Eastern and Central Europe (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE 227

Landlocked in Central Europe, the

Czech Republic is divided into two

regions – Bohemia and Moravia.

Rolling plains and lush, pine-clad

mountains, dotted with medieval

châ teaux and 19th-century spa

resorts characterize the landscape of

southern and western Bohemia.

However, much of northern

Bohemia has been given over to

mining and other heavy industries,

with devastating effects on the local

environment. Moravia has orchards

and vineyards in the south, and a

broad industrial belt in the north of

the region. Prague, Bohemia’s lar-

gest city and the capital of the

Czech Republic, is a thriving cultural

and commercial centre. Its wealth of

great architecture, spanning over

1,000 years, has withstood the

ravages of two world wars in the

last century.

HISTORY

From 500 BC, the area now known

as the Czech Republic was settled

by Celtic tribes, who were later

joined by Germanic peoples. The

first Slavs, the forefathers of the

Czechs, came to the region around

AD 500. Struggles for supremacy led

to the emergence of a ruling

dynasty, the Přemyslids, at the start

of the 9th century. The Přemyslids

were involved in many family feuds

and in 935 Prince Wenceslas was

murdered by his brother, Boleslav.

Later canonized, Wenceslas became

Bohemia’s best-known patron saint.

CZECH REPUBLIC

T

he 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 further than the capital,

Prague. Today, the country’s beautifully preserved medieval towns,

palaces and castles, which were neglected during the Communist

era, are attracting an ever-increasing number of visitors.

Grand interior of the Strahov Monastery, Prague

Ruins of a castle on top of a hill, a common sight in the Czech Republic