OUR HOMELAND
The Czech Republic is small (10,6 mil inhabitants) landlocked country in central Europe. The capital and the largest city is Prague. Official language is Czech and it’s spoken only in this country.
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A little bit of history. The beginning of Czech country dates to the 10th century, in this time known as Duchy of Bohemia or Czech Duchy. The Duchy raised to a Kingdom of Bohemia (Czech kingdom) in 1212. The most influential king was Charles IV, who founded the first university in Central Europe – Charles University. The Kingdom of Bohemia lasted until 1918. After World War I the independent democratic republic of Czechoslovakia was created. After World War II in 1948 Czechoslovakia became Communist state for the next 41 years. In 1989 after peaceful Velvet Revolution Czechoslovakia returned to democracy. On 1. 1. 1993 Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
What is the landscape like in the Czech Republic?
The landscape is quite varied. One third of country is forested. There are mountain ranges, especially along the borders. The highest point is Mt. Snezka (1603 m). Along the rivers there are fertile lowlands. In the south of country there are the vineyards in the north-west hop fields. We don’t have a sea, but on hot summer days we can swim in ponds, reservoirs, rivers or flooded quarries. You don‘t find super-modern cities here, our cities and towns are historical. There are hundreds of castles, forts, manors, towers, ruins and chateaux in our country. The Czech Republic is the most castle-rich country in Europe.
Czech cuisine is not quite healthy. Typical czech meals consist of two or more courses. First is soup, usually thick with vegetable and meat. Second is stewed or roasted meat – most common is beef or pork – with sauce and traditional side dish is dumplings (knedlíky). Czech dumplings are made from potato or wheat, steamed and sliced. There are many other side dishes including rice, pasta or potatoes. And other kind of meat – chicken, rabbit or game meat ( fallow deer, deer, boar). Popular meals are also mushrooms based. By the way Czech people love to pick mushrooms. Third course is dessert. We have many kinds of pastry too. The most popular drinks are beer, wine or kofola, which is a soft drink and can remind coca cola.
Czech brands and inventions
Maybe you know some of czech brands or maybe you use every day czech invention, but you probably don’t know that it has czech origin.
Škoda (Skoda) auto – founded in Mlada Boleslav in 1895 by Václav Laurin and Václav Klement, unfortunately after 1991 it became brand of Volkswagen Group.
Baťa – Bata shoes was founded in Zlín in 1894 by Anna, Antonín and Tomáš Baťa. This company has made and sold the most of shoes ever.
Soft contact lens – in 1961 Otto Wichterle produced the first weareable soft lens.
Famous people
Martina Navrátilová – considered one of the best fiale tennis player of all time
Jaromír Jágr – professional ice-hockey player, most productive European player in NHL, second-most points in NHL history
Miloš Forman – movie director who emigrated to the USA, movie which he directed – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Hair (1979), Ragtime (1981), Valmont (1989), Amadeus (1984), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), Man on the Moon (1999).
Karel Čapek – writer and playwriter, with his brother Josef introduced to world word „robot“ in their play R.U.R.
Václav Havel – the first president of the Czech Republic, he was very popular in our country and abroad
If you have some questions, don’t hesitate to ask 😎
