History of Prague

The history of Prague spans over thousands of years, during which time the city grew from the Vyšehrad Castle to the multicultural capital of a modern European state, the Czech Republic.

Prehistory

The land where Prague came to be built has been settled since the Paleolithic Age. Several thousands of years ago, there were trade routes connecting southern parts of Europe to northern Europe which passed through this area, following the course of the river. From around 500 BC the Celtic tribe known as the Boii, were the first inhabitants of this region known by name. The Boii named the region Bohemia and the river Vltava. The Germanic tribe Marcomanni migrated to Bohemia with its king Maroboduus in AD 9. Meanwhile, some of the Celts migrated southward while the remainder assimilated with the Marcomanni. In 568, most of the Marcomanni migrated southward with the Lombards, another Germanic tribe. The rest of Marcomanni assimilated with the invading West Slavs. (The "Migration of Nations" started in the 2nd century; it ended at the end of the 9th and at the beginning of the 10th centuries). The Byzantine historian Prokopios mentions the presence of the Slavs in the lands in AD 512. The Czech Slavic tribe came to Bohemia at the beginning of 7th century and Forefather Czech became the founder of the Czech nation.

According to legends, Princess Libuše, the sovereign of the Czech tribe, married a humble ploughman by the name of Přemysl and founded the dynasty carrying the same name. The legendary Princess saw many prophecies from her castle Libusin, which was located in central Bohemia.) and Central Bohemian Region ( _cz. Středočeský kraj). As Prague is not geographically part of Central Bohemian Region it is a capital outside of territory it serves.

Timeline of important moments in Prague history

* 870 Prague Castle founded
*1085 Prague became the seat of kings - 1st king Vratislaus II.
*1344 the Prague Bishopric became an Archdiocese
*1346 the rule of Charles IV. - Prague capital of Holy Roman Empire
*1348 University of Prague (Charles University) founded
*1415 in Konstanz, Jan Hus is burned at the stake as a heretic
*1419 1st Prague defenestration
*1420 battle on Vítkov Mountain - Hussites win over crusaders
*1583 rule of Rudolf II - city for the 2nd time the capital of Holy Roman Empire and cultural center of Europe
*1618 2nd Prague defenestration sparked off the Thirty Years' War
*1621 execution of 27 Czech nobles on the Old Town Square as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain
*1648 west bank of Prague (including the Prague Castle) occupied and looted by Swedish armies
*1741 occupation by French-Bavarian armies
*1744 occupation by Prussian armies
*1848 revolutionary uprising crushed by imperial army
*1890 big flood caused extreme damage
*1918 after World War I Prague became the capital of Czechoslovakia
*1922 Great Prague created by uniting Prague with its suburbs and neighboring towns
*1938 after political betrayal of allies (France and Britain at Munich) Germany occupied Sudetenland and in 1939 the whole country
*1942 Czechoslovak paratroopers kill Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis respond with wave of terror
*1945 U.S. Air Force conducts bombing of Prague in World War II, killing hundreds of Praguers by mistake (Target was Dresden, 134 km away).
*1945 Prague uprising against the Nazi German occupants during the last days of World War II, ended with the arrival of the Red Army – followed by an expulsion of German citizens
*1948 communist takeover of power
*1968 the Prague Spring and Soviet army invasion to repress political liberalization
*1989 Prague is the main center of Velvet Revolution (the fall of communist regime)
*1993 Prague becomes capital of newly independent Czech Republic
*2002 Prague suffers from flooding, parts of the city evacuated, many historic archives damaged but no major landmarks destroyed
*2007 The Codex Gigas returns to Prague after 379 years

The four independent boroughs that had formerly constituted Prague were eventually proclaimed a single city in 1784. Those four cities were Hradčany (the Castle District, west and north of the Castle), Little Quarter (Malá Strana, south of the Castle), Old Town (Staré Město, on the east bank opposite the Castle) and New Town (Nové Město, further south and east). The city underwent further expansion with the annexation of Josefov in 1850 and Vyšehrad in 1883, and at the beginning of 1922, another 37 municipalities were incorporated, raising the city's population to 676,000. In 1938 population reached 1,000,000.

Historical population

Demography 13col|800px|1230|1370|1600|1804|1837|1850|1880|1900|1925|1950|1980|1991|2007
4,000|40,000|60,000|90,000|105,500|118,000|162,000|201,600|718,300|931,500|1,182,800|1,214,174|1,204,897

*The record of 1230 includes Staré Město only
*The records of 1370 and 1600 includes Staré město, Nové město, Malá Strana and Hradčany quarters
*Numbers beside other years denote the population of Prague within the administrative border of the city at that time (and population including present suburbs in parentheses).

ee also

*History of the Czech Lands
*Famous people connected with Prague
*List of rulers of Bohemia

References