Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is situated in the centre of Europe and sometimes it is called the heart of Europe. It has a population of 10,3 million inhabitants and covers an area of about 80,000 sq. km.

The Czech borders are the oldest ones in the Europe. We border with Germany on the west with a nature border made by the Ore Mountains, the Czech Forest and Sumava range. The border with Poland is made by the Jizerske Mountains, the Giant Mountains the Eagle Mountains and the Jesenik Mountain range. The border with Austria is made by the Dyje River and the border with Slovakia is made by the Morava River and White Karpat hills.

The Czech Republic consists of three lands: Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. A natural border between Moravia and Bohemia is made by the Bohemian-Moravian Highland. The biggest mountain in the Czech Republic is Snezka (1602m) in the Giant Mountains and the longest river is the Vltava.

There are many spots of natural beauty in the Czech Republic. South Bohemia is particularly rich in ponds. The most beautiful natural places are the Czech Paradise, “rock town” in Prachov rocks, the Decin walls, Czech Switzerland, the Boubin virgin forests, Macocha abyss and so on. We have also some protected areas, some of them are really very nice (for example one of the protected areas is the region near river Dyje) and National parks. Some of these beautiful places can be a location for some of our stag party activity.

History of the Republic

At the beginning of the 20th century Bohemia was a part of Austrian Empire. After World War I in 1918 Czechoslovakia declared its independence. The new republic had three parts: Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. The popular Tomas Garigue Masaryk became the first president. In October 1938 the Nazis occupied the Sudetenland, with the acquiescence of Britain and France, after the infamous Munich Agreement. In March 1939 Germany occupied Bohemia and Moravia. Slovakia proclaimed independence as a Nazi puppet state. After World War II in 1945 Czechoslovakia was re-established as an independent state. In the 1946 elections, the Communists became the largest party with 36% of the popular vote and formed coalition government.

In 1948 the Communist staged coup d’état and Czechoslovakia became a communist country. In the 1960s Czechoslovakia enjoyed a gradual liberalization under the reformist general secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, Alexander Dubcek. But this short period was crushed by a Soviet party invasion in August 1968. In 1969 the reformist Dubcek was replaced by the orthodox Gustav Husak and Czechoslovakia stayed a communist country under the Soviet influence. The communist government resigned in November 1989 after a week of demonstrations known as the Velvet Revolution. The popular Vaclav Havel was elected president of the republic. At the end of 1992 Czechoslovakia split into Czech Republic (Bohemia and Moravia) and Slovak Republic (Slovakia). This peaceful splitting is called the Velvet Divorce.

Twelve years later, on 1st. May 2004 Czech Republic became a part of the European Union. On 1st. January 2008 Czech Republic became a part of Schengen agreement and removes internal borders with Schengen area countries. This allows travel to and from these countries without checks, both at land borders and airports. After the freeing of the borders more tourists visited the country and stag party weekends become very popular.

Czech political system

The head of the Czech Republic is the President (presently Milos Zeman). He is elected for five years.
Parliament and the government have the main power. The government is composed of the prime minister, the vice-premier and the ministers.

The judicial power is divided into a system of courts. There is house of common and the Senate, which are at the highest level and they go down to region and district courts.

Our flag consists of three colours, red, blue and white. The red is at the bottom, the white is at the top and the blue makes a triangle at the left side.