Prague has grown really well overnight. In 1922, they acquired 37 new little brothers
Adjacent villages Břevnov, Bubeneč, Karlín, Košíře, Královské Vinohrady, Libeň, Nusle, Smíchov, Vršovice, Vysočany, Žižkov were added to the capital overnight.
But that was not all, together with other smaller and small villages and settlements it was a total of 37 new Prague siblings. The population tripled, the city increased more than eight times, had 19 districts with 676 thousand inhabitants and an area of almost 172 due to square.
Prague received the official name of the Capital City of Prague. That moment was born a long time, definitely longer than from February 1920, when the law on Greater Prague was approved, or from November 1918, when it was submitted to the National Assembly.
Target: a dignified metropolis
For the first step, we may reach as far as February 12, 1784, when the royal capital Prague was officially established. Signature of Joseph II. it connected four so far independent Prague cities: Hradčany, Mala Strana, Old Town and New Town.
In the 19th century, the Jewish Town joined them, renamed Josefov, Vyšehrad, Holešovice and Bubny. In the first year of the 20th century, Libeň was added. At that time, Prague had 21 such square and about 233 thousand inhabitants.
The transformation of Prague in 100 yearsComparative photos Václav Víšek has a great hobby. According to period pictures, they take pictures of the same places. Thanks to which we have the opportunity to see the changes in one hundred, forty and twenty years. “I’m basically a tramp who slowly loses his physique with age, I can’t climb in the mountains anymore, so I’m wandering around towns and villages with a camera. I’m a Prague man and I use the time of a pensioner,” he admits. |
From the 70s of the 19th century, the walls began to fall as survival, the city was modernized, industry became more and more predatory – Prague would like to breathe more, but the neighboring villages mostly resisted because they feared the loss of independence. The problem was, for example, differences in taxes or ethnic disputes between Czechs and Germans.
Until then, the newly connected city districts have separate statutory parts, they were mostly quite significant, Vinohrady even built its own waterworks. They were exhibition villages, often with a population of up to 50,000. The loss of municipal privileges was quite significant for them.
The situation changed radically only after the fall of the monarchy, when the domination and competition of Vienna disappeared. Prague has set itself the goal of becoming a dignified metropolis of the young Czechoslovak Republic and becoming one of the world’s major cities.
Greater Prague brought new demands on the administration, but at the same time it was transformed by a new architecture, in which constructivism and functionalism won. Entire apartment and residential areas began to grow, schools, factories, hospitals were added, and public transport began.
Jarkovský at the Castle
Prague also inherited more than fifty cinemas and the first film studios that AB established in the Měřeníanský Brewery in Královské Vinohrady. The famous Red Seven cabaret soon ended, but it still drew to the Lucerna cabaret, led by Karel Hasler.
Slowly he heard jazz. Women’s fashion turned from Vienna to Paris, throwing away corsets and shortening skirts. Čapek, Wolker or Seifert were read, but cliftons, buffalo cars and Evenings under a Lamp also spread through the town.
Jiří Stanislav Guth-Jarkovský worked at the Castle as the president’s ceremony. The first architect Milada Petříková Pavlíková and the first chemist Helena Fišerová started working with a fresh university diploma.
Sports number 1 remained football. AC Sparta with the star Karel Pešek called Káďa, who also scored in hockey. Its traditional competitor SK Slavia alias stitching. Bohemka was located in Ďolíček in Vršovice, not far from the later stadium, and Viktorka from Žižkov lived at the other end of Prague.
Otakar Jandera, later known as Jandera’s “father”, rose to the top. Marie Mejzlíková moved from handball to athletics and eventually collected five world records in it. She married her Čeňek and Alžběta Pospíšilová, later a car racer Eliška Junková, got her driver’s license.
But they were also born in many places emergency colonies from the huts of those who were attracted by the idea of a job from the countryside, and their hopes were not fulfilled.
Prague was changing in a city full of promises and problems that few people knew that morning on January 1, 1922.
Greater Prague
On January 1, 1922, 37 surrounding municipalities or their parts were connected to Prague: 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.
The poor colony in Prague Na Slatinách is a real slum
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