Czech Republic - PRAGUE

After the Velvet Revolution -

In 1989, after the riot police beat back a peaceful student demonstration, the Velvet Revolution crowded the streets of Prague, and the capital of Czechoslovakia benefited greatly from the new mood. In 1993, after the Velvet Divorce, Prague became the capital city of the new Czech Republic. From 1995 high-rise buildings began to be built in Prague in large quantities. In the late 1990s, Prague again became an important cultural center of Europe and was notably influenced by globalization. In 2000, the IMF and World Bank summit took place in Prague and anti-globalization riots took place here. In 2002, Prague suffered from widespread floods that damaged buildings and its underground transport system.

Prague launched a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics but failed to make the candidate city shortlist. In June 2009, as the result of financial pressures from the global recession, Prague's officials also chose to cancel the city's planned bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Name -

The Czech name Praha is derived from an old Slavic word, práh, which means "ford" or "rapid", referring to the city's origin at a crossing point of the Vltava river. The same etymology is associated with the Praga district of Warsaw.

Another view to the origin of the name is also related to the Czech word práh (in the mean of a threshold) and a legendary etymology connects the name of the city with princess Libuše, prophetess, and a wife of the mythical founder of the Přemyslid dynasty. She is said to have ordered the city "to be built where a man hews a threshold of his house". The Czech práh might thus be understood to refer to rapids or fords in the river, the edge of which could have acted as a means of fording the river – thus providing a "threshold" to the castle.

Another derivation of the name Praha is suggested from na prazě, the original term for the shale hillside rock upon which the original castle was built. At that time, the castle was surrounded by forests, covering the nine hills of the future city – the Old Town on the opposite side of the river, as well as the Lesser Town beneath the existing castle, appeared only later.

The English spelling of the city's name is borrowed from French. In the 19th and early 20th centuries it was pronounced in English to rhyme with "vague": it was so pronounced by Lady Diana Cooper (born 1892) on Desert Island Discs in 1969[57], and it is written to rhyme with "vague" in a verse of The Beleaguered City by Longfellow (1839) and also in the limerick, There was an Old Lady of Prague by Edward Lear (1846).

Prague is also called the "City of a Hundred Spires", based on a count by 19th-century mathematician Bernard Bolzano; today's count is estimated by the Prague Information Service at 500. Nicknames for Prague have also included: the Golden City, the Mother of Cities, and the Heart of Europe.

Prague Tourist Guide - visit Prague, city of hundred spires - (PRAGUE.FM - https://www.prague.fm/)

01. ''If You Wanna See Me Again'' - spring gang (Feat. LaKesha Nugents) - https://www.epidemicsound.com/artists/spring-gang/
02. ''Gold in Our Pockets'' - Tigerblood Jewel (Feat. Ryan Gillmor) - https://www.epidemicsound.com/artists/tigerblood-jewel/
03. ''Arms of Gold'' - Tape Machines (Feat. Mia Pfirrman) - https://www.epidemicsound.com/artists/tape-machines/
04. ''Pull Me Out'' - Mike Stringer (Feat. Christine Smit) - https://www.epidemicsound.com/artists/mike-stringer/

Source - POPtravel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClODDXeUIz1-FaKyN8dsNrA
Author: "Daniel Sczepansky / POPtravel.org" - https://www.poptravel.org
License: "CC BY SA" - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

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