90 years ago, Greater Prague was founded. She swallowed Vinohrady, Žižkov and Dejvice
The Royal Capital City of Prague was established in 1784, when four independent Prague cities merged. In the 19th century, the Jewish Town joined them, renamed Josefov, Vyšehrad, Holešovice and Bubny. In the first year of the 20th century, Libeň also came. At that time, Prague had 21 square kilometers and about 233 thousand inhabitants.
A big change was brought about by the law from February 1920, which merges “neighboring villages and settlements with Prague”. Based on it, the so-called Greater Prague was established 90 years ago, divided into 19 districts with a population of 676 thousand and an area of almost 172 square kilometers.
Greater PragueOn January 1, 1922, it was annexed to Prague 37 surrounding municipalities or their parts: Bohnice, Braník, Břevnov, Bubeneč, Dejvice, Hloubětín, Hlubočepy, Hodkovičky, Hostivař, Hrdlořezy, 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. |
Prague has been using the connection of neighboring, rapidly developing municipalities for seventy years. However, she often encountered resistance from local governments, which did not want to lose their independence. The problem was, for example, differences in taxes or ethnic disputes between Czechs and Germans.
The establishment of Greater Prague includes further development
“Until then, the newly connected city districts had a separate status, they were mostly quite significant, Vinohrady even built its own waterworks. They were exhibition villages, often with a number of up to 50 thousand. The loss of municipal privileges for residents was quite significant,” he explained to iDNES. cz 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 municipalities around Prague hampered the development of the Czech capital. “After their connection, the whole city planning and reflection on the further development of the city, including, for example, transport, was much simpler and more efficient,” added Tůma.
A new system of city administration had to be created with Greater Prague. The choir 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 local committees, municipal councils to local councils and municipal mayors to local mayors.
Prague became the capital
However, the association of the surrounding municipalities also brought a number of problems that needed to be addressed. For example, there was confusion in the addresses – the names of the streets in the connected municipalities were often the same, it was also necessary to build a new infrastructure – electricity, gas, water, sewerage and the like.
With the adoption of the new Act on Greater Prague, Prague became the capital of the republic, which meant other major changes – for example, new state and embassies or the general directorates of companies that moved to Prague from Vienna.