Pictures from the Czech Republic
by Travelling Images
by Travelling Images
It has been nearly 2000 years since the Celtic Boii tribe lived in the land that is now known as the Czech Republic, but for many centuries the Germanic peoples who displaced the Boii were known as Bohemians. If you're looking for Bohemia on the map, look no farther than the Czech Republic - you have found it.
A Slavic people known as Czechs settled in the area during the 4th and 5th centuries, driven westward by the expansion of the Huns, Bulgars, and Magyars (Asiatic tribes). The Duchy of Bohemia was estblished in the 800s (or 9th century) under the P?emyslid dynasty. The Duchy became the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 but it was part of the Holy Roman Empire from 1002 to 1806.
The Kingdom of Bohemia was absorbed into the Austrian Empire after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. After Austria-Hungary's defeat in the First World War the empire was broken up and the First Czechoslovak Republic was established. The country was overrun by Nazi Germany in the lead up to World War II and seized by the Soviet Union late in the war. Czechoslovakia remained a Soviet puppet state and member of the Warsaw Pact until 1989.
As the Soviet Union began to loosen its control over eastern Europe Czechosloavkia abandoned Soviet-style Communism in favor of western Democracy. But the Czech and Slovak populations peacefully separated and formed new republics.
The Czech Republic built up its economy and joined NATO and the European Union.
Litomerice is a town at the junction of the rivers Elbe and Oh?e in the northern part of the Czech Republic.
Karlštejn Castle is a large Gothic castle in the Czech Republic founded in 1348 by Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor-elect and King of Bohemia.