What is the history of Prague? What interesting facts about Prague that tourists should know before visiting there?

Prague (Praha in Czech, Praga in Latin), the capital of Czechia, with the nickname: "Golden Prague, "Mother of Cities"(Praga Mater Urbium), ?Prague – the head of the Kingdom“ (Praga caput regni) or familiarly called by Czechs the "Hundred Spires Mom", has been the centre of the Czech state for more than 1100 years. * Prague is situated on both banks of the Vltava River in Central Bohemia. The origin of the name "Praha" is usually derived either from the Slavic common name "práh", which means some tides or rocks in the Vltava river that could hinder sailing, or the substantive "praha," denoting a sun-dried parched place.

The place where Prague came to be built has been settled since the Paleolithic era. The city's origin dates back to when central Europe was inhabited by the western tribes of Slavs, whose arrival began in the 6th century AD (Byzantine historian Procopius mentions the presence of the Slavs here in AD 512).

Many myths surround those times. The most historical of them is about the legendary princess and prophetess Libu?e, the sovereign of the Czech tribe, who foresaw the glory of Prague in her vision: "I see a large city, whose glory will touch the stars! I see a place above the Vltava River. There is a man who is chiselling the threshold (práh) for a house. A castle named Praha will be built there. It will be honoured, favoured with great repute, and praise will be bestowed upon it by the entire world."

While being a mythological personality, the existence of her seat, where she reportedly had lived, has been supported by archaeological finds in Central Bohemia dating to the 8th century. According to the legend, Libu?e married a ploughman named P?emysl, whom she also saw in one of her visions, and together they founded the P?emyslid dynasty, which was attested to by Prince Bo?ivoj - the first confirmed duke of the Czech tribes who ruled in the second half of the 9th century.

He was the first Christianized representative of the tribe. After being baptized by St. Methodius, Duke Bo?ivoj, I moved his seat from the fortified settlement of Levy Hradec; to where Prague Castle is now situated in around 870. The first walled building there was the church of Our Lady, which he built, and that act is considered the founding of the city. From around 900, the Czech P?emyslid dynasty rulers had gradually taken over the ruling of the Great Moravian Empire, a glorious Slavic state that until that time dominated as the primary power-block formation in the area, ultimately creating a new one: the Czech state. Since Duke Bo?ivoj's times, Prague castle has been the seat of Czech rulers (except second half of the 11th century, when King Vratislav II transferred his seat to Vy?ehrad castle on the other bank of Vltava), both kings and presidents until the present era.

Bo?ivoj's grandson, Prince Wenceslas (St.Wenceslas), founded St. Vitus' Rotunda. It stood on the ground where St. Wenceslas' Chapel in St. Vitus Cathedral now is. A few years later, Wenceslas was canonized, and he became Bohemia's most beloved patron saint. By the early 10th century, the area around and below Prague Castle had developed into an important trading centre where merchants from all over Europe gathered. In 965, a Jewish merchant and traveller called Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub wrote: "Prague is built from stone and lime, and it has the biggest trade centre. Slavs are, on the whole courageous... They occupy the lands which are the most fertile and abundant with a good food supply."

In 973, a bishopric was founded in Bohemia, with the bishop's palace located on the Prague castle grounds. The first Czech bishop was Vojtěch - St.Adalbert of Prague) saint and martyr from the Czech noble family of Slavník (born 957), who later evangelized Poles and Hungarians and became the patron saint of Czechia, Poland, Hungary, and Prussia after he was canonized in 999. Presumably, Adalbert is the author of the first Czech hymn, "Hospodine pomiluj ny", at the end of the 10th century, unique because it is commonly sung today.

Next to Prague's Romanesque fortified settlement, another fortified settlement was built across the river Vltava at Vy?ehrad in the 11th century. Finally, during the reign of Prince Vratislav II, who rose to King of Bohemia Vratislav I in 1085, Vy?ehrad became the temporary seat of Czech rulers.

Many monasteries and churches were built under the rule of King Vladislav I. The Strahov Monastery, made after the Romanesque style, was founded in 1142. The first bridge over the Vltava, the Judith Bridge, was built in 1170. (It collapsed in 1342, and a new bridge, later called the Charles Bridge, was built in 1357). The king's P?emysl Otakar I's daughter, Princess Agnes (Saint Agnes of Bohemia), who decided to devote her life to spiritual works, built the Monastery of the Holy Savior in the 1230s, the friary complex attached to the hospital. It was later renamed the Monastery of St. Agnes, which is, after restoration in the 1960s, a branch of the National Gallery featuring the medieval Central European and Czech art collection.

In the 13th century, towns started to increase in size. Three settlements around Prague Castle gained the privilege of a city. The settlement below Prague Castle became the New Town of Prague in 1257 under King P?emysl Otakar II, and it was later renamed Lesser Town of Prague - Malá Strana. The Castle District — Hrad?any, built around its square, just outside Prague Castle, dates from 1320. Across the river, Vltava, the Old Town of Prague — Staré Město had already gained the privilege of a town in 1230.

The city flourished during the 14th century during the reign of Charles IV of the Luxembourg dynasty. Charles was the oldest son of Czech Princess Eli?ka P?emyslovna and John of Luxembourg. He was born in Prague in 1316 and became King of Bohemia upon his father's death in 1346. Due to Charles's efforts, the bishopric of Prague was raised to an archbishopric in 1344. April 7, 1348, he founded the first university in central, northern, and eastern Europe, called today the Charles University, the oldest Czech university. In the same year, he founded New Town (Nové Město) adjacent to the Old Town. Charles rebuilt Prague Castle and Vysehrad, and a new bridge was erected, now called the Charles Bridge. The construction of St. Vitus' Cathedral had also begun. Many new churches were founded. In 1355, Charles was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in Rome. Prague became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles wanted Prague to become one of the most beautiful cities in the world. He wanted Prague to be the dominant city of the whole empire, with Prague Castle as the dominant site in the city and the stately Gothic Cathedral to be more prevalent than Prague Castle. Everything was built in a grandiose Gothic style and decorated with an independent art style called the Bohemian School. During the reign of Emperor Charles IV, Czechia was among the most powerful countries in Europe.

After the period of internal (Catholics v.Hussites) and external problems and disputes that fulfilled the reign of the King George of Poděbrady (who was trying peacefully, but unsuccessfully to settle them, trying to initiate some European union of that time), during the reign of Vladislaus II from the Jagellon dynasty, related to the Luxembourg dynasty and also to the original Czech P?emyslid dynasty (King of Bohemia from 1471) started reconstruction of Prague Castle in late gothic style (above all Vladislaus Hall), which was both destroyed by wars and previously, after the death of Charles IV ceased to serve as a royal residence.

The glory of Prague returned for some time during the reign of Emperor Rudolf II at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries when Prague became the cultural centre of the Holy Roman Empire again. Rudolf was related to the Jagellon dynasty, the Luxemburg dynasty, and the P?emyslid dynasty. Emperor Rudolf II lived in Prague Castle, where he held bizarre courts of astrologers, magicians, and other strange figures. Still, this devotee of occult arts and learning helped seed the scientific revolution. It was a prosperous period for the city; famous people there included the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler, the painters Giuseppe Arcimboldo, B. Spranger, Hans von Aachen, J. Heintz, and others. In addition, Rudolph II was an influential patron of Northern Mannerist art.

The tension between the Protestants and Catholics led in 1618 to the Thirty Years’ War. Its important moment was the Battle on the White Mountain on the outskirts of Prague on November 8, 1620, between the armies of Emperor Ferdinand II (Catholic) and the Protestant army, led by the warrior Count J. M. Thurn. The Catholics won, and Emperor Ferdinand II became King of Bohemia. After the Peace of Westphalia, Ferdinand II moved the court to Vienna, and Prague began a steady decline which reduced the 60,000 people before the war to 20,000 after it.

In 1689 a great fire devastated Prague, but all the tragic events spurred the effort to renovate and rebuild the city. As a result, Prague and Czechia became gradually the place of the significant development of cultural life at all levels of society. The economic rise continued through the following century, and in 1771 the city had 80,000 inhabitants. Many of these were wealthy merchants who, together with noblemen, enriched the city with a host of palaces, churches, and gardens, creating a Baroque style renowned throughout the world. In 1784, the four municipalities of Malá Strana, Nové Město, Staré Město, and Hrad?any were merged into a single entity.

The revolutions that shocked all of Europe around 1848 touched Prague too, but they were fiercely suppressed. In the following years, the Czech nationalist movement began its rise until it gained the majority in the Town Council in 1861. In 1867, Emperor Francis Joseph I established the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, which became enormously disappointing to Czechs, calling for equalization of all three countries. Even so, activities of the Czech National Revival movement increased with significant development in all spheres of life, while Prague became a centre of all of them. Construction of the National Theatre in Prague (1868) and other representative centres, the foundation of new schools and national societies, the development of music and arts with personalities that crossed the country's borders, a growth of social, industrial, and political importance of Czech element were up-and-coming for the future and ambitions, later leading to the formation of an independent state. Prague has been an ethnically diverse city with significant Czech, German, and Jewish populations for most of its history. By 1880 the German population decreased to 13.52 per cent, and by 1910 to 5.97 per cent, due to a massive increase in the city's overall population caused by the influx of Czechs from the rest of Czechia due to the assimilation of some Germans. As late as 1880, "Germans" still formed 22 per cent of the population of Staré Mesto (Old Town), 16 per cent in Nové Město (New Town), 20 per cent in Malá Strana (Lesser Towne Quarter), 9 per cent in Hrad?any (the part around Prague castle), and 39 per cent in the former Jewish Ghetto of Josefov.

The Industrial Revolution strongly affected Prague, as factories could take advantage of the coal mines and ironworks of the nearby region. The first suburb, Karlín, was created in 1817; twenty years later, the population exceeded 100,000. The first railway connection was built in 1842. At the same time as the Industrial Revolution was developing, the Czechs were going through the Czech National Revival movement, demanding greater autonomy for the nation and country. Since the late 18th century, Czech literature has occupied an important position in the Czech culture, being one of the strong incentives for the intensification of the national movement.

World War I ended with the Austro-Hungarian Empire's defeat and Czechoslovakia's creation on 28th October 1918. Prague was chosen as its capital. During the interwar period, Prague became a modern European city with developed industry and a broad spectrum of cultural backgrounds. In 1930 the population had risen to 850,000.

During the Nazi German occupation of Czechoslovakia during World War II, Prague citizens were oppressed and persecuted by the Nazis. Politicians (e.g.prime minister general Alois Eliá? and more), intellectual elite, students, and many others were murdered, imprisoned, or sent to concentration camps. In 1942, after killing the planner of the liquidation of the Czech nation, Reinhardt Heydrich, Germans responded with a wave of bestial terror. The Prague uprising started on May 5, 1945, when Prague's citizens, assisted by the defecting 1st Infantry Division of the Russian Liberation Army of General Vlasov, revolted against the German occupiers. Finally, on May 9, 1945 (the day after Germany’s official capitulation), Soviet tanks reached Prague. After that, all fighting ceased in Czechia until May 12, 1945.

After the war, Prague again became the capital of Czechoslovakia. Soviet troops left Czechoslovakia a couple of months after the war. Still, the country, however seemingly returned to democracy, remained under strong Soviet political influence, leading in February 1948 to the communist coup, while Prague became the centre of it. Communist putsch determined the destiny of the country for 41 long years.

After years of heavy persecution of opponents of the totalitarian regime (executions, communist concentration camps, elimination to the margins of society), in the 1960s came some gradual release of social life. In 1967, at the 4th Czechoslovakian Writers' Congress held in Prague, a strong position against the regime was taken. This spurred a new phase in the city's and country's life, beginning the short-lived season of "socialism with a human face". This was the Prague Spring, which aimed at a democratic reform of institutions. The Soviet Union and the rest of the Warsaw Pact, except for Romania, reacted, occupying Czechoslovakia and the capital in August 1968, meeting the natural resistance of unarmed citizens, and burning their tanks. This uneven conflict ended by suppressing any attempt at innovation under the treads of Soviet tanks.

During the communist period, little was actively done to maintain the beauty of the city's buildings. Due to the poor incentives offered by the regime, workers would put up scaffolding and then disappear to moonlight jobs. Vaclavské náměstí (Wenceslas Square) was covered in such scaffolds for over a decade, with minor repair ever being accomplished. Actual renovation began after the collapse of communism.

In 1989, the so-called Velvet Revolution crowded the streets of Prague, Czechoslovakia finally freed itself from communism and Soviet influence, and Prague benefited profoundly from the new mood. In 1993, after Czechoslovakia split, Prague became Czechia's capital city. Prague, the capital of Czechia and a significant city is considered one of the most beautiful European cities and has been an important cultural centre for thousands of years. European and increasingly North and South American and Asian tourists are discovering our country's history daily, which predates the birth of the European civilization.

MD Vladimir Hirsch, www.vladimirhirsch.com