PRAGUE GUIDE

This is a short list of famous Czech personalities. This list includes people of the Czech nationality as well as people having some significant Czech ancestry or association with Czech culture.

At the southern periphery of Prague is a territory which could have been, instead of Prague Castle, the centre of our capital city, and so of the Czech country. At both the banks of Breznansky potok there once was an extensive Celtic oppidum, which is introduced to you by the educational footpath.

The spires and domes of Prague's churches are the major land-marks of the city, as views from the numerous vantage points verify. You'll witness various towers, domes and spires: Neo-Gothic (the churches of St Paul and St Peter) and Gothic (the church of 'Our Lady Before Tyn') zoom up to the sky ...

Prague (in Czech "Praha"), the capital of the Czech Republic, is situated on the Vltava River. The capital has the largest number of tourist attractions ranging from medieval buildings, museums up to dozens of annual cultural and social events. Today Prague’s population is of around 1.2 million inhabitants.

In an arcade between Wenceslas Square and the National Theatre is a small bronze plaque with symbolic hands of revolting Czech students. This is a memorial to one of the most crucial moments in Czech (and Czechoslovak) history - the beginning of the Velvet Revolution on November 17th.

The mother of cities reads the motto on the coat-of-arms of the Capital of the Czech Republic. It was topical in the Middle Ages and the Early New Age, when Prague was the political head and until 1547 also the supreme court instance of the burgher estate, the counterpart of the nobility and the sovereign in the system of political power and self-government.

The fortress was originally built in the tenth century. Local legend holds that Vysehrad was the location of the first settlement which would later become Prague, though thus far the claim is unsubstantiated. Ancient legends situate the original seat of the Czech princes - the legendary Princess Libuše and the first Przemyslides - on this hill.

In 1348, Bohemian King Charles IV founded the New Town of Prague. The plan included several open areas for markets, of which the largest was the Koňský trh, or Horse Market. At the south-eastern end of the market was the Horse Gate, one of the gates in the walls of the New Town.

Founded in the latter part of the 9th century, Prague soon became the seat of the kings of Bohemia, some of whom also reigned as emperors of the Holy Roman Empire in later times. The city flourished during the 14th century reign of Charles IV, who ordered the building of the New Town, the Charles Bridge, Saint Vitus Cathedral: the oldest gothic cathedral in Central Europe, which is actually inside the Castle, and the Charles University. Prague was then the third-largest city in Europe.