General Overview of Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is still all things to all people. From the pulsing capital Prague to the back-in-time villages of Moravia, from toiling up mountains to lounging in spas, from the world-famous Pilsner to the strains of Smetana and Dvoŕák, there's an experience to suit every taste.

Stunning architecture is not limited to Prague - there are plenty of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque facades in other towns. Among the richest are Kutná Hora in Central Bohemia; Cheb, Loket and Domažlice in western Bohemia; Olomouc in northern Moravia; and Telá and Kroměříž in southern Moravia.

Cyclists will appreciate the undulating Bohemian plateau, drained by the Vltava, the republic's longest river, and its parent river, the Labe, and dotted with castles and modest villages. A natural pathway through Moravia is the 'Moravian Gate', the linked valleys of the Morava, Beva and Odra rivers, the only lowland corridor across the Czech Republic. Though this is the most densely populated part of the republic, the hills to both sides offer some of its most peaceful traveling.

Background:

Following the First World War, the closely related Czechs and Slovaks of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire merged to form Czechoslovakia. During the interwar years, the new country's leaders were frequently preoccupied with meeting the demands of other ethnic minorities within the republic, most notably the Sudeten Germans and the Ruthenians (Ukrainians). After World War II, a truncated Czechoslovakia fell within the Soviet sphere of influence. In 1968, an invasion by Warsaw Pact troops ended the efforts of the country's leaders to liberalize Communist party rule and create "socialism with a human face." Anti-Soviet demonstrations the following year ushered in a period of harsh repression. With the collapse of Soviet authority in 1989, Czechoslovakia regained its freedom through a peaceful "Velvet Revolution." On 1 January 1993, the country underwent a "velvet divorce" into its two national components, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.

After the fall of the Berlin wall millions of people from the west sped to the Czech Republic, especially its capital Prague. And with some reason. This central European country really has a lot to show and Prague is definitely one of the most beautiful cities in the whole world. The ancient tradition of brewing beer (Budweiser was originally a Czech beer) makes your stay in the country an even more enjoyable one.

Area: total: 78,866 sq km
land: 77,276 sq km
water: 1,590 sq km

Land boundaries: border countries: Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovakia

Environment: Current Issues: air and water pollution in areas of northwest Bohemia and in northern Moravia around Ostrava present health risks; acid rain damaging forests; efforts to bring industry up to EU code should improve domestic pollution

Population: 10,246,178 (July 2004 est.)

Capital City: Prague (pop. 1.2 million)

People: Czech (s)

Languages: Czech

Ethnic groups: Czech 81.2%, Moravian 13.2%, Slovak 3.1%, Polish 0.6%, German 0.5%, Silesian 0.4%, Roma 0.3%, Hungarian 0.2%, other 0.5% (1991)

Religions: Roman Catholic 39.2%, Protestant 4.6%, Orthodox 3%, other 13.4%, atheist 39.8%

Government: Parliamentary Democracy

Independence: January 1st, 1993 (Czechoslovakia split into Czech Republic and Slovakia)

Chief of State: President Vaclav Klaus

GDP: US$69.9 billion
GDP per capita: US$5,560
Annual Growth: 1.5%

GDP - Composition by sector:
Agriculture: 3.1%
Industry: 35.5%
Services: 61.4%

Agriculture - products: wheat, potatoes, sugar beets, hops, fruit; pigs, poultry

Industries: metallurgy, machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, glass, armaments.

Major Industries: Machinery, transport, steel, armaments, vehicles, cement, ceramics, cotton, beer
Major Trading Partners: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Russia, Italy
Member of EU: Yes
Currency: Czech koruna (CZK)

History:

Prague Castle was founded in the 870s by Prince Borivoj as the main seat of the Premysl dynasty, though the Premysls failed to unite the squabbling Czech tribes until 993. In 950, the German King Otto I conquered Bohemia and incorporated it into his Holy Roman Empire. In 1212, the pope granted the Premsyl prince Otakar I the right to rule as king. His son and successor Otakar II tried to claim the title of Holy Roman Emperor as well as king of the Czechs, but the imperial crown went to Rudolph Habsburg. Strong rule under the Habsburgs brought with it Bohemia's Golden Age. Prague grew into one of Europe's largest and most important cities, and was ornamented with fine Gothic landmarks.

The late 14th and early 15th centuries witnessed an influential Church-reform movement, the Hussite Revolution, led by the Czech Jan Zizka, who was inspired by the teachings of Jan Hus. The spread of Hussitism had threatened the Catholic status quo all over Europe. In 1420 combined Hussite forces successfully defended Prague against the first of a series of anti-Hussite crusades, which had been launched with the authority of the pope. Though they were up against larger and better equipped forces, the Hussites repeatedly went on the offensive and raided deep into Germany, Poland and Austria.

In 1526 the Czech kingdom again came under control of the Catholic Habsburgs. On 23 May 1618, the Bohemian Estates, protesting against both the Habsburgs' failure to deliver on promises of religious tolerance and the loss of their own privileges, ejected two Habsburg councilors from an upper window of Prague Castle (they survived with minor injuries). This famous 'defenestration' sparked off the Thirty Years' War. The Czechs lost their rights and property and almost their national identity through forced Catholicization and Germanization, and their fate was sealed for the next three centuries.

In the 19th century, Bohemia and Moravia were swept by nationalistic sentiments. The Czech lands joined in the 1848 revolutions sweeping Europe, and Prague was the first city in the Austrian Empire to rise in favor of reform.

The dream of an independent state took shape during the 20th century, gaining momentum through the events of WWI. Eventually Czechs and Slovaks agreed to form a single federal state of two equal republics. The First Republic initially experienced an industrial boom; however, slow development, the Great Depression, an influx of Czech bureaucrats and the breaking of a promise of a Slovak federal state generated calls for Slovak autonomy.

Czechoslovakia was not left to solve its problems in peace. Most of Bohemia's three million German speakers fell for the dream of a greater Germany. Hitler demanded (and got) the Sudetenland in the infamous Munich agreement of 1938 and the Czechs prepared for war. Although Bohemia and Moravia suffered little material damage in the war, many of the Czech intelligentsia were killed and the Germans managed to wipe out most of the Czech underground. Tens of thousands of Czech and Slovak Jews perished in concentration camps. On 5 May 1945, the population of Prague rose against the German forces as the Red Army approached from the east. The Germans, granted free passage out of the city by the victorious Czech resistance, began pulling out on 8 May. Most of Prague was thus liberated before Soviet forces arrived the following day.

Czechoslovakia was re-established as an independent state. Attempts to consolidate its cultural identity - and punish its oppressors - included large scale deportations of German and Hungarian inhabitants. In the 1946 elections, the Communists became the largest party, with 36% of the popular vote. The 1950s was an era of harsh repression and decline as the Communist economic policies nearly bankrupted the country. Many people were imprisoned, and hundreds were executed or died in labor camps, often for little more than a belief in democracy. In the 1960s, Czechoslovakia enjoyed a gradual liberalization. A new president, the former Slovak party leader Alexander Dubcek, represented a popular desire for full democracy and an end to censorship - 'socialism with a human face'. Soviet leaders, unable to face the thought of a democratic society within the Soviet bloc, crushed the short-lived 'Prague Spring' of 1968 with an invasion of Warsaw Pact troops on the night of 20-21 August. By the end of the next day, 58 people had died. In 1969, Dubcek was replaced and exiled to the Slovak forestry department. Around 14,000 party functionaries and 500,000 members refused to renounce their belief in 'socialism with a human face', were expelled from the Party and lost their jobs. Totalitarian rule was re-established and dissidents were routinely imprisoned.

The Communist regime remained in control after the fall of the Berlin Wall in late 1989. But on 17 November things changed. Prague's Communist youth movement organized a demonstration in memory of nine students executed by Nazis in 1939. A peaceful crowd of 50,000 were cornered; some 500 were beaten by the police and about 100 arrested. The following days saw constant demonstrations, and leading dissidents, with Vaclav Havel at the forefront, formed an anti-Communist coalition which negotiated the government's resignation on 3 December. A 'Government of National Understanding' was formed, with the Communists as minority members. Havel was elected president of the republic on 29 December and Dubcek was elected speaker of the national assembly. The days after the 17 November demonstration have become known as the 'Velvet Revolution' because there were no casualties. (In September 1992 Dubcek was seriously injured in a car accident near Prague, dying of injuries on 7 November. Conspiracy theorists have been busy ever since.)

In the late 20th century, voices for autonomy in Slovakia were getting stronger, and a vocal minority was demanding independence. Finally, it was decided by prime ministers of both republics and other leading politicians that splitting the country was the best solution. Many people, including President Havel, called for a referendum, but even a petition signed by a million Czechoslovaks was not enough for the federal parliament to agree on how to arrange it. In the end Havel resigned from his post, as after repeated attempts by the new parliament he was not re-elected as president. Thus, on 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist for the second time this century. Prague became the capital of the new Czech Republic, and Havel was promptly elected its first president.

Thanks to stringent economic policies, booming tourism and a solid industrial base, the Czech Republic is seeing a strong recovery. Unemployment is negligible, shops are full and many cities are getting facelifts. The picture is not all rosy, however: there is an acute shortage of affordable housing, steeply rising crime, severe pollution, a deteriorating health system and occasional political instability. But the newly founded democracy and its radical economic transformations seem to be working.

Czech Culture

With Prague's eminence as a beacon of European high-culture, it's no surprise that its influence spreads throughout the Czech Republic. Have your awe struck by the architectural splendor of castles, squares and old towns. Get a belly-full of the Czech Republic's finest beer and dumplings and stroll through an old town square, relishing the echoes of a busker's violin.

Czech art and architecture is famous, but Czechs have also excelled at less noticeable art forms, such as illuminated manuscripts, religious sculpture, and marionette and puppet theatre. The latter was officially approved even in the communist era, and the Czech performances rank among the best in the world.

The most famous Czech writer is undoubtedly Franz Kafka, who, with a circle of other German-speaking Jewish writers in Prague, played a major role in the literary scene at the beginning of this century. Internationally renowned 'modern' Czech novelists include Milan Kundera, Ivan Klima and Josef Skvorecky. Much less well-known is the Czech poet Jaroslav Siefert, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1984. The dissident-turned-president playwright Vaclav Havel now operates on a somewhat larger stage. Several of his books offer an 'inside' view of Czech history and politics. Disturbing the Peace is a collection of recent historical musings. Living in Truth is a series of absorbing political essays. Milan Kundera is one of the Czech Republic's best-known authors-in-exile, who wrote about life under the Communist regime. His best novel is probably The Joke; two other notable works are The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Other good reads are Cowards by Josef Skvorecký, The Ship Named Hope by Ivan Klima and anything by Bohumil Hrabal.

Czech cuisine is basically central European, with German, Hungarian and Polish influences. Meat is a huge feature, along with big portions of dumplings, potatoes or rice topped with a thick sauce, and a heavily cooked vegetable or sauerkraut; the standard quick meal is knedlo-zelo-vepro (dumplings, sauerkraut and roast pork). Caraway seed, bacon and lots of salt are the common flavourings. Vegetarians and cholesterol sufferers beware!

Czech music runs the gamut from classical to jazz and punk. Apprentice butcher Antonín Dvoŕák is generally regarded as the most popular Czech composer. He is noted for his symphony From the New World, composed in the USA while lecturing there. Czech jazz musicians were at the forefront of European jazz after WWII but this came to an end with the communist putsch. Keyboardist Jan Hamr, who escaped to the USA, became prominent in 1970s American jazz-rock under the name Jan Hammer and penned the theme to the popular '80s TV show, Miami Vice. Since the Velvet Revolution, the jazz scene in Prague has been especially lively. The grim industrial north, particularly Teplice, is the hub of the Czech Republic's punk movement.

The Czechs are a plain-spoken, even-tempered people, revealing a spectrum of cultural, religious and political influences that is surprisingly broad for such a small country - German and Austrian to Polish and Hungarian, liberal to deeply traditional, global-thinking to fiercely nationalistic.

Prague

Prague is the capital city of the Czech Republic and has become one of the most popular City Breaks in Europe. It is a beautifully preserved city, largely undamaged by WWII, with amazing architecture, stunning old buildings, winding streets, famous sights such as Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, Prague Castle, etc. Its compact medieval centre remains an evocative maze of cobbled lanes, ancient courtyards, dark passages and churches beyond number, all watched over by an 1100-year-old castle. Prague has a fascination that almost amounts to enchantment. Added to that, the people are welcoming and charming.

Sightseeing in Prague means wandering through an invigorating diversity of neighbourhoods and pounding the cobblestones between old fortifications, historically resplendent squares and streets, majestic church-fronts, green open-air cuttings, and countless museum and gallery ticket booths. It's a good idea to take a walking tour of Prague on one of your first days. You get a feel for the city and can go back to your favorite places or those sights you want to explore further.

Prague Castle

Small Quarter (Lesser Quarter, Lesser Town, Little Town)

Kampa

Charles Bridge

Old Town

Old Town Square

Wenceslas Square

Petrin Hill

Petrin Tower

The Old Jewish Quarter (Josefov)

Terezin