A short history of Prague: from Libuše to the present

Learn a dozen dates and Prague makes sense. They explain why the city has a Gothic cathedral, Baroque churches, an Art Nouveau civic hall and a television tower, and why three minutes of conversation with a Czech can include both "the Habsburgs" and "the Russians".

Legend and beginnings

Czech tradition begins with Princess Libuše and her prophecy; see Prague legends. The historical record starts with the Přemyslid dynasty, which built a stronghold at Prague Castle in the late ninth century. A second fort rose at Vyšehrad. By the tenth century Prague was an important trading place in the Bohemian lands, and in 973 it became a bishopric.

Charles IV, 14th century

The great era. Charles IV, King of Bohemia, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1355 and made Prague his capital. He founded the New Town in 1348 and Charles University the same year, began St Vitus Cathedral in 1344 and, in 1357, the stone bridge that now bears his name. Much of what makes Prague look like Prague dates from his reign.

Hussites and defenestrations

Religious conflict followed. Jan Hus, a preacher and reformer, was burned at the stake in Constance in 1415, and his followers, the Hussites, fought wars across Bohemia. In 1419 an angry crowd threw councillors out of the windows of the New Town Hall, the First Defenestration of Prague. The Second, in 1618, saw Habsburg officials thrown from a window at Prague Castle, and it started the Thirty Years' War.

The Habsburgs and the Baroque

In 1526 the Bohemian crown passed to the Habsburgs. After the Bohemian nobles' defeat at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, Catholic Habsburg control tightened and the Baroque took over. In 1784 the four towns of Prague (Old Town, New Town, Malá Strana and Hradčany) were merged into one city. The nineteenth century brought the Czech national revival, the National Theatre and the National Museum; our architecture styles guide shows what it left behind.

Czechoslovakia, 1918

Austria-Hungary collapsed at the end of the First World War, and Czechoslovakia was founded on 28 October 1918 with Prague as its capital. The date is a public holiday; see our guide to Czech public holidays. Greater Prague, joining the older city with surrounding towns and villages, was formed in 1922. The First Republic was a democratic state with a strong economy.

Occupation and war

In 1938 the Munich Agreement forced Czechoslovakia to give up its border regions to Germany. In March 1939 German troops occupied the rest of the Czech lands, and Prague was ruled as part of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Jewish population was persecuted and deported, many to Terezín (see our Terezín guide). In 1942 Czechoslovak resistance fighters assassinated the Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich in Prague, and brutal reprisals followed. The Prague uprising began in May 1945, just before the war in Europe ended.

Communism

In February 1948 the Communist Party took power. The next four decades brought nationalisation, political trials and travel restrictions, with a brief thaw in 1968. For the full story, see communist Czechoslovakia explained and the Prague Spring.

1989 and after

In November 1989 mass protests ended communist rule in the Velvet Revolution, which has its own explainer. Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union on 1 May 2004. Prague's historic centre had been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.

Walking the dates

Vyšehrad is the legend. The Castle and the Charles Bridge are the Middle Ages. The Old Town Hall is the Hussites. Malá Strana is the Baroque. The Municipal House is 1918. Wenceslas Square holds 1968 and 1989. A city is easiest to understand when you can stand in each period.

Do this today

Pick one date, go to the place and read a plaque. Our three-day itinerary strings the best of them together.