CITY-FACTS
About:
Name: PRAGUE
Where: Capital of the Czech Republic ( Czechia ). Bohemia.
Inhabitants:
1,3 million inhabitants
History ( short ):
- It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire
- King Ottokar of Bohemia was
the father of Queen Dagmar of Denmark ( 1186-1212) – married to king Valdemar II ( Sejr ).
- King Charles IV (1316-78) was the first Czech emperor of the Empire
-
King Charles founded the famous Charles University – and is also the « father » of the also famous Charles Bridge over the Moldau river in Prague
- Prague is already
from those days known as « Die Goldene Stadt »
- Jan Hus (1369-1415) was a leading protestant in Prague, until he was killed on a bonfire. The monument for him on the Old
Town Square.
- Prague was an important city also during the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Many cultural events took place there.
- World
War II the city and country was occupied by Germany – with Hitler’s righthand man Reinhard Heydrich as brutal leader – until he was killed by the Czech resistance in 1942.
- After
WWII CZ was a democracy from 1945-48 when the Communist coup took place. Foreign minister Jan Masaryk was thrown out of a window and killed. And the stalinist Klement Gottwald took over.
-
1968 : the spring of Prague with Alexander Dubcek as leader
- 1989 : the Velvet revolution with Vaclav Havel reintroduced democracy.
-
1993: Czechoslovakia was split into two countries Czech Republic and Slovakia.
- 1999: CZ joined NATO.
- 2004 :
Both countries became members of the EU.
Important institutions, business, etc.:
- GNSS – Galileo European Agency has its headquarters
in Prague
- Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty are based in Prague ( in the building of the old Communist « parliament » )
-
Laterna Magica – special theatre
- The US Embassy ( former Jewish private palais, later NAZI headquarters ).
- The German
embassy ( famous from 1989 when thousands of East Germans entered its garden. Now ”a Trabi with legs » is a symbol there.
- The Jewish quarter with the old Synagogue and
Jewish cemitary.
Good restaurants and bars :
- Cafe Slavia
- U Fleku in rue
Klemensova ( the bar of the good soldier Svejk )
- U Radnice ( behind the Old Town Hall )
- The Green Frog ( same street as
U Radnice )
To drink: Bohemian Sekt. To eat: try real Borscht.
Good hotels:
-
Hotel Maximilian, Old Town
- Hotel Josef, Old Town
- Hotel Praha ( outside the centre – old Communist hotel )
- Hotel Jalta – on Vaclavske Namesti
Twinned with:
-
-
Petersburg – Frankfurt a.M. - Shanghai
Famous people:
- Charles IV – Antonin Dvorak – Bedrich Smetana – Jaroslav
Hasek – Franz Kafka – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Tycho Brahe – Johannes Kepler – Karel Gott – Vaclav Havel – Milos Foreman – Milan Kundera – Martina Navratilova – Ivana Trump
Our visits:
- July 1967; 1968; May 1969; Aug. 1969; Nov. 1981; Jan. 1990 (Andriessen); May 1991 (Cecilie); Sept. 1995; May 1997 (Pinserne); May 2000; Apr. 2002 ( Bedemænd
); Apr. 2006;
-
NJT