Traveler's Notes: History of Prague

Rece Garlenski (0:00)

Hello, everyone. My name is Riz Karlinczky, and this is Young History. These are my traveler's notes today on the capital city of Czechia, which is Prague. This city has a unique history and has a lot of things to it, so we're going to get right into it. I'm going to open with the name. The name comes from the Czech word Praha, which means stole or threshold. It may have been given this name because of the shoals of the Václava River, or from the legend that Prague is the threshold of the mythical world. There's a lot of connection between Prague and different odd things like that, between chemistry and a lot of different magical elements that people have once associated the city with. And now for some facts for you guys. The city is also known as the city of 100 spires. This is because of the many pointed spires across the city skyline for a lot of its history.

Because of the flooding as recently as 2013, Prague had to raise ground level of the city by about two meters to prevent constant flooding.

And finally, Prague is also called the heart of Europe because of its location in the quote unquote center of Europe. There are many different parts of Europe that claim to be the direct center, but there is a good argument for it being Prague because of the fact that it has a significant amount of Western European nations west of it and a huge presence of Eastern European nations east of it, and it is a Central European country. So you can debate that if you like, but many in Prague do claim that. But with that being said, I do want to get right into the history here and don't want to waste any more time. So I just want to say thank you guys for watching. Thank you for listening to this. I hope you guys get something out of it because I certainly put a lot in for you. So with that being said, let's not dilly dally any further. Our origins begin quite a while ago. The history of Prague starts right around 550 BC as the Iron Age came to a close. In the Vlatova River, there was a tribe of Celts that built small settlements on the land. They were called the Bojji, which is why the land was originally called Bohemia. And now we're going to start with some mythical history. The start of Prague was further back when a king named Kruk settled this place in a land for his people to live in. This area was called Visherad. Visherad still remains today, but is placed in the mid-900s by most historians. The Bohemian rulers resided in Visherad during the 11th and 12th centuries.

Under the later rule of Rudolf II, Prague was made to be home for mystics and alchemists who pursued the philosopher's stone. There is also a huge presence of the Freemasonry in Prague. All this plays into the identity of Prague as a city that blends with real things and with the mythical world. And now for some real history with real people groups. That starts with the Slavs. In the late 400 CE, the great Slavic migration began, and Central Europe was slowly populated with Slavic tribes. At the end of the 800 CE, Bolshevoy and Ludmila of the Premislid dynasty moved their royal seat to Prague Castle Hill. The first stone structures were built here between 882 and 884 CE. The first structure was a church. The hill was selected because of its powerful location over a canyon and with access to bodies of water.

The Prague Castle was developed at the end of the century as a smaller fortification. This dynasty was named for an old legend called Premislid the Polman. At this time, the great Merovian empire that controlled a lot of Central Europe ruled over Prague and this area. Christianity took root after this and became a huge part of the culture then and all the way till now. In the 900s, the Premislid dynasty established the kingdom of Bohemia, and Prague was her capital. And as I said before, this references back to the Bojí, which were the Celtic tribe that were one of the first people to live here. The first written mention of Prague happened in the 900s CE when an Arab traveler named Ibrahim ibn Yaqob wrote about the castle, slave trade and stoned walls of the cities, old town Prague. It was developed between 900 and 1100 CE. Right around the year 1108, there was a market in the area of the old town square today. Foreign merchants were taxed heavily in the square to sell goods in this market because it was very lucrative and brought in a lot of people. Around the same time, Vladislav II oversaw the creation of the Judith Bridge, so that people could cross the Vltava River. Old town Prague was officially created in 1235, when King Wenceslaus I merged local settlements into one basis for all of Prague. And now we should talk about the Jewish quarter. In 1215, all Jewish subjects were stripped of their rights and sent to the corner of the city, near a river bank called Šosefov.