The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in the middle of Europe. Rather than as a country in the middle of Europe, we should speak of the Czech Republic as a country in the heart of Europe … after all, the heart is not to be found precisely in the center of the human body either 🙂
Facts and figures
Official name: Czech Republic
Location: Central Europe
Language: Czech
Area: 78,866 sq km
Neighbours: Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovakia
Currency: Czech Crown / CZK
Population: 10.4 million
Capital: Praha / Prague (1.3 million)
Other major cities: Brno (385.000), Ostrava (303.000), Plzeň (170.000), Liberec (102.000), Olomouc (100.000)
Distance from Prague to: Vienna (300 km), Berlin (350 km), Warsaw (600 km), Budapest (500 km), Paris (1.000 km), London (1.000 km), Rome (1.200 km), Oslo (1.300 km)
Flight times from Prague to: Vienna (50 min), Berlin (50 min), Warsaw (1h 15 min), Budapest (1h 15 min), Paris (1h 35 min), London (1h 50 min), Rome (1h 50 min), Oslo (2 h)
Political system: parliamentary republic, double chambre Parliament of 281 representatives
Head of state: president
Membership: European Union, NATO, Schengen Area, OECD, WTO
Religion: every citizen enjoys freedom of religion, more than 50 % of the population describe themselves as agnostic or atheist
Climate: seasonal variations with warm summers, chilly autumns and cold winters
Average temperatures: January -4 °C; July 24 °C
Czech inventions: sugar cubes, contact lenses, semtex, fingerprints, Theory of Cells, blood types , the word “robot”, polarography, arc lamp, lightning conductor, ship’s propeller and more
Famous Czechs: Charles IV. (king), John Amos Comenius (Jan Ámos Komenský – father of modern education), Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (formal president), Václav Havel (formal president), Sigmund Freud (Scientist), Gregor Mendel (Scientist), Jan Evangelista Purkyně (Scientiest), Madeleine Albright (Polician), Franz Kafka (Author), Milan Kundera (Author), Jaroslav Hašek (writer), Antonín Dvořák (Composer), Leoš Janáček (composer), Bedřich Smetana (composer), Miloš Forman (director), Alfons Mucha (painter) and more