Prague
Prague (
Czech:
Praha (
IPA: ), see also
other names) is the
capital and largest city of the
Czech Republic. Situated on the
Vltava river in central
Bohemia, it is home to approximately 1.2 million people. (It can be derived from jobs statistics, however, that an additional 300,000 work there without having registered as residents.)
Nicknames for Prague have included "city of a hundred spires" and "the golden city". Since
1992, the historic center of Prague has been included in the
UNESCO list of
World Heritage Sites. According to
Guinness World Records, Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world.
The area on which Prague was founded has been settled since the
Paleolithic Age. Around
200 BC the
Celts had a settlement in the south called Závist, but later they were replaced (either expelled or assimilated) by
Germanics. The
Slavs conquered the site from the
4th century AD onwards, though for a period they were subdued by the Mongolian
Avars.
According to legend, Prague was founded by the Princess Libuše and her husband, Přemysl, founder of the dynasty with the same name. Whether this legend is true or not, Prague's first nucleus was founded in the latter part of the
9th century as a castle on a hill commanding the right bank of the
Vltava: this is known as
Vyšehrad ("high castle") to differentiate from the castle which was later erected on the opposite bank, the future Hradčany. Soon the city became the seat of the
Kings of Bohemia, some of whom also later reigned as emperors of the
Holy Roman Empire. It was an important seat for trading where merchants coming from all Europe settled, including many
Jews, as recalled by the Jewish merchant and traveler Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub in
965. The city became a bishopric in
973.
King
Vladislav II had the first bridge on the Vltava — the Judith Bridge — built in
1170, though it crumbled in
1342. The
Charles Bridge was later built on its foundations.
In
1257, under King
Otakar II,
Malá Strana ("Lesser Quarter") was founded in Prague in the future Hradčany area as the district of the Germans, who had the right to administer the law autonomously, referring to the
Magdeburg legislation. The new district was on the opposite bank to the
Staré Město ("Old Town"), which had then borough status and was defended by a line of walls on fortifications.
The city flourished during the
14th century reign of
Charles IV, of the new
Luxembourg dynasty. He ordered the building of the
New Town (
Nové Město) adjacent to the Old Town. The Charles Bridge was erected to connect the new district to Malá Strana. Monuments by Charles include also
Saint Vitus Cathedral, the oldest
Gothic cathedral in
central Europe inside the Castle, and the
Charles University. The latter is the oldest
university in central Europe. Prague was then the third-largest city in Europe. Under Charles Prague was the capital of the
Holy Roman Empire, and its rank was elevated to that of archbishopric. It had also a mint and German and Italian merchants, as well as bankers, in the city. The social order, however, became more turbulent owing to the rising power of the craftsmen's guild, themselves often torn by internal fights, and the presence of increasing number of poor people.
Under King
Wenceslas IV —
Václav IV — (
1378–
1419)
Jan Hus, a theologian and lector at the University, held his sermons in Prague. From
1402 he summoned his
followers to the Bethlehem Chapel, speaking in
Czech to enlarge as much as possible the diffusion of his ideas about the reformation of the church. Having become too dangerous for the political and religious establishment, Hus was burned in
Constance in
1415. Four years later Prague experienced its first
defenestration, when the people rebelled under the command of the Prague priest
Jan Želivský and threw the city's counselors from the New Town Hall. Hus's death had spurred the so-called
Hussite revolt. In
1420 peasant rebels, led by the famous general
Jan Žižka, along with Hussite troops from Prague, defeated the Bohemian King
Sigismund (
Zikmund, son of Charles IV), in the
Battle of Vítkov Mountain.
In the following two centuries Prague strengthened its role as a merchant city. Many noteworthy
Gothic buildings were erected, including the Vladislav Hall in the
Hradčany.
In
1526 the Kingdom of Bohemia was handed over to the
House of Habsburg. The fervent
Catholicism of its members was to have grevious consequences in Bohemia, and then in Prague, where
Protestant ideas instead had increasing popularity. These problems were not preeminent under Emperor
Rudolf II, elected King of Bohemia in
1576, who chose Prague as his home. He lived in the Castle where he held his bizarre courts of astrologers, magicians and other strange figures. This was a prosperous period for the city: famous people living there in that age included the astronomers
Tycho Brahe and
Johann Kepler, the painter
Arcimboldo and others.
In
1618 the famous
Defenestration of Prague provoked the
Thirty Years' War.
Ferdinand II of Habsburg was deposed, and his place as King of Bohemia taken by
Frederick V of Pfalz. But the Bohemian army was crushed in the
Battle of the White Mountain (
1620), not far from the city, and thenceforth Prague and Bohemia encountered a harsh period in which religious tolerance was abolished and the Catholic
Counter-Reformation became dominant in every aspect of life. The city suffered also under
Saxon (
1631) and
Swedish (
1648) occupation. Moreover, after the
Peace of Westphalia of the latter year, Ferdinand moved the court to
Vienna, and Prague began a steady decline which reduced the population from the 60,000 it had had in the years before the war to 20,000.
The 17th century is considered the Golden Age of Jewish Prague. The
Jewish community of Prague numbered some 15,000 people (approx. 30 per cent of the entire population), making it the largest
Ashkenazic community in the world and the second largest community in Europe after
Thessaloniki. In the years
1597 to
1609, the Maharal (
Judah Loew ben Bezalel) served as Prague´s chief rabbi. He is considered the greatest of Jewish scholars in Prague´s history, his tomb at the Old Jewish Cemetery eventually becoming a pilgrimage site.The expulsion of Jews from Prague by
Maria Theresa of Austria in
1745 based on their alleged collaboration with the Prussian army was a severe blow to the flourishing Jewish community. The queen allowed the Jews to return to the city in
1748. In
1848 the gates of the Prague
ghetto were opened. The former Jewish quarter, renamed Josefov in
1850, was demolished during the "ghetto clearance" (Czech: Asanace) on the turn of the 19th to the 20th century.
In
1689 a great fire devastated Prague, but this spurred a renovation and a rebuilding of the city. The economic rise continued through the following century, and the city in
1771 had 80,000 inhabitants. Many of these were rich merchants who, together with noblemen of German, Spanish and even Italian origin, enriched the city with a host of palaces, churches and gardens, creating a
Baroque style renowned throughout the world. In
1784, under
Joseph II, the four municipalities of Malá Strana, Nové Město, Staré Město and Hradčany were merged into a single entity. The Jewish district, called Josefov, was included only in
1850. The
Industrial Revolution had a strong effect in Prague, as factories could take advantage of the coalmines and ironworks of the nearby region. A first suburb, Karlín, was created in
1817, and twenty years later the population exceeded 100,000. The first railway connection was built in
1842.
The revolutions that shocked all Europe around
1848 touched Prague too, but they were fiercely suppressed. In the following years the Czech nationalist movement (opposed to another nationalist party, the German one) began its rise, until it gained the majority in the Town Council in
1861.
World War I ended with the defeat of
Austria-Hungary and the creation of
Czechoslovakia. Prague was chosen as its capital. At this time Prague was a true European capital with a very developed industrial base. In
1930 the population had risen to a startling 850,000.
For most of its history Prague had been a multiethnic city with important
Czech,
German, and
Jewish populations. From
1939, when the country was occupied by
Nazi Germany, and during
World War II, most Jews either fled the city or were killed in the
Holocaust. Most of the Jews living in Prague after the war emigrated in the years of Communism, particularly after the communist
coup, the establishment of
Israel in
1948, and the Soviet invasion in
1968. In the early 1990s, the Jewish Community in Prague numbered only 800 people compared to nearly 50,000 before the
World War II. In
2006, some 1,600 people were registered in the Jewish Community. The German population, which had formed the majority of the city's inhabitants until the
19th century, was expelled or fled in the aftermath of the war. Prague's Czech people had revolted against the Nazi occupants as early as
May 5,
1945, and four days later the Soviet army entered the city. Meanwhile, acts of revenge against the German population occurred in retribution for German cruelties carried out under the occupation. German schools were attacked as well as individuals though the scale and detail of the events are disputed.[
1] Later, when Czech nationalist and communist militias were ordered by the Czechoslovak government to subject themselves to government rule, the revenge acts decreased. [
2] The large German minority was either murdered or deported to West Germany by rail. Prague was henceforth the capital of a Communist Republic under the military and political control of the
Soviet Union, and in
1955 it entered the
Warsaw Pact.
The always lively intellectual world of Prague, however, suffered under the totalitarian regime, in spite of the rather careful program of rebuilding of and caring for the damaged monuments after World War II. At the 4th Czechoslovakian Writers' Congress held in the city in
1967 a strong position against the regime was taken. This spurred the new secretary of Communist Party,
Alexander Dubček to proclaim a new deal in his city's and country's life, starting the short-lived season of the "socialism with a human face". It was the
Prague Spring, which aimed at democratic reform of institutions. The Soviet Union and the rest of the Warsaw Pact reacted, occupying Czechoslovakia and the capital in August
1968, suppressing under tanks' tracks any attempt of renovation.
In
1989, after the
Berlin Wall had fallen, and the
Velvet Revolution crowded the streets of Prague, Czechoslovakia finally freed itself from communism and soviet influence, and Prague benefited deeply from the new mood. In
1993, after the split of
Czechoslovakia, Prague became capital city of the new
Czech Republic.
Timeline of most important moments of Prague history
*
870 Prague Castle founded
*
1085 Prague became the seat of kings - 1st king
Vratislaus II.*
1344 the Prague Bishopric became an Archdiocese
*
1346 the rule of
Charles IV. - Prague capital of
Holy Roman Empire*
1348 University of Prague (
Charles University) founded
*
1378 Jan Hus´s reformations
*
1419 1st
Prague defenestration*
1420 battle on Vítkov Mountain - Hussites win over
crusaders
*
1583 rule of
Rudolf II - city for the 2nd time the capital of Holy Roman Empire and cultural center of
Europe*
1618 2nd
Prague defenestration sparked off the
Thirty Years' War*
1621 execution of 27 Czech lords on the Old Town Square as a consequence of the
Battle of White Mountain*
1648 west bank of Prague (including the
Prague Castle)
occupied and looted by Swedish armies
*
1741 occupation by French-Bavarian armies
*
1744 occupation by Prussian armies
*
1848 revolutionary uprising crushed by imperial army
*
1890 big flood caused extreme damage
*
1918 after
World War I Prague became the capital of
Czechoslovakia*
1938 after political
betrayal of allies (
France and
Britain at
Munich) Germany occupied Sudetenland and in 1939 the whole country
*
1942 Czechoslovak paratroopers kill
Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis respond with wave of terror
*
1945 U.S. Air Force conducts
bombing of Prague in World War II, killing hundreds of Praguers by mistake. (Target was
Dresden, 134 km away).
*
1945 uprising against the Nazis during the last days of
World War II, cruelties against
ethnic German minority, ended with the take-over by the
Red Army.
*
1948 communist takeover of power
*
1968 Soviet army invasion to repress the
Prague Spring*
1989 Prague is the main center of
Velvet Revolution (the fall of communist regime)
*
2000 Anti-globalization Protests in Prague (some 15,000 protesters) turned violent during the
IMF and
World Bank summits
*
2002 Prague suffers from
flooding, parts of the city evacuated but no major landmarks destroyed
The four independent boroughs that had formerly constituted Prague were eventually proclaimed a single city in
1784. Those four cities were
Hradčany (the Castle District, west and north of the Castle),
Lesser Quarter (Malá Strana, south of the Castle),
Old Town (Staré Město, on the east bank opposite the Castle) and
New Town (Nové Město, further south and east). The city underwent further expansion with the annexation of
Josefov in 1850 and
Vyšehrad in 1883, and at the beginning of 1922, another 37 municipalities were incorporated, raising the city's population to 676,000. In 1938 population reached 1,000,000.
Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Prague has become one of Europe's (and the world's) most popular tourist destinations. Prague was one of the few European cities relatively untouched during the World Wars, allowing its historic architecture to stay true to form. There are lots of old buildings, many with beautiful
murals on them. It contains one of the world's most pristine and varied collections of architecture, from
Art Nouveau to
Baroque,
Renaissance,
Cubist,
Gothic,
Neo-Classical and
ultra-modern. Some of the most known sights are:
|
Packed with tourists on a busy summer day in Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter), Prague |
*
Old Town (Staré Město) with its
Old Town Square* The
Astronomical Clock* The picturesque
Charles Bridge*
New Town (Nové město) with its busy and historic
Wenceslas Square*
Malá Strana (Lesser Quarter)
*
Prague Castle (the largest castle in the world) with its
St. Vitus Cathedral*
Josefov (the old Jewish quarter) with
Old Jewish Cemetery and
Old New Synagogue* The
Lennon Wall*
Vinohrady* The museum of
Heydrich assassination in the crypt of the
Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius*
National Museum*
Vyšehrad castle
*
Petřínská rozhledna, an observation tower on Petřín hill, which is nearly a 1:5 copy of the
Eiffel Tower*
Žižkov Television Tower with observation deck
*
The New Jewish Cemetery in Olšany, location of
Franz Kafka's grave
* The
Metronome, a giant, functional metronome that looms over the city
* The
Dancing House (Fred and Ginger Building)
* The Mucha Museum, showcasing the
Art Nouveau works of
Alfons Mucha* Places connected to writers living in the city, such as
Franz Kafka.
Prague is a traditional cultural centre of
Europe, hosting many cultural events.
Most Important Cultural Institutions:*
National Theatre*
The Rudolfinum (home to the
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra)
*
National Opera*
National Museum*
National Library*
National GalleryThere are hundreds of concert halls, galleries, cinemas and music clubs in the city. Prague also hosts
Film Festivals,
Music Festivals, a
Writers Festival, hundreds of
Vernissages and
Fashion Shows.
See also *
Prague Spring International Music Festival*
Prague Autumn International Music Festival*
Febiofest*
One World Film Festival* Echoes of the
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival*
Barrandov Studios*
Prague Writers Festival*
Prague International Organ Festival*
Prague Fringe Festival*
World Roma Festival* Premiere of
Mozart's
Don GiovanniThe GDP per capita of Prague is more than double that of the Czech Republic as a whole, with a per-capita GDP (PPP) of EUR 32,357 in 2002, which is at 153% of the
European Union average. The city is becoming a site of European headquarters of many international companies.
Since the late 1990s, Prague has become a popular filming location for international productions and
Hollywood motion pictures. Unlike many other European cities, Prague did not suffer great destruction during
World War II, and the city is often used as a "stand in" for other pre-WW2 European cities, such as
Amsterdam or
London. [
3] [
4] A combination of architecture, low costs, tax breaks, and the existing motion picture infrastructure have proved attractive to international film production companies.
The city contains eight universities and colleges including the oldest
university in Central and Eastern Europe:
*
Charles University (UK) founded in
1348*
Czech Technical University (ČVUT) founded in
1707*
Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) founded in
1800*
Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design (VŠUP) founded in
1885*
Institute of Chemical Technology (VŠCHT) founded in
1920*
Academy of Performing Arts (AMU) founded in
1945*
Czech University of Agriculture (ČZU) founded in
1952*
University of Economics (VŠE) founded in
1953Integrated transport system
Public transport infrastructure consists of an integrated transport system of
three metro lines (with 54 stations in total),
trams,
Prague Tram System (including the
"nostalgic tram" no. 91), buses, a
funicular to
Petřín Hill and a
chairlift at
Prague Zoo. All services have a common ticketing system, and are run by
Dopravní podnik hl. m. Prahy (The Capital City of Prague Transport Company).
Rail
The city forms the hub of the
Czech railway system, with services to all parts of the Czech Republic and to neighbouring countries.
Prague has two international railway stations,
Hlavní nádraží (sometimes referred to as Wilsonovo nádraží) and Praha Holešovice. Intercity services also stop at the main stations Praha Smíchov and Masarykovo nádraží. In addition to these, there are a number of smaller suburban stations.
Air
Prague is served by
Ruzyně International Airport, which is the hub of the flag carrier,
Czech Airlines. There are several cheap flights per day from the UK and from other countries.
Ruzyně International Airport is considered as one of the most modern airports in Europe.
Taxis
|
Jubilee Synagogue, built in 1906 to 1907 by Wilhelm Stiastny, of Vienna, is the largest Jewish place of worship in Prague |
The
taxi service in Prague has had a somewhat chequered history. During the rule of Communist Party in
Czechoslovakia (1948"1989), the taxi service was nationalised into one umbrella company, and, with a short exception during liberalization related to the
Prague Spring, no independent taxi drivers were allowed. The quality and availability of the service was low. This caused many enterprising people to run illegal taxi services. Their earnings were far above income of typical citizens and became a source of envy. After the
fall of the Communist regime, the service was liberalized and anyone could become a taxi driver. Unfortunately, the chaos of transition from planned to market economy did not leave any time to implement sufficient regulations. The lack of planning and controls has led to a number of serious taxi
scams operating in the city; some of which have been linked with
organised crime. Many of the victims of overpricing are tourists.
Taxi services in Prague can currently be divided into three sectors. There are major taxicab companies, operating call-for-taxi services (radio-taxi) or from regulated taxi stands, where overpricing is rare and regulation mostly in place. There are independent drivers, who make pick-ups on the street; cheating is mostly associated with these cars. Lastly, there are fake taxi drivers, who operate as "contractual transport services" in order to avoid government regulation.
Prague is the site of many sports events, national
stadiums and
teams *
Prague International Marathon*
Sparta Prague ->
UEFA Champions League*
Slavia Prague ->
UEFA Cup*
Sazka Arena ->
2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships and
Euroleague Final Four 2006
*
Strahov Stadium — the largest stadium in the world
*
Mystic SK8 Cup — World cup of skateboarding
*
Prague open — prestige
Floorball cup
* and more
Prague is also the site of the most important offices and institutions of the Czech Republic and Central Europe.
*
President of Czech Republic* The
Government and both houses of the
Parliament*
Czech Television and other major broadcasters
*
Radio Free Europe —
Radio Liberty*
Prague Institute for Global Urban Development* and more
Major events of recent years:*
NATO Summit 2002
*
International Monetary Fund and
World Bank Summit 2000
*
International Olympic Committee Session 2004
*
International Astronomical Union General Assembly 2006* and thousands of smaller events
:
See main article Famous people connected with Prague for a detailed list.Being the cultural and economical center of Bohemia, Prague attracted many famous people. Some of the best known are:
*
Charles IV*
Rudolf II*
Jan Hus *
Bohumil Hrabal*
Franz Kafka - German Jewish writer
*
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Austrian German composer
*
Antonín Dvořák*
Václav Havel*
Albert Einstein - German Jewish scientist
*
Milan Kundera - Famous Writer
*The record of 1230 includes Staré Město only
*The records of 1370 and 1600 includes Staré město, Nové město, Malá Strana and Hradčany quarters
*Numbers beside other years denote the population of Prague within the administrative border of the city at that time (and population including present suburbs in parentheses).
 |
The Church of St. Nicolas. |
*
Hamburg,
Germany*
Infant Jesus of Prague*
Golem of Prague*
Prague specifics*
Prague city districts*
Prague uprising*
Prague Zoo*
Official Website* Metro, trams, and buses operated by
Dopravni podnik hl.m Prahy, a.s.*
Connection search in Prague public transport*
National Theatre*
State Opera*
Prague Daily Monitor — Czech news in English
*
Average weather conditions*
Current weather parameters
