Czech culture has been shaped by its geographical position in the middle of Europe. Influences from its neighbours, political and social changes, wars and times of peace have all left their marks on Czech culture. Prague's significance as a European cultural center rose and fell throughout history, but Czech culture remains distinct to this day. There are 16 cultural sites listed among the World Heritage Sites by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

, six Czechs have been awarded a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

and 173 have been nominated.

History

Architecture

The Czech Republic has been home to many architectural jewels and renowned architects.

Peter Parler Peter Parler (german: Peter von Gemünd, cs, Petr Parléř, la, Petrus de Gemunden in Suevia; 1333 – 13 July 1399) was a German-Bohemian architect and sculptor from the Parler family of master builders. Along with his father, Heinrich Parler, ...

's contributions to gothic Prague, Benedikt Rejt's late gothic deconstructivistic work, father and son Dietzenhofers' baroque works, Santini's unique baroque style,

Fanta Fanta is an American-owned German brand of fruit-flavored carbonated soft drinks created by Coca-Cola Deutschland under the leadership of German businessman Max Keith. There are more than 200 flavors worldwide. Fanta originated in Germany as ...

's and Polívka's Art Nouveau landmarks of the early 20th century Prague, Rondocubist attempts of Gočár and Janák at creating a distinct national style for the new Czechoslovak Republic – all of these are great examples of the rich architectural tradition of the Czech lands. The Czechoslovak pavilion was awarded the best pavilion of the 1958 World Expo in Brussels, earning the name ''Brussels style'' for the Czech architectural styles of those years. Jan Kaplický was a renowned Czech postmodern architect, particularly known for his works in the United Kingdom and one of the best known contemporary Czech architects is

Eva Jiřičná Eva Jiřičná (born 3 March 1939) is a Czech architect and designer, active in London and Prague. She is the founder of the architectural atelier ''Eva Jiricna Architects'', operating in Britain (at first as ''Jiřičná Kerr Associates'') fro ...

, who won the

Jane Drew Prize The Jane Drew Prize is an architecture award given annually by the ''Architects' Journal'' to a person showing innovation, diversity and inclusiveness in architecture. It is named after the English modernist architect Jane Drew. Background The Ja ...

in 2013.

Art

The art tradition in the Czech lands starts with engravings on

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...

tusks found in Pavlov and Předmostí at Přerov, and various Venus figurines, the most famous being the Venus of Dolní Věstonice. Artists from medieval times are mostly anonymous. The three most notable might be

Master of the Litoměřice Altarpiece The Master of the Litoměřice Altarpiece was a Bohemian painter active from the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th. Active in the International Gothic style, he was one of the first practitioners of Renaissance art north of th ...

Master of the Třeboň Altarpiece __NOTOC__ The Master of the Třeboň Altarpiece (german: Master of Wittingau) was a Bohemian painter active in Prague around 1380–1390. His name is derived from the Třeboň Altarpiece from the church of Saint Eligius at the Augustinian convent ...

and

Master of Vyšší Brod The Master of Vyšší Brod (also known as the Master of Hohenfurth, from the German name for the town of Vyšší Brod) was an anonymous Bohemian painter active around 1350. It seems likely that he was from Prague originally; an altarpiece for ...

. Another notable Czech

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

artist is

Master Theodoric Master Theodoric, in Latin Magister Theodoricus (before 1328? - before March 8, 1381, Prague, active - ca. 1360–1380) was a Bohemian painter. He is the best documented Bohemian Gothic painter. He was the favourite court painter of Charles IV, ...

, a court painter of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and his work in Karlštejn.

Karel Škréta Karel Škréta Šotnovský ze Závořic (1610 – 1674) was a Czech portrait painter who worked in the Baroque style. He lived through the Thirty Years' War which caused him some hardships as a Protestant which led him to leave Prague for Saxony ...

's portraits,

Wenceslaus Hollar Wenceslaus Hollar (23 July 1607 – 25 March 1677) was a prolific and accomplished Bohemian graphic artist of the 17th century, who spent much of his life in England. He is known to German speakers as ; and to Czech speakers as . He is particu ...

's engravings and etchings or

Ferdinand Brokoff Ferdinand Maxmilian Brokoff (Czech: ''Ferdinand Maxmilián Brokoff''; 12 September 1688 – 8 March 1731) was a sculptor and carver of the Baroque era. Life and career He was born in Červený Hrádek near Jirkov, Bohemia, the second son of Elis ...

's statues on

Charles Bridge Charles Bridge ( cs, Karlův most ) is a medieval stone arch bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic. Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV, and finished in the early 15th century.; ...

belong among the best examples of Czech

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

art.
One of the most prominent Czech romanticist painters was

Josef Mánes Josef Mánes (12 May 1820, Prague – 9 December 1871, Prague) was a Czech painter. Life He came from a family of painters, which included his father Antonín, his uncle and Director of the Prague Art Academy Václav, his brother Quido and h ...

, whose pupil was the versatile draftsman, illustrator and facade decorator

Mikoláš Aleš Mikoláš Aleš (18 November 1852 – 10 July 1913) was a Czech painter. Aleš is estimated to have had over 5,000 published pictures; he painted for everything from magazines to playing cards to textbooks. His paintings were not publicized to ...

. One of the leading figures of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

was Alphonse Mucha, best known for his theatrical posters and decorative panels.

Bohumil Kubišta Bohumil Kubišta (21 August 1884 in Vlčkovice, Bohemia – 27 November 1918 in Prague)Chilvers, Ian, and John Glaves-Smith. "Kubišta, Bohumil." in ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art''. Oxford University Press, 2009. Oxford Reference ...

created some of the most influential works of Czech

expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it ra ...

and

cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

Josef Lada Josef Lada (born 17 December 1887 in Hrusice, Bohemia – 14 December 1957 in Prague, buried at Olšany Cemetery) was a Czech painter, illustrator and writer. He is best known as the illustrator of Jaroslav Hašek's World War I novel ''The Goo ...

was one of the most notable Czech illustrators of the 20th century together with

Zdeněk Burian Zdeněk Michael František Burian (11 February 1905 in Kopřivnice, Moravia, Austria-Hungary – 1 July 1981 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) was a Czech painter, book illustrator and palaeoartist whose work played a central role in the development o ...

, famous for his work in Paleoart. One of the founding figures of modern Czech

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 1 ...

was František Kupka, whose painting ''Divertimento II'' sold in 2020 set the new Czech auction record.

Zdeněk Miler Zdeněk Miler (; 21 February 1921 – 30 November 2011) was a Czech animator and illustrator best known for his ''Mole'' (''Krtek'' or ''Krteček'' in original) character and its adventures. Early years Miler was born in Kladno just west of ...

was one of the most recognized Czech animators and cartoonists, known for his character of The Little Mole (''Krteček'' in Czech). Possibly the best known contemporary Czech artist is

David Černý David Černý (born 15 December 1967) is a Czech sculptor. His works can be mainly seen in many locations in Prague. Early life Černý was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. From 1988 to 1994 he studied at the Kurt Gebauer Studio at the Academy ...

known for his installations in public spaces.

Cinema

The history of Czech cinema starts with Jan Kříženecký, an early pioneer of cinematography from the end of the 19th century. The first major film studio, Barrandov Studios, was launched by Miloš Havel in 1933. Otakar Vávra was among the most notable domestic directors in Czechoslovakia from the late 1930s onward. In the 1960s – leading up to the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First ...

of 1968 – the Czechoslovak New Wave emerged, led by directors like

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech and American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the United States in 1968. Forman ...

Věra Chytilová Věra Chytilová (2 February 1929 – 12 March 2014) was an avant-garde Czech film director and pioneer of Czech cinema. Banned by the Czechoslovak government in the 1960s, she is best known for her Czech New Wave film, ''Sedmikrásky'' ('' ...

Jiří Menzel Jiří Menzel () (23 February 1938 – 5 September 2020) was a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these f ...

. Miloš Forman managed to flee before the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and continued his career in the United States, where he reached high critical acclaim and received two Academy Awards for Best Director for his movies ''

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest may refer to: * ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Ken Kesey * ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (play), a 1963 stage adaptation of the novel starring Kirk Douglas * ''One Flew Over the ...

'' (1975) and '' Amadeus'' (1984). Jiří Menzel was another Academy Award laureate, winning the 1967 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with his first feature film, '' Closely Watched Trains''. A contemporary director

Jan Svěrák Jan Svěrák () (born 6 February 1965 in Žatec) is a Czech film director. He is the son of screenwriter and actor Zdeněk Svěrák. He studied documentary filmmaking at the FAMU. He and his films have received awards including the Academy Award ...

is another laureate of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, which he received for his drama '' Kolya'' in 1996.
The Czech Republic also has a long tradition in animated movies. Probably the most notable animator is

Jiří Trnka Jiří Trnka (; 24 February 1912 – 30 December 1969) was a Czech puppet-maker, illustrator, motion-picture animator and film director. In addition to his extensive career as an illustrator, especially of children's books, he is best kn ...

– active from 1940s to 1960s – recognized especially for his

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

puppet movies.

Cuisine and diet

Traditionally, the main meal of the day consists of two courses with the first being a

soup Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot (but may be cool or cold), that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, milk, or water. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling soli ...

. Traditional main courses in Czech cuisine are mostly meat-based, often accompanied by a sauce or a gravy with a side dish of

dumplings Dumpling is a broad class of dishes that consist of pieces of dough (made from a variety of starch sources), oftentimes wrapped around a filling. The dough can be based on bread, flour, buckwheat or potatoes, and may be filled with meat, fish ...

or potatoes. Mushroom and berry picking remain a popular hobby among many Czechs during the summer and early autumn. Czech cuisine is also affected by the popularity of making compotes. Czechs are known to have the highest consumption of beer per person of any nation in the world. In 2020, the average Czech drank 143.3 liters of beer in a year.
Among the most common traditional dishes are roasted pork with dumplings and cabbage (''vepřo, knedlo, zelo'' in Czech), svíčková na smetaně, Czech guláš, or schnitzel (''řízek'' in Czech) with

potato salad Potato salad is a salad dish made from boiled potatoes, usually containing a dressing and a variety of other ingredients such as boiled eggs and raw vegetables. In the United States, it is generally considered a side dish and usually accompanie ...

Folklore and traditions

The most widely celebrated holiday is

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

, beginning with a dinner on December 24. The traditional Christmas dinner consists of a fried Czech

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

and a

, but many people replace it with a chicken or pork schnitzel.

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samue ...

, or "Velikonoce" (meaning "great nights"), is another major holiday in the Czech Republic. Red is a very commonly worn color during this time, because it symbolizes joy, health, happiness, and new life that comes with spring. Families elaborately decorate Easter eggs together. Another Easter tradition is the whipping of others' legs with the

pomlázka In the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and some parts of Hungary, the Easter Whip is used as part of a tradition of spanking or whipping on Easter Monday. In the morning, men gently spank women with a special handmade whip or switch called ''pomlázk ...

, which is a willow

switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

. Willow twigs are braided together and then are used by young boys to whip the girls' bottoms usually four times. This long-standing tradition is thought to bring health and youth to girls and women. The switch is called ''pomlázka'' meaning " rejuvenator", implying that a female struck by a ''pomlázka'' will become younger and prettier.
January first is New Year's Day. After a late morning start the main meal of the day is prepared, which should include pork for good luck and lentils for prosperity in the new year. It's bad luck to eat fish, your luck could swim away, or poultry, your luck could fly away. January 6 is the Feast of the

Three Kings The biblical Magi from Middle Persian ''moɣ''(''mard'') from Old Persian ''magu-'' 'Zoroastrian clergyman' ( or ; singular: ), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, also the Three Magi were distinguished foreigners in the ...

. In many Czech and Slovak villages, boys dress up as the three wise men “Kaspar, Balthazar and Melchior”. With a piece of chalk the boys write K + B + M (or K + M + B) above the doorways on houses, where people donate money for charity. This brings blessings on that home and its family for a year. The chalk letters should never be cleaned off, but only replaced the next year. This is also usually the day the

Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern ...

is taken down.

Literature

Music

One of the most notable early baroque composers is Adam Václav Michna of Otradovice, who lived in Jindřichův Hradec in the 17th century. He is the author of the oldest known Czech

Christmas carol A Christmas carol is a carol (a song or hymn) on the theme of Christmas, traditionally sung at Christmas itself or during the surrounding Christmas holiday season. The term noel has sometimes been used, especially for carols of French or ...

'' Chtíc, aby spal''. The biggest name among the Czech 18th century composers is probably Jan Dismas Zelenka, who was the director of the renowned Dresden Hofkapelle. He was also a great inspiration for Bedřich Smetana, who is generally considered one of the most influential Czech composers of 19th century classical music together with

Antonín Dvořák Antonín Leopold Dvořák ( ; ; 8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example ...

and Leoš Janáček. Of these three, the one best known internationally is Antonín Dvořák, being well received in the Great Britain and spending three years in the US as the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Dvořák's ''New World Symphony'' became "one of the most popular of all time" according to Clapham.Clapham, John, ''Dvořák'', Norton, New York, 1979, pp. 132–133. 19th century Bohemia is also a cradle of the popular folk dance

Polka Polka is a dance and genre of dance music originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though associated with Czech culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the Americas. History Etymology The te ...

. Among the Czech musicians of the 20th century, Karel Gott stands out the most, being the 42 times winner of the Golden Nightingale for the best male singer. He was one of the few musicians who were allowed to perform in the Western Bloc during the Cold War, becoming known as the "Golden voice of Prague".

Public holidays

Sports

Theatre

Czech theatrical tradition played a big part in the Czech National Revival. Opening of the National Theatre in Prague in 1881 was a great success of the Czech nationalists. In 1920, Karel Čapek published his science fiction play '' R.U.R.'', where he introduced the word "

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be ...

" to the English language and to

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

as a whole. A famous avant-garde theatre formed in the 1920s was the

Osvobozené divadlo Osvobozené divadlo (1926–1938) (''Liberated Theatre'' or ''Prague Free Theatre'') was a Prague avant-garde theatre scene founded as the theatre section of an association of Czech avant-garde artists Devětsil (''Butterbur'') in 1926. The theat ...

(''Liberated theatre'' in English) of Jan Werich and Jiří Voskovec.

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then ...

– one of the leaders of the democratic dissent during the rule of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

and the first Czech president – was also a playwright, best known for his 1963 absurd play '' The Garden Party'', which criticized

conformism Conformity is the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to group norms, politics or being like-minded. Norms are implicit, specific rules, shared by a group of individuals, that guide their interactions with others. People often choo ...

in socialist Czechoslovakia.

Museum

References

External links

Czech culture
Culture of the Czech Republic
Current Czech events abroadCultural life of the Czech Republic
{{Culture of Europe pt:República Checa#Cultura