PRAGUE CIVITAS

Prague has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the CITY OR CIVITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the the aeternitas and the future of Europe.

Prague is one of the most ancient cities of the history of European integration, signed in great part by Christianity. Where is it Prague? Originary village has been founded, on the Vltava River in the middle of a plateau in late Bronze Age era, by the Boyans Celts tribe who called it Boihaem, from which came the name Bohemia given to the sourrounding region of their reign. At the beginning of Christian Age Prague was invaded by Germans tribes, followed by Slavs and the Avars in VI century A.D. who annexed it to their inmense empire.

At the end of VIII century A.D. Prague was conquered by Charlemagne, who joined to the Carolingian Empire and established the Bohemian Mark, since then an essential part of the history of european integration and the Roman Catholic world. But in 833 A.D. Prague felt into the Reign of Great-Moravia influence and received the evangelization by the Byzantine Empire monks Saints Cyril and Methodius, who invented the glagolitic alphabet.

By the end of the IX century A.D. the carolingian mark was occupied by the western Slavs tribe of Bohemians, who founded their reign ruled by the Premyslid dinasty with capital in Prague. Once recognized by the emperor Otto I 'said the great', who rejoined the Duchy of Bohemia to the Reich Empire, was founded in the civitas a great bishopric with the missione to bring the Evangelus to all peoples around under the authority of the ArchiBishop of Magdeburg: that had been the epoch of the dukes Vaclav I and Boleslav II both consecrated by the Pope as rex christianorum worth of being members of the Familia Reges led by the Basileius of Constantinople. At that epoch date back the first masonry under the Prague Castle, the other prominent city fort and the Přemyslid fort of Vyšehrad (returned famous in actuality cause of the political alleance of four European Union member states).

The elevation as Regna Bohemia happened in 1198 A.D., when were addded the Margriavade of Moravia and the Slesia and Lusatia Duchies, whose feudal lords would have elected the Krown Bohemian landers detentor since 1306 A.D., when alternated on the throne the dinasties of Luxemburg and Habsburg: with the reform ('Golden Bull') made by the emperor Charles IV, Prague became capital of the so called Sacer Roman Empire and seat of the city university, receiving new buildings as the Cathedral, the Charles Bridge, the Gothic Saint Vitus Cathedral within the largest of the Prague Castle courtyards, on the site of the Romanesque rotunda, with the Zlatà Ulicka and the Hahnpassgasse streets and the Germans rion within the 'New Town' (Nové Město), so becoming the third-largest city of Europe.

But in XV century A.D. Prague had been theatre of the first great religious protest in Europe! The Hussite revolt endured more than a century and involved the capital of the Christian Empire in a crusade of mercenaries and troops from other countries: when the catholics Hasburg ascended the throne things went wrong until the 'defenestration of Prague' in 1618 A.D. and the subsequent reaction ended with the winning Battle of the White Mountain not far from the city. Then happened the execution of 27 Czech Protestant leaders in Old Town Square and the exile of many others, then Prague was forcibly converted back to Roman Catholicism followed by the rest of the Czech lands. Involved completely in the '30 Years War', the city suffered for many sieges and began a steady decline that reduced its population and made the Jews escape from their historical rion. In 1689 A.D. a great fire devastated Prague, followed by a major outbreak of plague decades after that killed thousands of inhabitants, while in 1744 A.D. Frederick II 'said the Great' king of Prussia invaded the Bohemia and took Prague after a siege that destroyed large part of the town: in the end the Empress Maria Theresa expelled definitively Jews from Prague the year after.

A new epoch of Prague began at the end of XVIII century A.D.: the population increased and many rich merchants and nobles enhanced the city with a host of palaces, churches, and gardens full of art and music, creating a Baroque style renowned throughout the world to this day! In 1784 A.D. the Emperor Joseph II merged the 4 municipalities of Malá Strana, Nové Město, Staré Město and Hradčany into a single entity, including the Jewish district (called Josefov), while the Industrial Revolution produced great changes and developments in Prague, as new factories could take advantage of the coal mines and ironworks of the nearby regions. A massive increase in the city's overall population caused by the influx of Czechs from the rest of Bohemia and Moravia and the increasing prestige and importance of the Czech language (as part of the Czech National Revival) pushed the city council to order that all German inscriptions were removed.

The nationalist sentiment of Czech people brough to the foundation of the Czech-Slovakia Republic at the end of the First World War, with capital in Prague and presidency at the castle. In 1939 A.D. the city was occupied by Nazi troops while the country was annected to III Reich until the end of the Second World War, when passed under the control of the Soviets 'Red Army' (U.R.S.S.) that intevined again to defeat a liberal people revolt in 1968 A.D., just a prelude of the final liberation of the country in 1991 A.D. with a great mass event in Prague. The year after took place the dissolution of Czech-Slovakia in the 2 new national states of Slovakia and Czech, which returned to the ancient Bohemia Duchy territory.

Nowadays, Prague is the capital of Czech Republic and of the Prague region and the Central Bohemian region, the largest city of the country with a population of approximately 2,3 million people in its metropolitan area. It is home to a number of cultural and touristic attractions including the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, the Old Town Square with the Prague astronomical clock, the Jewish Quarter, Petřín hill and Vyšehrad, over lots of museums, theatres, galleries, cinemas, and other historical exhibits. For this reason, since 1992 A.D. the historic center of Prague has been enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage, so that has became the fifth most visited European city after London, Paris, Rome and Istanbul. The main patron of Prague is St. Wenceslas, a X century A.D. prince known for his piety and role in spreading Christianity around Bohemia.

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