Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a state in Central Europe. There are 10,3 milion population and its area is about 80 000 sq km. Our state is surrounded by a ring of mountains - for example theŠumava range, the Czech Forest, Ore Mountains, Jizerské Mountains, Jeseníky, Beskydy and so on...

There are also big rivers - Vltava, Elbe (flowing into the North Sea), Oder (into Baltic Sea) and Morava. The climate is mostly continental.

One of our most important raw materials is coal. There are two kind of coal. The first black coal and anthracite are to be found in the Ostrava and around Kladno and the second is brown coal and lignite. They are in the North Bohemia coal Basin and in the Sokolov. The rich deposits of kaolin and clay are important for the ceramics and glass industries.

The Czech Republic is traditionally an industrial country. There are the chemical industry, food industry, textile industry, metallurgy and other sorts of industry.

Before 1993 czech and slovak people were in the same state, but first Januar 1993 we divided into two independent states.

Capital of the Czech Republic is Prague. Prague is the seat of the President, government and parliament. There is also one of biggest river in CR - Vltava. In Prague live about 1,2 milions people. The oldes parts are the Old Town, The Lesser Town, the New Town, Josefov, Hradčany and Vyšehrad.

History
The first Slavonic state was Sámo´s Empire which was founded here in 623. Later was formed to feudal Great Moravian Empire in 9th century. The Czech princes - and later kings- played an important role in Central Europe. The important dynasties our country were Přemyslid, Luxemburgs - Charles IV., Jagiellonian and Hapsburg dynasty. People, who are historical popular for our country, are very much. I´d like named Jan Hus, Jan Žižka - hussite leader, Prokop Holý or kings Charles IV., Jiří of Poděbrady and so on.