Home > Prague
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| Area: | 496 km˛ |
| Population: | 1,169,106 (2001) |
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Prague (Praha in Czech) 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 inhabitants. (It can be derived from jobs statistics, however, that additional 300,000 work there without having registered as residents.)
Nicknames for Prague have included "city of a hundred spires", "the golden city", "the Paris of the Twenties in the Nineties", the "mother of all cities", and "the heart of Europe". Since 1992, the historic center of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of world heritage sites.
1 History
Founded in the latter part of the 9th century, Prague soon became the seat of the kings of Bohemia, some of whom later reigned also as emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. The city flourished during the 14th century reign of Charles IV, who ordered the building of the New City, the Charles Bridge, Saint Vitus Cathedral, the oldest gothic cathedralA Cathedral is a Christian church that serves as the central church of a bishopric. As cathedrals are often particularly impressive edifices, the term is sometimes also used loosely as a designation for any large important church. The term is not official in central EuropeHistorical lands and provinces in Central Europe Central Europe is the region of Europe between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. There are no physical landmarks that would commonly be seen as its borders. Rather, it is a concept of shared history, in op and actually inside the Castle, and the Charles University, the oldest universityA university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. A university provides both tertiary and quaternary education. University is derived from the Latin universitas meaning corporation since the first medieval in central Europe north of the AlpsThe Alps is the collective name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria in the east, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany, through to France in the west. The highest mountain in the Alps is the Mon. Prague was then the third-largest city in Europe.
The four independent boroughs that had formerly constituted Prague were eventually proclaimed a single city in 1784Events January 6 the Turks agree to Russia's annexation of the Crimea in the Treaty of Constantinople January 14 The U. Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with England to end the American Revolutionary War February 27 Count of St Germain dies of pneumo. Those four cities were HradanyHradčany the Castle District is the Prague district surrounding Prague Castle. The castle is said to be the biggest castle in the world at about 570 meters length and an average of about 130 meters wide. Its history stretches back to the 8th century (the Castle District, west and north of the Castle), Malá StranaMala Strana (in English literally "Little Side", though more frequently described as "Lesser Quarter" or "Lesser Side") is originally a popular and nowadays also official name for former Menši město pražsk ("The Lesser Town of Prague"), (the Lesser Town, south of the Castle), Staré Msto (the Old Town, on the east bank opposite the Castle) and Nové Msto (the New Town, further south and east). The city underwent further expansion with the annexation of Josefov in 1850 and Vyehrad in 1883, and at the beginning of 1922, another 37 municipalities were incorporated, raising the city's population to 676,000. Most of the city's 50,000 Jews died in the Nazi genocide of World War II.
Prague suffered from serious flooding in August 2002, with parts of the city having to be evacuated. The floods caused a lot of damage, but fortunately no major landmarks (such as the Charles Bridge) were destroyed.
