Establishment of Greater Prague: 100 years ago, the metropolis grew eight times a day and its population tripled
January 16, 2022 • 2:00 p.m.
photo: Archive
On January 1, 1922, a law passed on February 6, 1920 came into force, associating thirty-eight municipalities and settlements with Prague, including the then fourth largest city in the republic – Královské Vinohrady. Among the Prague novices there was also the magnificent Karlín, which will also last a long time for Prague’s lure, the industrial Smíchov and the working-class Žižkov. Greater Prague was established.
The road to the adoption of the Greater Prague Act was lined with decades of negotiations and speculation. The expansion of the city was hindered, among other things, by differently high house and food taxes and dog fees. Of course, the local governments did not want to hand over their decision-making powers to “Prague”, they pointed out that Prague centralism was in conflict with Czech national interests.
Hradčany, Malá Strana, the Old Town and the New Town officially merged in the Royal Capital City of Prague on February 12, 1784. got a basket. In 1850, only Josefov joined Prague. Vyšehrad did not compete with its application to join Prague, it did not become part of the capital until thirty years later, similar to Holešovice-Bubny.
In the eighties of the nineteenth century, the marriage of convenience changed its mind due to the introduction of water and gas in Královské Vinohrady, Žižkov, Smíchov and Karlín. In 1882, they built their own waterworks in Vinohrady.
Prague plans
Accurate plans are needed for plans for the city’s future. The creation of the Prague one was ordered in February 1812 by Emperor Francis I. The author of the first plan of Prague on a geodetic basis was the Austrian officer Josef Jüttner, who a year earlier had drawn the trigonometric network of the metropolis. Antonín Langweil from the University Library of Prague’s Klementinum used Jüttner’s plan in the 1930s to create his precise model of what was then Prague.
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