Talk:Prague

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[edit] Synagogue

The city flourished during the 14th-century reign of Charles IV, who ordered the building of the New Town, the Charles Bridge, Saint Vitus Cathedral, the oldest gothic cathedral in central Europe and actually inside the Castle, the oldest synagogue in northern Europe, Maisel Synagogue....

The king ordered the building of a synagogue? --Charles A. L. 15:31, Feb 17, 2004 (UTC)

It's probably a mistake. I've two sources stating it was built 1590-1592 at the expense of Mordechai Maisel, and granted great privileges by Rudolf II, not Charles IV. Possibly mistaken for Old-New synagogue. Wikimol 23:36, 29 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] City template

We should fit Prague to Wikipedia:WikiProject Cities City template. Anyone willing to participate? Wikimol 23:23, 29 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] New City

What is meant by "New City"? Is it Nové Město? Andres 17:11, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

It is "Nové město pražské" or "New Town of Prague". New City is inferior translation.Wikimol

[edit] Cathedral

Under Charles IV, Saint Vitus Cathedral began to be reconstructed, not built. It wasn't originally Gothic. Andres 17:11, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

No. The cathedral is the third church consecrated to the same saint on the identical site. (form Prague castle website) But it was Charles IV who started building og gothic Saint Vitus Cathedral. Wikimol 19:28, 29 Jun 2004 (UTC)

[edit] districts

We need a list of modern-day Prague districts, among other things to be able to link up Pankrác. --Joy [shallot] 12:27, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)

City districts have only numbers. Maybe list of places & geographical names of Prague? --Wikimol 12:45, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Regardless, I'd still want to see a list of them and a map, or at least a description of their locations. --Joy [shallot] 18:06, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Actually it's more complicated - before 1994 Prague was divided into 10 numbered districts, or saidly 'district groups' (Praha 1 - Praha 10), each one consisting of few (named) districts. That changed, some named districts were grouped and renamed to numbered (Praha 11 - Praha 22), numbered ones shrinked, etc. Now there are 22 numbered so called 'administrative districts' (state administration), most of them including few named municipal districts (self-goverment, elected bodies). It could be seen on [1]. However, everyone and their dog always used district names rather than numbers, so i think list would be appropriate. -- JohnyDog 18:22, 16 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Well, but many municipal districts (self-goverment, elected bodies) have only numbers. Only marginal municipal districts, created from comunites which joint Prague relatively recently, have unambigous names. The only official name to describe place where I live is "Prague 8" and in common language I usualy use name of nearby Metro station.
After some thought I created Prague city districts based on this talkpage and cadastral territory names.
--Wikimol 14:49, 17 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] English names

Let's rename the "historical districts" to their respective English version. Titles such as "Staré město" (Old Town) are perhaps factually correct, but are of use only if the reader understands Czech or other Slavic language. Moreover, there is a Wikipedia policy saying that we should use the most used English term as the title for an article; and if you look into any tourist guide, you'll surely see these names in English.

The problem is that there are many cities having their own Old Town or New Town. Therefore, the title has to contain "Prague" too. I see three ways how to write it:

  1. Old Town of Prague - perhaps the most accurate: it's a direct translation of Staré město pražské
  2. Old Town, Prague - systematic, but I don't like commas in titles very much.
  3. Prague Old Town - a compromise between the two above.

Districts that have a commonly used English name and that are specific to Prague (such as the Lesser Quarter) (Malá strana)) don't need to include "Prague" in the title, of course. -- Sandius 9 July 2005 11:48 (UTC)

#2 is fitting typical Wiki patterns. There may be many Lesser Quartes in the world. The article Nove Mesto should be updated as well and its counterpart Stare Mesto possibly created. Category [[Category:Districst of Czech towns]] would come handy. Pavel Vozenilek 19:36, 9 July 2005 (UTC)
I moved Staré město to Old Town, Prague and changed appropriate links. I also created New Town, Prague. As for the Lesser Quarter, I don't know any other city that has its own Lesser Quarter (and Google doesn't seem to know any such city either). Thus, it seems to me that Lesser Quarter is quite good location.
What about Josefov? Wouldn't Jewish Town, Prague be a better title? -- Sandius 21:28, 10 July 2005 (UTC)
The "Little Quarter" is also a common name for Malá strana. But Jan Naruda's book is tanslated into English as "Malá Strana Stories." As for Josefov, "Jewish Quarter" is a description of, not a translation of, "Josefov," so I would recommend leaving it as is. Mwalcoff 19:35, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] If One Were From Prague

What do you call a person from Prague?--130.184.150.171 04:01, 10 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Pražák (singular),
Pražáci (plural)

No, this is colloquial Czech. The correct one is Pražan and Pražané.

It is colloquial Czech but the proper form is almost unseen. Pavel Vozenilek 17:41, 23 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] It's the Prague template!

I've created a template for Prague administrative, municipal and cadastral districts. It's at Template:Prague districts and you can add it to the bottom of a page by typing "{{Prague districts}}" . Mwalcoff 19:42, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Communist Baikonur

I do not like the fact the photo of the controversial Žižkov Television Tower (although a very good one) is included. Most architects condemn the the fact that such a building structure was erected in the city centre ([2] cs only). I would prefer some other photo. Warsaw article also misses photo of the Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science. I would suggest for example the foto currently included on Dancing House page.

As David Černý, author of the pictured crawling babies puts it "the best solution would be to mount rocket engines to the building and blast it off". Fortunately it was not built on Petřín hill, as originally intended. JanSuchy 23:42, 25 March 2006

I agree with you, that the photo of Dancing House should be included - but that photo in its wikisite is not good. I would wait until someone adds some better picture of it. The Prague TV Tower is a controversial thing:) Fx I like it only at night (Prague´s night skyline looks great with it). I regret only that I haven´t made a picture during the October/November2005 when it was shining in different colors. The picture you are mentioning is really not needed in Prague´s site - (from my POV) we can delete it until some "night picture" will be available. Szalas
Thanks for reply. I agree with you. I would also consider a picture of Petřínská rozhledna, however the current photos are rather poor. JanSuchy 07:20, 26 March 2006 (UTC)
I'm not sure that the unpopularity of the tower is legitimate grounds for removing the photo. It is a pretty well-known landmark, at least as well-known in the city as the Dancing House. Černý's babies help make it a tourist attraction. --TheMightyQuill 16:25, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
I agree with that. While I like Gehry's building, when lost in Prague the Žižkov tower is much more useful to get your bearings back... jax 08:45, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Celtic Tiger European premiere

As I know, it was canceled twice, I propose to delete it. JanSuchy 07:58, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Logo/flag

How about including the Prague logo/flag like the Czech article? I'd do it, but I don't know how to fit it in the infobox. The pictures are Image:Prague-logo.png and . +Hexagon1 (talk) 10:00, 30 March 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Right vs East

"Prague's first nucleus was founded in the latter part of the 9th century as a castle on a hill commanding the right bank of the Vltava"

I notice the word right was recently changed to east and then reverted. I don't see how right or left apply. East seems to make sense to me, or maybe North-East? -- TheMightyQuill 15:48, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

Right and left are used to talk about banks of rivers. Left remains left all way long going from the spring to the confluence with another river. East would probably be understood in the case of the Vltava river in Prague, too, but I didn't see any reason for this change, so I reverted the edit. Daniel Šebesta (talk • contribs) 15:55, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
Btw, I've just realized this—east bank in Prague is the left bank, so there was also a factual change. Daniel Šebesta (talk • contribs) 15:57, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
are you sure? east bank is the left one? szalas
Oh no, sorry for that mistake. I was probably thinking of the words too much. The left bank is the west bank in Prague. Daniel Šebesta (talk • contribs) 18:02, 15 April 2006 (UTC)
 ;)


[edit] Ad the bridge photo

Thanks for the effort to convince the photographer, but please consider:

  • Images with permision granted only to Wikipedia are generaly against the goal of Wikipedia. Ultimately such images should be replaced and deleted.
well - some things in wikipedia system are not 100% good. If some pic has permision to use it here - I see no reason 4 deletion (mirror encyclopedias?)
  • This particular image adds almost nothing to information value of the article, there is no need to use it. It has good mood, the technical quality at full res is bad (noise, artifacting...)
what kind of information do you expect? What kind of information has a picture of ...Brooklyn Bridge, London Tower? This silhouette is something typical for Prague and that´s why is relevant.
  • I find the copyright notice in the image extremely annoying. Autorship is clearly stated in description page, there is no need to cripple the image.

maybe you can try to convince the photographer to relase the image under free license & without the sign. --Wikimol 01:17, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

I´ll try to


I have photographs (taken by myself) of all prague bridges in city center (together they form a calendar :) Two of them are charles Bridge (last two ones in http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Karlův_most - or maybe some others can be used) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Karlův_most.jpg seems to be good replacement and have good license Bilboq 02:19, 24 July 2006 (UTC)


I have a number of photographs of Prague that might be of interest to readers of the article. Unfortunately I cannot release them for use on Wikipedia itself. How would people feel about linking to the page itself? The URL is http://www.travel-pictures.biz/photos/europe/czech_republic/ . Astigmat 01:51, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Please feel free to place that link on WIKITRAVEL at http://wikitravel.org/en/Prague That is the purpose of that site.--Bluewind 08:33, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ruzyně International Airport Image?

Someone just removed it, saying it was a bad photo with visible construction. I think it looked pretty good. Any opinions on this? -- TheMightyQuill 12:48, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Emauzy Church

As far as I can tell, there is no article on the Emauzy Church. There's a German article with anice image if anyone can read German. Just a thought. -- TheMightyQuill 19:15, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nový zidovský hrbitov

Where is the New Jewish Cemetery, where Kafka is buried?

According to various websites I've found, it's in Žižkov, Olšany, and in Vinohrady. I know it's right next to the new Olšany Cemetery (Olšanské Hřbitov) where Jan Palach is buried. Can anyone clarify this? -- TheMightyQuill 12:03, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

See my answer on Franz Kafka Talk. Pavel Vozenilek 04:39, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
It's at the corner of trida Zelivskeho and Israelska ulice, at Zelivskeho metro station. It's in the municipal district of Prague 3 and the cadastral area of Žižkov. Olšany has no legally defined borders but is the part of Prague 3-Zizkov around Olsanske namesti. -- Mwalcoff 22:37, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

So it is in Žižkov, Olšany, and in Vinohrady. Right now the page says it's in Olšany. Do you want to leave it there, or change it back to Žižkov? -- TheMightyQuill 07:52, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, it can't be in both Zizkov and Vinohrady. It can only be in one or the other, unless it crosses the border. This page shows the Zizkov-Vinohrady border running south of the Jewish cemetery, along Vinohradska ulice. The Jewish cemetery is clearly in Zizkov. It's also in Prague 3. I wouldn't say it's a stretch to say it's in Olsany, even though Olsany has no legal definition that I know of. -- Mwalcoff 03:18, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History of Prague

At least half of current text from the giant history section should be moved into the leaf article. The leaf should be also directly linked from here. Pavel Vozenilek 04:39, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] war aftermath in prague

this part of the history section is in my view untrue – the added sentences of User:Smith2006 especially that: "German schools were attacked and even ethnic German children were hanged and burned alive in the squares of Prague in acts of revenge.[3]" are 1) out of my knowledge (and obviously google's knowledge also - i have found just some expelled german's statement on this subject, no historical article on that) about what was happening in this period (schools were running during the uprise???) 2) not at all mentioned in the cited reference (as far as my german skills and limited time allow me to judge) 3) from talk page of smith2006 i have an impression that this user's contributions about german history are somewhat problematic.
also the statement about "massacres" (Meanwhile, massacres against the German minority occurred in revenge of German cruelties. [4])seems to me strange, since under this term i understand some organized killing of several (bigger number) people in one act - in prague of that time, number of innocent people were killed (and many people feel about that today very uneasy and ashamed) among those who were cooperating with SS and actively helped in their cruelities, but not some large-scale accident as in few other places in czechoslovakia. --PowerCS 14:16, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

I just revert much of User:Smith2006 edits ([5], [6] and [7]). We need more sources to verify "revenge against the German population, especially against the elderly, against women and children". --mj41 08:07, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Another User:Smith2006 contributions not mentioned in Expulsion of Germans after World War II:

  • Jablonec nad Nisou - [8], [9] - ... as it had an absolute majority of German inhabitants. After 1945 the Germans were expelled or murdered and Czechs were resettled in the city.
  • Hlučín Area - [10] - were expelled or murdered and Czechs were resettled in the city
  • History_of_Prague - [12] - After this fierce acts of revenge against the German minority of the city were perpetrated and many German civilians were killed until the government slowly put an end to these acts of revenge.
  • Gdańsk - already changed - [13] - or killed in Soviet-Polish acts of revenge - [14] - Many ethnic German citizens of Danzig were killed by post-1945 Soviet and Polish acts of revenge directed against them.

--mj41 10:09, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

At 15:08, 19 October 2006 I reverted new POV edits made by User:Smith2006 and User:Zacheus. I replaced it with links to Expulsion of Germans after World War II and Prague uprising. Prague is just small part of User:Smith2006's huge "mission" to "rewrite" the history of Central Europe, especially of Poland and the Czech Republic. He is evidently zealous follower of neo-pangermanism and ideology of Drang nach Osten. --Bluewind 16:06, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
Well, some of his edits are rather bold but, for example, his contribution to Jablonec nad Nisou isn't wrong just because some people don't like his agenda. Like it or not, the cities in northern Bohemia look very german, although the new inhabitants did their best to hide this fact, and Wikipedia needs to explain the visible difference between czech inhabitants and german looking cities. 84.181.91.13 18:31, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Obecní dům is also missing

The Prague Municipal House is also missing completely. There is a czech entry, if anyone can translate. -- TheMightyQuill 09:42, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Great monument of Stalin

I think the great monument of Stalin which was destructed at 1961 must be referenced from this article. iyigun 21:32, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 18th German population

It's my understanding that German was the primary language in Prague until the 19th century, but that doesn't necessarily prove that ethnic Germans were the majority of the population (perhaps just majority of the wealthy ruling class), particularly if you exclude German Jews from being the same as ethnic Germans. If no reference can be given, this should be removed from the History section. - TheMightyQuill 18:45, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Jewish Quarter

The Jewish community of Prague numbered some 15,000 people (approx. 30 per cent of the entire population), making it the largest Ashkenazic community in the world and the second largest community in Europe after Thessaloniki.

HOW CAN IT BE THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD BUT ONLY THE SECOND LARGEST IN EUROPE???

Please next time write your comments here not in the article and sign your comments with --~~~~! Making it largest ASHKENAZIC in the world and 2nd largest community in Europe. Anything else?--Pethr 02:16, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History just after WW2

The Czechs genuinely felt gratitude towards the Soviet soldiers. People did not know that they became the victims in rival politics. The Soviet victory was both military and political. (Bismarck once declared: "He, who is master of Bohemia, is master of Europe...") Prague was henceforth the capital of a republic under the military and political control of the Soviet Union, and in 1955 it entered the Warsaw Pact.

It is true, that Soviets came to Prague in 1945. However, the Red Army left Czechoslovakia quite soon, in couple of months. The Czechoslovakia was under strong influence of USSR but independent. The communistic revolution came in 1948 when the Red Army was already away. I am going to change this paragraph. Miraceti 18:11, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Taxis?

I honestly don't see what significance the section on Prague taxis has to do with anything. The length should be very much decreased because I'm sure anyone reading about prague does not want to read 2 paragraphs on its taxis. anyone agree? unsigned commnet added by Amegyeri

I agree. I removed what I don't find awfully important. here is the orginal version. If someone finds something important. The first paragraph can be used in some other article but I don't think it should be here.--Pethr 01:07, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

The taxi service in Prague has had a somewhat checkered history. During the rule of Communist Party in Czechoslovakia (1948–1989), the taxi service was nationalised into one umbrella company, and, with a short exception during liberalization related to the Prague Spring, no independent taxi drivers were allowed. The quality and availability of the service was low. This caused many enterprising people to run illegal taxi services. Their earnings were far above income of typical citizens and became a source of envy. After the fall of the Communist regime, the service was liberalized and anyone could become a taxi driver. Unfortunately, the chaos of transition from planned to market economy did not leave any time to implement sufficient regulations. The lack of planning and controls has led to a number of serious taxi scams operating in the city; some of which have been linked with organised crime. Many of the victims of overpricing are tourists.

Taxi services in Prague can currently be divided into three sectors. There are major taxicab companies, operating call-for-taxi services (radio-taxi) or from regulated taxi stands, where overpricing is rare and regulation mostly in place. There are independent drivers, who make pick-ups on the street; cheating is mostly associated with these cars. Lastly, there are fake taxi drivers, who operate as "contractual transport services" in order to avoid government regulation.

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