90 years ago, Great Prague was created. It swallowed Vinohrady, Žižkov and Dejvice
The royal capital of Prague was established in 1784, when four separate cities of Prague merged. In the 19th century, they were joined by the Jewish Town, renamed Josefov, Vyšehrad, Holešovice and Bubny. In the first year of the 20th century, Libeň also came. At that time, Prague had an area of 21 square kilometers and about 233 thousand inhabitants.
A big change was brought about by the law of February 1920, by which “neighboring municipalities and settlements merge with Prague”. On its basis, the so-called Great Prague was created 90 years ago, divided into 19 districts with 676 thousand inhabitants and an area of almost 172 square kilometers.
Great PragueOn January 1, 1922, it was annexed to Prague 37 surrounding municipalities or their parts: Bohnice, Braník, Břevnov, Bubeneč, Dejvice, Hloubětín, Hlubocepy, Hodkovičky, Hostivař, Hrdlorezy, Malá Chuchle, Jinonice, Karlín, Kobylisy, Košíře, Krč, Liboc, Malešice, Michle, Motol, Nusle, Podolí, Prosek, Radlice, Sedlec, Smíchov, Strašnice, Střešovice, Střížkov, Troja, Veleslavín, Královské Vinohrady, Vokovice, Vršovice, Vysočany, Záběhlice, Zátiší and Žižkov. Prague official name Capital City of Prague. |
For seventy long years, Prague used the connection of neighboring, rapidly developing municipalities. But it often ran into resistance from local governments, which did not want to lose their independence. Differences in taxes or national disputes between Czechs and Germans also posed a problem, for example.
The emergence of Great Prague includes further development
“Until then, the newly annexed city districts had a separate status, they were mostly quite important, Vinohrady even built its own water plant. They were exhibition villages, often with a population of up to 50,000. The loss of municipal privileges for residents was quite fundamental,” he explained to iDNES. Czech historian and director of the Institute of Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Oldřich Tůma.
On the other hand, the independence of the municipalities around Prague hindered the development of the Czech metropolis. “After their connection, the entire urban planning and consideration of the further development of the city, including, for example, transport, was much simpler and more efficient,” added Tůma.
With Greater Prague, a new system of municipal administration had to be created. The council of municipal elders turned into a central council headed by the city council, and the title of mayor of the capital city of Prague was officially introduced for the mayor. The existing municipal and settlement councils were renamed to local committees, municipal councils to local councils and municipal mayors to local mayors.
Prague became the capital
At the same time, the association of the surrounding municipalities brought a number of problems that had to be solved. For example, there was confusion in addresses – the street names in the connected municipalities were often identical, it was also necessary to build new infrastructure – electricity, gas, water, sewerage and the like.
With the adoption of the new law on Greater Prague, Prague became the capital of the republic, which meant other major changes – for example, new state and embassy offices or the general directorates of companies that moved to Prague from Vienna.