Culture in the Region - Overview
  
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As early as during the period of the Czech National Revival a strong literary tradition manifested itself in the Hradec Králové region and Eastern
Bohemia used to be called by right a country of Bible readers. Hradec Králové was one of the notable places where that idea developed and spread further thanks
to such personalities as was for example the dramatist Václav Kliment Klicpera (1792-1859). The names of the writers Božena Němcová (1820-1862) and
Karel Jaromír Erben (1811-1870) are connected with the world of letters of the 19th century. Alois Jirásek (1851-1930) devoted his extensive literary work to Czech
history.
Their heritage was later adopted by numerous other authors born in the region, living there and frequently also drawing their inspiration from there:
the author of drama and prose Karel Čapek (1890-1938), his brother who was a painter and a writer Josef Čapek (1887-1945) or Egon Hostovský (1908-1973).
Of the contemporary writers it is the native of Náchod Josef Škvorecký (1924).
It was not only the inspiring character of the local countryside of the region which spreads from the plains of the river Elbe to the Krkonoše and the Orlické mountains that brought a flourish of outstanding artists at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Among them František Kupka (1871-1957) and Josef Šíma (1891-1971) who were famous later in their lives above all in France. Other outstanding personalities of Czech visual arts rooted in our region were doubtless the painters Bohumil Kubišta (1884-1918), Václav Špála (1885-1946) or Vincenc Beneš (1883-1979) and the sculptors Ladislav Zívr (1909-1980) and Josef Wagner (1901-1957). A large number of traditional cultural events take place in the Hradec Králové region annually. In Hradec Králové itself it is the international festival of professional theatre ensembles Theatre European Regions and the jazz festival Jazz Goes to Town. The Rychnov nad Kněžnou national festival of amateur film The Rychnov Eight already has a long tradition. In recent years also the theatre festival the Poláček Summer has established itself well there. For over seventy years there has been taking place in Hronov the annual national festival of amateur theatres, the Jirásek Hronov. The International Festival of Folklore in Červený Kostelec has had a fifty years long tradition behind it. Among the more recently established festivals there is the „fine season“ survey of student films in Náchod. During the past ten years the Trutnov rock Open Air Music Festival has been attracting large audiences and faithful participants. A unique and major event, both on the national and international level, is the well-known festival Jičín - a Fairy Tale Town. Poetry and the spoken word have been focused for over forty years during the annual national summer festival the Šrámek Sobotka. |
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