CzechiaThings to Know

Bohemia was formed in the 9th century. It was for a time under the power of the Great Moravian Empire, the Roman Empire, Habsburg, then Austrian Empire, and after 1918, Bohemia formed the independent and democratic republic of Czechoslovakia. This was annexed to Germany in 1938 and liberated by the Red Army in 1945, when it fell under communist rule. The Soviet grip tightened after Czechoslovakian efforts at economic and political liberalization in the ‘Prague Spring’ of the 1960s. And then the Velvet (nonviolent) Revolution occurred as the Soviet regime collapsed and saw the end of one-party rule. In 1993 Czechoslovakia dissolved into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, and in 2004 the Czech Republic joined the European Union.

Invention of the sugar cube is attributed to a local Jakub Krystof Rad, and Josef Ressel, one of the inventors of the propeller, hails from Czechia too.

The Astronomical Clock, described as an ingenious piece of equipment, has been showing the time and date, plus the position of the sun and the phase of the moon for centuries. Every hour on the hour, it opens up with a spectacle of 12 parading apostles who nod to any watchers in the crowd below.

The currency is the Czech Koruna and things in Czechia are generally affordable, though in the summertime in the Old Town, prices are inflated on pretty much everything.

Despite their exquisite churches, Czechs today are among the least religious people in the world, though family is a top priority for most.

Franz Kafka was born in Prague and celebrated there, even though he wrote primarily in German. Milan Kundera is a 20th century writer and author of ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’, and you should not miss the harmonious symphonies and operas of the pivotal Czech composer, Antonin Dvorak.