Page 671 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Europe

CENTR AL AND EASTERN EUROPE  669

CZECH REPUBLIC

The Czech Republic is one of Europe’s youngest states. In the years after World
War II, foreign visitors to what was then Czechoslovakia rarely ventured farther
than the capital, Prague. Today, the country’s beautifully preserved medieval
towns and castles are attracting an ever-increasing number of tourists.
The Czech Republic is divided into two has been boosted by tourism. The
regions, Bohemia and Moravia. Rolling country is a member of NATO and
plains and lush, pine-clad mountains, it held presidency of the EU in 2009.
dotted with medieval chateaux and
19th-century spa resorts, characterize History
the landscape of southern and western From 500 BC, the area now known as
Bohemia. In spite of the recent influx of the Czech Republic was settled by
tourists, life here still proceeds at a gentle, Celtic tribes, who were later joined by
relaxed pace. In contrast, much of Germanic peoples. The first Slavs, the
northern Bohemia has been given over forefathers of the Czechs, came to the
to mining and other heavy industry, region around 500 AD. Struggles for
with devastating effects on the local supremacy led to the emergence of a
environment. Moravia has orchards and ruling dynasty, the Přemyslids, at the
vineyards in the south, and a broad start of the 9th century. The Přemyslids
industrial belt in the north of the region. were involved in many bloody family
Bohemia’s largest city and the capital of feuds. In 935, Prince Wenceslas was
the Czech Republic, Prague is a thriving murdered by his brother, Boleslav.
cultural and commercial center that bears Later canonized, Wenceslas became
little relation to most people’s expectations Bohemia’s best-known patron saint.
of an “Eastern” European city. Its wealth of The reign of Holy Roman Emperor
magnificent architecture, spanning over a Charles IV in the 14th century heralded
thousand years, has withstood two world a Golden Age for Bohemia. Charles
wars in the last century. chose Prague as his imperial residence
Since the early 1990s, the Czech and founded many prestigious
Republic has emerged as a relatively institutions there, including central
healthy democratic state. Its economy Europe’s first university.

Rooftops of Prague’s Malá Strana (Little Quarter), covered in snow
The splendid medieval castle overlooking the village of Karlstein, Bohemia

668-671_EW_Europe.indd 669 14/07/16 10:45 am