Prague's monuments will go dark tonight to mark Earth Hour 2022

Dozens of Prague monuments that are normally brightly-lit during the night hours will be going dark tonight to mark Earth Hour 2022. From 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 26, Prague monuments such as Charles Bridge, Týn Church and the Jan Hus statue at Old Town Square, and other locations will switch off the lights.

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 as an initiative to symbolically show support for the planet by switching off non-essential lights for one hour. Organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature, Earth Hour is annually observed on the last Saturday in March.

A total of 50 monuments throughout the Czech capital will go dark tonight during the Earth Hour event. They include many of the city's churches and tourist attractions that are usually illuminated overnight.

"Just like last year, this year fifty monuments [will go dark], including the National Theater and the State Opera, the Rudolfinum, Old Town Hall, the National Monument in Vítkov, and I must specifically name the Petřín Lookout Tower, which is traditionally associated with important events," said Tomáš Jílek, Chairman of the Board of Directors of THMP, which operates Prague's public lighting.

In total, THMP provides nighttime illumination to 140 monuments and architecturally significant buildings across Prague. Dozens of them will go dark tonight in observance of this year's Earth Hour.

In addition to those mentioned above, the Vyšehrad National Monument, the Church of St. Ludmila at Náměstí Míru, the Municipal House and Powder Tower, the Church of St. Cyril and Methodius Karlín, and other churches and monuments across Prague will turn off the lights tonight.

Prague has participated in Earth Hour over the past decade, and encourages its residents to take part in the event and switch off non-essential lights tonight as well. 

"By symbolically extinguishing Prague's monuments for one hour, we want to show that we, as a city are fully aware that the climate crisis affects us all, and that we want to contribute to averting its effects together," Prague Deputy Mayor Petr Hlubuček states in a press release.

"We are becoming more and more aware of our responsibility to our planet. We are therefore helping Prague to build a solar power plant and also a charging network for electric cars," adds Jílek.

"In addition, for a pilot project, we are introducing smart lighting that shines at full intensity only when movement is detected. And we also think about the protection of our planet within our company - we drive ecological cars and handle waste responsibly."

The City of Prague itself has taken numerous steps to reduce CO2 emissions moving forward, and three years ago city councilors signed a climate commitment that outlines various measures the city will take over the coming years.

One of those measures is the revitalization of its network of public light poles, which will be gradually updated to include up to 3,000 charging points for electric vehicles.