Kutná Hora is a small town in Central Bohemia, about 70 km east of Prague. It may be a small town today, but centuries ago it competed for importance with the Golden City. Looking at Prague today, it may not be easy to imagine, but it is nevertheless true. Kutná Hora owed its position and wealth to the silver mines that had been established there in the Middle Ages. At the end of the 13th…
Plzeň, in English known also as Pilsen, is a city in western Bohemia, in the southwestern part of Czechia. After Prague, Brno and Ostrava, it is the fourth largest city in the whole of Czechia. Pilsen is one of very few Czech cities that have English names different from the original. This small group includes also Prague (Praha) and Carlsbad (Karlovy Vary). In English, the name Pilsen is used interchangeably with Plzeň, as it is…
The Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape (Lednicko-valtický areál) is an area in South Moravia encompassing the village of Lednice and the town of Valtice. Due to the high concentration of architectural monuments and the beauty of the surrounding planned landscape, it was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1996. The World Heritage Site takes up an area of more or less 200 km², which makes it one of the largest complexes of its kind in Europe….
Olomouc is a major city in Moravia and the capital of the administrative region of the same name. It is the sixth largest city in the country and the most important city in the Haná region of Moravia (also known in English as Hanakia or Hanácko in Czech). Until the mid-17th century, Olomouc could be considered one of Moravia’s capital cities (together with Brno). Its well preserved Old Town belongs to the most beautiful ones…
České Budějovice is the capital city of the South Bohemian Region. It is internationally famous for its beer, known in other countries as Budweiser, after the German name of the city: Budweis. The city also played a role in one of the greatest works of Czech literature: “The Good Soldier Švejk” (in the original: Osudy dobrého vojáka Švejka za světové války).