Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
HISTORY
Prague has played a pivotal role in European history - “he who holds Bohemia holds
mid-Europe”, Bismarck is alleged to have said. As the capital of Bohemia, the city has
beenfoughtoverandoccupiedbyGerman,Austrian,FrenchandevenSwedisharmies.
Consequently, it is virtually impossible to write a historical account of Prague without
frequent reference to the wider events of European history. Its history as the capital of
first Czechoslovakia and now the Czech Republic is, in fact, less than a hundred years
old, beginning only with the foundation of the country in 1918. Since then, the coun-
try'snumeroushistoricalconvulsions,mostlyfocusedonPrague,haveplayedoutonthe
world stage at regular intervals, notably in 1938, 1948, 1968 and, most happily, 1989.
Legends
TheCzechs havea
legend
foreveryoccasion,andthefoundingofBohemia andPragueisno
exception. The mythical “mount” Říp, the most prominent of the pimply hills dotting Labe
(Elbe) plain, north of Prague, is where
Čech
, the leader of a band of wandering Slavs, is al-
leged to have founded his new kingdom, Čechy (Bohemia). His brother Lech, meanwhile,
headed further north to found Poland. Some time in the seventh or eighth century AD,
Krok
,
a descendant of
Čech
, moved his people south from the plains to the rocky knoll that is now
Vyšehrad (literally “High Castle”).
Krok was succeeded by his youngest daughter,
Libuše
, the country's first and last female
ruler, who, handily enough, was endowed with the gift of prophecy. Falling into a trance one
day, she pronounced that the tribe should build a city “whose glory will touch the stars”, at
thepointintheforestwheretheyfoundanoldmanconstructingthedoorstepofhishouse.He
was duly discovered on the Hradčany hill, overlooking the Vltava, and the city was named
Praha
, from the word práh meaning “doorstep”. However, it wasn't long before Libuše's
subjects began to demand that she take a husband. As Cosmas, the twelfth-century chron-
icler, put it, “resting on her elbow like one who is giving birth, she lay there on a high pile of
softandembroideredpillows,asisthelasciviouslywantonhabitofwomenwhentheydonot
haveamanathomewhomtheyfear”.Againshefellintoatrance, thistime pronouncingthat
theyshouldfollowherhorsetoaploughman,withtwooxen,whosedescendants(theplough-
man's, that is) would rule over them. Sure enough, a man called
Přemysl oráč
(Přemysl the
Ploughman) was discovered, and became the mythical founder of the Přemyslid dynasty that
ruled Bohemia until the fourteenth century.
Early history
Somuchforthelegend.AccordingtoRomanrecords,theareanowcoveredbyBohemiawas
inhabited as early as 500 BC by a Celtic tribe, the Boii, who gave their name to the region.
Very little is known about the Boii except that around 100 BC they were driven from their
