Central Europe - Part 2

If Istanbul is a contender for the world's best city, then Prague is a contender for the world's most beautiful city. From the views over the Vltava River, the Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, and Tyn Chruch to the architecture of the buildings, it’s all fantastic.

The Czech lands were a part of the Hapsburg empire until after the First World War, then enjoyed brief independence until Germany annexed it prior to WWII. After the war, Czechoslovakia remained behind the Iron Curtain until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Since then the Czech Republic has been independent once more. They have recently changed the name to Czechia.

The Hapsburgs we staunchly catholic, but most of the people in western Czech (Bohemia) were protestant. This led to conflict between religions and The 1618 Defenestration of Prague. The word Defenestration means to throw someone out of a window, this occurred after a meeting at the Prague castle where nobles of Bohemia tossed catholic subjects loyal to the Hapsburgs out of the window, but most survived the 3 story fall. Later the Hapsburgs would exact revenge on these Bohemians by publicly executing several of them in the Old Town Square. This led to the battle of White Mountain where the Hapsburgs crushed the Bohemians and became one of the first battles of the 30 years war.

To this day, the Bohemian population of Czechia is among the highest percentage of atheists in the world, the third highest in fact, after North Korea and China.

Tomorrow we head into the catholic side of Czechia, Monrovia, then to Silesia. Silesia is now mostly within the borders of Poland, but there is a sliver in Czechia. Silesia was lost by the Hapsburgs to Prussia, the monarch of the time Maria Theresa, spent most of the reign worried about further advances into her territory by Prussia. Tomorrow is a new country for both of us.