60 Fun Facts About Czech Republic

The landlocked Czech Republic borders Germany, Slovakia and which two other countries?

Austria lies to the south; the capital and largest city, Prague, sits in the western land of Bohemia.

By what short name did the Czech foreign ministry recommend the country be called in English?

The UN, EU, NATO, the CIA and Google Maps have all adopted it, though many English speakers still say Czech Republic.

The peaceful 1993 split of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia is nicknamed what?

The name echoes the bloodless Velvet Revolution that had ended communist rule in 1989.

The 1989 events that ended communist rule in the country are known as what?

It brought the dissident playwright Václav Havel to the presidency within weeks.

Which playwright and dissident became the first president of the Czech Republic?

He was also the last president of Czechoslovakia, and Prague's international airport now carries his name.

The Czech Republic holds which world record related to beer?

Pale lagers of the pilsner type dominate, though average consumption has slipped in recent years.

The world's first pale lager was brewed in 1842 in which Czech city?

Pilsner Urquell was copied so widely that 'pils' became a style; the brewery has belonged to Japan's Asahi since 2017.

The Czech brewery Budweiser Budvar has fought a century-long trademark battle with which company?

As a result its beer is sold as Czechvar in some countries; brewing rights in the town date to 1265.

The country is traditionally divided into three historical lands: Bohemia, Moravia and which other?

It is the small south-eastern corner of historic Silesia, most of which now lies in Poland.

The word 'robot' was introduced to the world by which Czech writer's 1920 play R.U.R.?

It comes from robota, meaning forced labour or drudgery.

The 1618 Defenestration of Prague, in which two royal governors were thrown from a window, sparked which war?

The men survived the 21-metre fall; Protestant pamphleteers later claimed they landed on a dung heap.

The victims of the 1618 defenestration survived a fall of roughly how far?

Catholics credited angels or the Virgin Mary; the dung-heap story was probably invented later to counter claims of divine intervention.

Charles University, the first university in Central Europe, was founded in which year?

Its founder, Emperor Charles IV, also began the Charles Bridge in 1357.

Charles Bridge in Prague crosses which river?

Until 1841 it was the only way across, linking the castle to the Old Town; Smetana's famous symphonic poem is named after the river.

The mechanical clock and astronomical dial of Prague's Orloj date to which year?

It was built by clockmaker Mikuláš of Kadaň and mathematician Jan Šindel, and first recorded on 9 October 1410.

Per Guinness World Records, the hilltop seat of Czech presidents in Prague is the world's largest what?

It covers almost 70,000 square metres and runs about 570 metres long.

The 1968 Prague Spring was crushed by an invasion of forces from which alliance?

The Soviet Union, Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary and Poland moved in on 21 August 1968 to end Alexander Dubček's reforms.

Czechoslovakia added a blue triangle to its flag in 1920 because the white-over-red design matched which country's?

The Czech Republic kept the flag unchanged after the 1992 split, while Slovakia adopted its own.

What is the currency of the Czech Republic?

The country is legally bound to adopt the euro eventually but has not set a date.

The country's highest peak, Sněžka, rises to about what height?

It stands in the Krkonoše, or Giant Mountains, on the Polish border, where the average temperature is below freezing.

The Czech Republic leases a plot in which port city's docks so goods shipped down the Elbe can reach the sea?

The 30,000-square-metre Moldauhafen was granted to landlocked Czechoslovakia by the Treaty of Versailles.

The Czech Republic joined the European Union in which year?

NATO membership came first, on 12 March 1999.

The Czech Republic's 30% share of convinced atheists is third in the world behind which two countries?

About three-quarters of residents declare no religion at all in surveys.

Which composer wrote the 'New World' Symphony while directing a conservatory in New York?

He also wrote his 'American' string quartet on holiday in Spillville, Iowa, in 1893.

Smetana's symphonic cycle Má vlast has a title meaning what?

The cycle portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native Bohemia.

The author of The Metamorphosis and The Trial was born in Prague in 1883 and wrote in which language?

Franz Kafka came from a German-speaking Jewish family in what was then the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, went into exile in which country in 1975?

His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979 and Czech citizenship restored only in 2019.

Czech-born Martina Navratilova holds the record for Wimbledon singles titles with how many?

She reached the final twelve times, including nine years running from 1982 to 1990.

Emil Zátopek is the only person to win which three events at a single Olympics, in Helsinki in 1952?

He entered the marathon at the last minute, having never run one before.

Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská remains the only gymnast to have done what?

Her seven individual golds were the most by any female Olympian until Katie Ledecky passed her in 2024.

The Sedlec Ossuary near Kutná Hora is decorated with the bones of roughly how many people?

A chandelier said to contain at least one of every bone in the human body hangs in the nave.

Gregor Mendel carried out his pea-plant genetics experiments at an abbey in which Czech city?

The Augustinian St Thomas's Abbey stands in the country's second-largest city, which also boasts the modernist Villa Tugendhat.

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Freiberg, a Moravian town now known as what?

The founder of psychoanalysis was the first of eight children of Ashkenazi Jewish parents.

Czech chemist Otto Wichterle is best known for inventing what?

He made the first hydrogel lenses in 1961 on a home-built rig using a children's Merkur construction kit and a bicycle dynamo.

The plastic explosive Semtex takes its name from what?

It was invented in the late 1950s by Stanislav Brebera and Radim Fukátko and made at Semtín from 1964.

The car maker Škoda, headquartered in Mladá Boleslav, has been wholly owned since 2000 by which group?

It began in 1896 as the successor to Laurin & Klement and by 2017 had the second-highest profit margin of any VW brand after Porsche.

The real 'Good King Wenceslas', a tenth-century duke of Bohemia, was killed by whom?

Boleslaus the Cruel took his throne; Wenceslaus was later declared a king and the patron saint of the Czech state.

The followers of which reformer defeated five crusades in Bohemia between 1419 and 1434?

For the next two centuries about 90% of Bohemians and Moravians were counted as Hussites.

The 1938 agreement that let Nazi Germany annex the Czech borderlands was signed in which city?

Most of the remaining Czech lands became the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia the following year.

Vladimír Remek, a Czechoslovak cosmonaut, was the first person in space from outside which two nations?

He flew in 1978 under the Soviet Interkosmos programme.

The name Bohemia derives from the Latin Boiohaemum, meaning 'home of the' what?

The Celtic Boii lived there long before Slavic settlers arrived in the sixth century.

Vepřo-knedlo-zelo, often called the most typical Czech dish, is roast pork with cabbage and what?

The knedlíky are steamed and sliced like bread; leftovers get pan-fried with eggs.

Becherovka, the herbal bitters drunk as a digestif, is produced in which spa town?

The town, known in German as Karlsbad, is the country's most visited spa and hosts a major film festival.

Kofola is a Czech domestic version of what?

It competes with Coca-Cola and Pepsi and remains a nostalgic favourite from the communist era.

Miloš Forman won Best Director Oscars for Amadeus and which other film?

The Czech-born director also collected a BAFTA, three Golden Globes, a Golden Bear and a César.

Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha made his name in Paris with theatrical posters for which actress?

He later spent 14 years on The Slav Epic, twenty monumental canvases on the history of the Slavic peoples.

In Jewish folklore, the golem linked to a 16th-century Prague rabbi is a being made from what?

The most famous version of the legend belongs to Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel.

The Czech Republic took in about half a million refugees from which country?

It came after Russia's full-scale invasion of 2022.

Ottokar II, King of Bohemia, granted brewing rights in 1265 to which town, later famous for its lager?

The town is Budweis in German, which is where the beer name comes from.

The trdelník pastry sold across Prague was known in the mid-19th century as a dish of which people?

It later passed as Moravian, and a similar pastry, kürtőskalács, is beloved in Hungarian Transylvania.

Interwar Czechoslovakia held what distinction among Central and Eastern European states?

By 1938 it ranked tenth in the world for industrial production.

In 1806 the Bohemian Crown lands became part of the Austrian realm after the dissolution of what?

The Czech lands regained independence only in 1918, as Czechoslovakia.

Water from the Czech Republic drains into which three seas?

Bohemia drains to the Elbe, Moravia to the Morava, and Czech Silesia to the Oder, whose source lies in Moravia.

How many national parks does the Czech Republic have?

Krkonoše is the oldest; the others are Šumava, Podyjí and Bohemian Switzerland, alongside 25 Protected Landscape Areas.

Since 2000 the Czech Republic has been divided into how many regions plus the capital, Prague?

The older 76 districts lost most of their powers in a 1999 reform, and the country counts more than 6,000 municipalities.

Which Czech company is the world's largest manufacturer of vinyl records?

Its plant at Loděnice presses about 6 million records a year.

Roughly what share of the world's trams come from Czech factories?

Škoda Transportation is the fourth-largest tram maker on the planet, and Tatra is the second-oldest car maker in the world.

Which nuclear plant is the Czech Republic's largest source of electricity?

Nuclear supplies about 30 percent of Czech power, projected to rise to 40 percent, and the country exports about 10 TWh a year.

Which Czech scientist is credited with inventing the sugar cube?

Ressel invented the screw propeller, Janský discovered the ABO blood groups and Křižík the arc lamp.

The Czech ice hockey team won three straight World Championships in which years?

With Czechoslovakia's titles included, the country has 13 world golds plus the 1998 Olympic gold in Nagano.