21 October 2015 - The Philippine Embassy in Prague formally launched the Rizal-Blumentritt Heritage Trail in the city of Litoměřice in North Bohemia, Czech Republic on October 11 with a formal ceremony at the Kava s Parou Café.  The Café, coincidentally, is itself located at the old Train Station where, in 1887, Philippine national hero Jose Rizal arrived from Germany and met his pen-friend Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt face-to-face for the first time.

The Heritage Trail project, spearheaded by First Secretary and Consul Juan E. Dayang, Jr., commissioned local artist Karel Mačas to draw 10-points of interests in the four-kilometer heart-shaped circular heritage trail in Litoměřice, passing  through magnificent views of the picturesque Baroque city of Litoměřice starting from the Bus and Train Station, the Rizal-Blumentritt Bastion (Centro Rizal Museum),  Blumentritt’s former home on Dlouha St., Rizal’s Bust at the Salva Guarda Hotel, the Rizal Park, the Labe River, the Bishop’s Palace and Cathedral, the Secondary School where Blumentritt taught and ending at the Peace Square to view the former Krebs Hotel where Rizal stayed during his visit with Dr. Maximo Viola in May 1887.

The Embassy circulated brochures of the Trail in the Filipino, Czech and English languages. Attending the launch were Litoměřice Mayor Ladislav Chlupáč and his wife, Instituto Cervantes Director Ramiro Villapadierna, artist Karel Mačas and his family, Embassy officers and staff and members of the Filipino community numbering nearly a hundred participants.

The Embassy provided two transport buses for the Filipino community members, friends, and their family members from Prague to Litoměřice and back. The Philippine contingent attended the 10:00 o’ clock morning mass at the Cathedral.

Lunch and the formal launch of the Rizal Trail at the Kava s Parou followed soon after, then hitting the road on foot for two hours or so. Consul Dayang and Litoměřice resident and Filipino community member Rosa Delma Machackova acted as tour guides. Everyone ended at the Rizal-Blumentritt bastion, where refreshments were served. Filipino community members and their three guitarists, Kyle Cordenete, Vhenz Millares and Jake Ramones, spontaneously broke into patriotic songs there.

The Embassy turned over the brochures and two panels of posters to the Bastion to complement the ongoing work of the City of Litoměřice in promoting Philippine-Czech friendship through the legacy of Rizal and Blumentritt. END