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Prague is the Capital of the Czech Republic, the seat of the President, govemment and parliament and the połmcal cultural and economic centre of the country. It spreads out on both banks of the river Vltava in the centre of Bohemia. It covcrs an area of almost 500 km2 and it has 1.2 million inhabitants. The whole city consists of 10 administrative districts. The oldest parts are the Old Town, The Lesser Town, the New Town, Josefov, Hradćany and Vyśehrad.
A legend connects the foundation of Prague with Princess LibuSe of the Premyslid dynasty who prophesied the futurę gloiy of Prague which “would touch the stars”. The oldest settlement of this area goes back to the Stone Age but the Slavs came to the Prague valley in the 6th century. In the 9th century Prince Bofivoj founded a castle on a headland above the Vltava valley and it became the seat of princes of the Pfemyslid dynasty. In the lOth century another castle, Vysehrad, was built and it became temporarily a seat of the Premyslid Princes too. Prague became the imperial residence of Charles IV (1346-1378) and during his reign it flourished and grew. Charles IV established an Archbishopric (1344), founded Charles University (1348) and the New Town, and promoted the construction of Charles Bridge and St. Vitus Cathedra!. In the 15th century Prague was the centre of the Hussite movement. In 1420 Jan Żiżka defeated the first anti-Hussite crusade on Vitkov Hill. At the end of the 16th century Prague regained its cosmopolitan character again when it became the seat of Rudolph II, who invited artists and scientists there (Tycho de Brahe, Johannes Kepler). On November 8,1620 the Czech estates rosę up against the Habsburgs and were defeated in the Battle of the White Mountain, near the place where the Star Summer Pałace and Enclosure stands until now. A few months later, in 1621,27 representatives of the uprising were executed in the Old Town Sąuare. The Thirty Years'War, re-catholicization and germanization followed. The fact that Prague was not the Capital of the monarchy any morę preserved many historical buildings from the old times there. At the end of the 18th century it became the centre of Czech cultural life when Czech scholars and writers began the process of national revival. In 1918 Prague was the Capital of the independent Czechoslovak Republic again. In 1939 it was occupied by German troops and in 1942 severely persecuted after the assassination of the Nazi deputy protector Reinhardt Heydrich. After the Prague Uprising against the fascists the town was liberated by the Russians on 9th May, 1945. The August occupation of Prague in 1968 stopped the democratic reforms in the country and began the process of “normalization”. On 17th November, 1989, the Velvet Revolution began democratic changes in our society. The whole process continued with the splitting of former federal Czechoslovakia into two independent States and thus, on lst January, 1993, Prague became the Capital of the Czech Republic.
Without any doubt, the Prague Castle, the seat of the President, is the dominant of the city* From the sąuare outside the castle tourists can admire the city below with the roofs of ancient Gothic, Renaissance and Baroąue houses and palaces and hundreds of church spires for which Prague is renowned. The monumental complex of th&caftle includes thrte courtyards and over 700 rooms among which the late Gothic Vladislav Hall, and the newly redecorateaaTpanish Hall and Rudolph Gallery are the most renowned. In the Vladislav Hall the election of the President takes place and both the
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