Information about the host country

The Czech Republic includes the historical territories of Bohemia,
Moravia, and Czech Silesia.
The historical capital of Bohemia is Prague, of Moravia Brno and of Czech Silesia Ostrava.
Nowadays is Brno capital of South Moravian Region.
So let´s visit it now in video and in 15 days by your self.

Czech Republic - Come to slow down

Prague is very popular place for tourists but Czech republic is not Prague only...  you will see it on your own... there is much more to discover...

Brno has many "faces" to show - these are some of them in a little bit untypical presentations:

Brno lies at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers. On river Svratka you can find the Brno Dam lake (also known as Brno Reservoir or as Prígl in Czech).

Kde domov můj? (Where is my home?) The answer you can find in the Czech Anthem:

We will learn now in 5 minutes about Czech history:

- Ancient Czech legends says that Czechs came from east. They were led by Forefather Čech (Praotec Čech). They came to mountain Říp and they named the country after Čech (Čechy).
-  Čechs granddaughter Libuše was very wise woman and she was a prophetess. She had a long vision of the future capital Prague. "...I see a great city, the glory of which touches the stars." And she started to build a city of Prague. She founded the first Czech ruler dynasty - Přemyslids. She married Přemysl the Ploughman (he was chosen by her white horse).
- 863 came from Greece Cyril and Methoděj (they brought Christianity to Czech lands and they learned the Czechs to write)
- After many dukes we had in year 1212 a first official king Přemysl Otakar I.
- Karel IV. (Charles IV.) was one of the most considerable kings, we call him the father of the nation. He built many important buildings, founded the university in Prague...
- 1415 the Czech philosopher, early Christian reformer, Jan Hus (John Huss) was burned in Konstanz because of his opinions. After his death in 1415, the followers of Hus's religious teachings (known as Hussites) rebelled against their Roman Catholic rulers and defeated five consecutive papal crusades between 1420 and 1431 in what became known as the Hussite Wars. A century later, as many as 90% of inhabitants of the Czech lands were non-Catholic and some still follow the teachings of Hus and his successors.
- 1438 George of Poděbrady (Jiří z Poděbrad) searched for allies against Pope. He tried to unite the European kings and he wanted to found first Europe organization.
- 1583 was Prague the biggest city in Europe, thanks to Rudolf II.
- 1620 the Thirty Years War started in the Czech Republic at Bílá Hora. It was the first battle of this cruel war.
- After that we had a period called National revival.  It was a fight against German language in schools, churches and administrative.
- 1918 the Czechoslowakia was founded after World War I.
- 1938 our west allies gave us to Nazi Germany to satisfy Hitler. They hoped it will end his spreading in Europe.
- 1945 the Czechoslowakia was free country again but only for 3 years.
- 1948 the communists in February revolution in Prague (highly supported from Moscow) overtook the power in Czechoslovakia and we became communist country with massive influence from Soviet Union.
- 1968 began the Czech communists to reform their art of ruling (the censorship ended, people could found new organizations,...). People hoped in new future in so called socialism with human face. But the Soviets didn´t want any changes in their territory. So they were talking about Contrarevolution in Czechoslovakia and in the middle of the night from 20 - 21 August 1968 they send army to Czechoslovakia. In the morning the soldiers on tanks were everywhere.  And they stayed in Czechoslovakia for another 30 years.
1989 - The Velvet revolution ended the communist period.
1993 - Czechoslovakia split into Czech and Slovak republic.
2004 - EU
This video was made in 2009 when we presided over the Union.

Do you know Austerlitz? No? It was huge battle also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors between Napoleon and Alexander I. (Russia) and Francis II. (Austria). Napoleon won this battle and it was his biggest victory. (Many streets in France are named after Austerlitz and you can also find for example a train station Gare d'Austerlitz in the center of Paris). Why you read information about that? Austerlitz is a german name for a city (in czech Slavkov) that lies 20 km from Brno. And we are going to visit The Cairn of Peace Memorial - it was bulild to honour the dead soldieres of the battle of Austerlitz.

The Cairn of Peace Memorial - was built to honour the victims of Napoleon's  victorious battle near Austerlitz ("Slavkov" in Czech; fought on 2 December 1805).

We are going to visit a special exhibition, just follow me...

After such an exhibition is everybody thirsty. So, let´s drink something from Moravia.

Learn common Czech greetings in three minutes:

Theatre play