burned in May, 1945) and its astronomical clock (1410) the baroque Church of St. The Old Town, on the Vltava's east bank, contains the Carolinum, the oldest part of the university the adjacent Stavovske Theater, where Mozart's Don Giovanni had its first performance the vast Clementinum Library the Gothic Old Town Hall (13th cent. , 1583–1634, imperial general in the Thirty Years War, b. George the baroque churches of Our Lady of Victory (with the miraculous statuette of the Infant Jesus or Holy Child of Prague) and of Loretto the magnificent Waldstein Palace, built for the imperial general Wallenstein Wallenstein or Waldstein, Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von The Hradčany quarter also contains many other fine churches and palaces, notably the Romanesque basilica of St. He became duke at an early age, and during his minority his mother, Drahomira, acted as regent. He was reared in the Christian faith by his grandmother, St. Vitus, first built in the 10th cent., which contains the tomb of St. Next to it stands the largely Gothic Cathedral of St.
The son of John of Luxemburg, Charles was educated at the French court and fought the English at Crécy, where his father's heroic death made Hradčany Castle dominates the city the seat of the president of the Czech Republic and the former royal residence, it is an imposing and many-winged structure, dating mostly from the reign of Charles IV Charles IV,ġ316–78, Holy Roman emperor (1355–78), German king (1347–78), and king of Bohemia (1346–78). The old section of Prague, which occupies the center of the city, is an architectural treasure enhanced by the beauty of its location on the hilly banks of the Vltava. The city's literary, artistic, and musical life, which has a long and distinguished tradition, was very active between the two World Wars. He is best known as the author of two brilliant satirical plays- R. Click the link for more information., and Čapek Čapek, Karelġ890–1938, Czech playwright, novelist, and essayist. He studied at the Organ School, Prague (1857–59) and played viola in the National Theater Orchestra (1861–71) under Smetana. Click the link for more information., Dvořák Dvořák, Antonín From 1856 to 1860 he was a conductor at Göteborg, Sweden. He studied in Pilsen and in Prague, where in 1848, with the encouragement of Liszt, he opened a music school. , 1824–84, Czech composer, creator of a national style in Czech music. Click the link for more information. as well as of Smetana Smetana, Bedřich From a middle-class Jewish family from Bohemia, he spent most of his life in Prague. Along with Joyce, Kafka is perhaps the most influential of 20th-century writers. Click the link for more information. and Kafka Kafka, Franz His relations with his father were difficult, and he was able to attend the Univ. Rilke's youth at military and business school was not happy. Prague, the greatest lyric poet of modern Germany. It was the city of Rilke Rilke, Rainer Maria Until World War II, Prague was characterized by the generally peaceful coexistence of Czech, German, and German-Jewish cultures. (founded 1348), one of the oldest and most famous in Europe a technical university (1707) the Czech Academy of Sciences the National Gallery the National Museum and many other museums and theaters. Educational and cultural facilities in the city include Charles Univ. Prague is also the see of a Roman Catholic archbishop, an Eastern Orthodox archbishop, and the archbishop of the Czechoslovak Hussite Church. There are large engineering plants, machine-building and machine tool enterprises, printing and publishing houses, electronics factories, chemical plants, and breweries. Prague is a leading European commercial and industrial center and is the Czech Republic's most important industrial city. A road, rail, and air transportation hub, the city also has an inland harbor that is the terminus of shipping on the Vltava river. Click the link for more information., on both banks of the Vltava (Ger. 1, 1993, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (see Slovakia) became independent states and Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. , Czech Československo, former federal republic, 49,370 sq mi (127,869 sq km), in central Europe. Click the link for more information. and former capital of Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia 1,216,500), capital and largest city of the Czech Republic Czech Republic,