Prague 4К VI century

The first historical information about the settlements of the Slavs on the territory of the modern city dates back to the 6th century AD. e. In the 10th century Prague became the capital of the Czech state, and at the end of the same century a market square was built.

In the first half of the 13th century, fortress walls were erected around the stone buildings in the area of ​​the square.

Prague, which competed in the Middle Ages on a par with Paris for the title of the capital of Europe, found itself outside the first wave of globalization in the 16th century and became its peripheral city [6].


Prague, 1606
After the defeat of Austria in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, when the city was occupied by Prussian troops, the Austrian command came to the conclusion that it had completely lost its defensive significance. This led to the decision to demolish most of the city fortifications, primarily around Novy Mesto and Mala Strana. The result of this was the rapid development of the suburbs of Prague: Kralovske Vinohrady, Zizkov, Karlin, Vrsovice, Nusle, Smichov, Koshiře, Podoli, Visočani and many others, where, in contrast to the densely built up old quarters, dozens and hundreds of new plants and factories appeared, attracted labor from the countryside.

In the 19th century, the Prague agglomeration became the most important industrial center of the entire empire. A special role was played by machine building and metalworking enterprises, using the nearby coal basin and metallurgical enterprises of the city of Kladno. At the same time, fearing the further strengthening of Prague and the Czech Republic as a whole and, as a consequence, its demands for a special political role, the Viennese government prevented the merger of the suburbs with the city. Until the fall of the monarchy in 1918, only Josefov, Vysehrad, Holesovice-Bubni and Liben received such permission. Some suburbs have grown so much that they received the status of a city, while reaching impressive sizes. For example, before the First World War, Kralovske Vinohrady had about 100 thousand inhabitants, which put them in third place among all Czech and Moravian cities, after Prague and Brno proper.

After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the fall of 1918 and the formation of the independent Czechoslovak Republic, Prague became its capital. The city existed relatively quietly until the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Released from German troops on May 6, 1945 by participants in the Prague National Uprising (on May 9, Soviet troops entered Prague, practically cleared of German troops). Fortunately, the war did not leave serious damage to the city. In 1960, Prague became the capital of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and remained so until 1993, when, after the “velvet divorce” of the Czechoslovak Federation, it became the capital of the Czech Republic. It was the main site of the events of the Prague Spring of 1968, when an attempt was made to reform the CPC internally, its armed suppression by the forces of the Warsaw Pact countries in August 1968, and then the center of the 1989 Velvet Revolution.

After the formation of the independent Czechoslovak state in 1918 and the proclamation of Prague as its capital, nothing stood in the way of its development as a metropolis. In 1922, 37 surrounding cities and towns were annexed to the city, so that the city's population almost tripled to 677 thousand inhabitants, and the territory from 21 km² increased to 171.5 km², thereby bringing it to the level of major European capitals of its time ... The rapid growth of Prague, as a result of its central role in the country and the further development of industry, led to an increase in the population to 850 thousand by 1930 and one million by 1939. During these years, the transport infrastructure of the city also underwent great development: the tram network covered almost all of its territory, the outskirts received a bus service, and the construction of trolleybus lines began. In the mid-1930s, a decision was made to build a metro in Prague, but the work that had begun was interrupted due to the German occupation and World War II. On the periphery, new residential areas appeared, both for villas (Orzhehovka, Hanspaulka, Baba, Bubenech, Zagradni Mesto) and multi-storey buildings (Holesovice, Dejvice, Vršovice, Strasnice, Podoli, etc.), distinguished by a significant level of improvement for their time, as well as kindergartens, schools, workers' hostels, cultural centers, sports facilities, for example, the stadium in Strahov. Czech architects, with their well-known art nouveau creations, cubism (a unique phenomenon in world architecture) and functionalism, have raised the city's architecture to the most advanced level. The 1930s were marked by the explosive development of theatrical and cinematic life.