Prague Locations

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Capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia. For many centuries it was rather a close neighbourhood of several different towns on both banks of the Vltava River.
Its greatest prosperity was brought about by Charles IV, who united these towns into a single unit and made it the residence of his imperial court. He began building strong fortifications, contributed to significant changes in the city’s architecture, started the construction of the first Czech cathedral and founded the first European university north of the Alps, Charles University, thus elevating the city to a European metropolis.
At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, according to surviving records, there were 4,000 houses in Prague with a permanent population ranging from 40-50,000. Additionally there were students and the royal court. Although Prague could not compare to the size of Florence or Paris, it was still the largest city in Central Europe.
With its convenient location at the crossroads of trade routes, Prague was an important trading location and, thanks to the University, a cosmopolitan centre with a large foreign population.

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