA writing competition will be announced. Nigel Baker was appointed…
Find out more »March 2021
The Czech Lands through the eyes of Dan Cruickshank
Dan Cruickshank, a well-known television art and architecture historian, will share his impressions of the Czech Lands online via Zoom. Dan's travels have taken him to the Czech Lands where he filmed two of his television broadcasts. It might have been his friendship with Jan Kaplický, as well as with Eva Jiřičná, that inspired his curiosity in their homeland. In addition, post-communist countries have always intrigued him. As a child he lived for three years in Poland and attended a…
Find out more »May 2021
The Black Death in Bohemia: a medieval pandemic
A Zoom lecture by Dr Mark Whelan. The coming of the Black Death to Europe was a defining epidemiological event, killing anywhere between twenty-five and eighty percent of the continent’s population in the years 1347-1351. With Covid-19 sweeping the globe, interest in past pandemics and the historical comparisons they may provide has never been higher. This talk examines the impact of plague on Bohemia in the medieval and early modern periods, surveying recent advances in the scholarship and understanding of…
Find out more »October 2021
Czech protest music past & present
An online Zoom talk by Daniel Majer about the political role Czech protest music has played in Czech and Slovak history from the Austro-Hungarian empire until today. Following the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Karel Kryl composed ‘Bratříčku, zavírej vrátka’ (Keep the gates closed, little brother) as his reaction to the occupation. In 1972 the Slovak dissident Ján Ladislav Kalina was given a two-year prison sentence for, among other things, playing a record of Kryl’s songs to friends…
Find out more »November 2021
The life and legacy of Alexander Dubček
A roundtable discussion to commemorate the birth of Alexander Dubček (1921-1992) online via Zoom. 27 November 2021 marks one hundred years since the birth of Alexander Dubček, icon of Czechoslovakia’s political reform movements in 1968 and 1989 and one of the most important figures in twentieth-century Slovak politics. SPEAKERS: MUDr. Pavol Dubček is the son of Alexander Dubček - the most prominent figure in modern Slovak history and icon of the Prague Spring (1968). Pavol Dubček studied medicine at the…
Find out more »December 2021
BCSA Christmas social evening
As the festive season approaches, we thought our last regular "get to know you" meeting this year should be special. Join us to exchange your stories and experiences of Christmas, past and present, sample some traditional Christmas cookies and sing a few songs and carols. Everybody with Czech or Slovak connections or interests is welcome Food and drinks are available for purchase. It would help if we could all have our meal together at the same time. We shall aim…
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