-  Conferences & Meetings
-  Events & Incentives
-  Congress Management

Prague, also called the 'Golden City' or the 'City of a Thousand Spires', is at the cultural heart of Europe. The Old Town and the Castle areas are UNESCO protected with countless monuments, historic cobbled streets and beautiful buildings.
For event organising, Prague today offers a wide variety of options whilst remaining less expensive than many other European cities. A combination of historic charm and excellent business facilities makes the city a favourite for many. Prague boasts many places suitable for holding a conference or event and those willing to venture outside the city will be rewarded with all kinds of exciting and interesting locations. However, if you decide to stay in town, you might like to reward your delegates or employees with a night out that they'll never forget in one of the world's party capitals.



Country: Czech Republic
County: Prague
Language: Czech
Area: 496 km²
Population: 1.183.729
Time zone: CET, summer CEST
Currency: Czech Crown




The land where Prague was to be built was firstly inhabited by the Celts and Germanic tribes prior to the arrival of Slavic tribes arrived in the sixth century. According to legend, Princess Libuše, the sovereign of the Czech tribe, married a humble ploughman by the name of Přemysl and founded a dynasty carrying the same name. The legendary Princess saw many prophecies from her castle Libusin, that was located in central Bohemia. It is said she foresaw the glory of Prague in a vision proclaiming: “I see a vast city whose glory will touch the stars! I see a place in the middle of a forest where a steep cliff rises above the Vltava River. There is a man who is chiseling the threshold (‘prah’) for the house. A castle named Prague (Praha) will be built there. Just as the princes and the dukes will stoop in front of a threshold they will bow to the castle and to the city around it. It will be honoured, renowned of great repute and praise will be bestowed upon it by the entire world."

By the early 10th century, the area around and below Prague Castle had developed into an important seat for trading, where merchants coming from all over Europe gathered. In 965, a Jewish merchant and traveller, called Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub wrote: "Prague is built from stone and lime, and it has the biggest trade centre'.

Many monasteries and churches were built in the twelfth century under the rule of King Vladislav I. The Strahov Monastery, built after the Romanesque style, was founded in 1142. The first bridge over the river Vltava — the Judith Bridge — was built in 1170. (It crumbled in 1342 and a new bridge, later called the Charles’ Bridge, was built in its place in 1357).

In the 13th century, three settlements around the Prague Castle grounds gained the privilege of a town. The settlement below Prague Castle became New Town of Prague in 1257 and it was later renamed ‘Little Quarter of Prague’ or ‘Malá Strana’. The town of Hradčany, that was built around a square just outside of the Castle grounds, dates to 1320. Across the River Vltava, the Old Town of Prague ‘Staré Město’ had already gained the privilege of a town by 1230.

The Premyslovec Dynasty ruled until 1306 when the male line died out. The inheriting dynasty was the Luxembourg Dynasty. Charles was the oldest son of Czech Princess Eliska Premyslovna and John of Luxembourg. He was born in Prague in 1316 and he became the King of Bohemia upon the death of his father in 1346. On April 7 1348 he founded the first university in central, northern and eastern Europe, which is today called the Charles University. It is the oldest Czech university and was the first German university. In the same year he also founded New Town (Nové Město) adjacent to the ‘Old Town’. Charles rebuilt Prague Castle and Vysehrad and a new bridge was erected, now called the Charles’ Bridge. The construction of St. Vitus' Cathedral had also begun and many new churches were founded. In 1355 Charles was crowned the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in Rome. Prague became consequently became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles wanted Prague to become one of the most beautiful cities in the world. He wanted Prague to be the dominant city in the whole empire. Everything was built in a grandiose Gothic style and decorated with an independent art style, called the ‘Bohemian’. During the reign of Charles IV the Czech Lands were among the most powerful in Europe.

Later, during the reign of Emperor Rudolf II another great era for Prague began. The city became the cultural centre of Holy Roman Empire again. Although Rudolf II was very talented he was eccentric and suffered from depression. He lived in Prague Castle where he held his bizarre courts in the company of astrologers, magicians and other ‘strange’ figures. However, it was a prosperous period for the city.

The 17th century is considered the Golden Age of Jewish Prague. 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.

In 1689 a great fire devastated the city but this spurred renovation and rebuilding. The economic rise continued through the following century and in 1771 there were 80,000 inhabitants. Many of them were rich merchants who, together with noblemen, enriched the city with a host of palaces, churches and gardens creating a Baroque style renowned throughout the world. In 1784, under Joseph II, the four municipalities of Malá Strana, Nové Město, Staré Město and Hradčany were merged into a single entity. The Jewish district, called Josefov, was included only in 1850.

In 1806 the Holy Roman Empire ended when Napoleon dictated its dissolution. Holy Roman Emperor Francis II abdicated his title. He became Emperor of Austria, Francis I. The revolutions that shocked Europe around 1848 touched Prague too but were fiercely suppressed. In the following years the Czech nationalist movement began its rise, until it gained a majority in the Town Council in 1861. In 1867 Emperor Francis Joseph I established the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy of the Austrian Empire and Kingdom of Hungary.

The next in succession to the Austro-Hungarian throne was Francis Ferdinand d'Este after Crown Prince Rudolf (son of the emperor Francis Joseph I) had committed suicide and after the Emperor's brother (Ferdinand's father) had died. Ferdinand was married to Sophie von Chotek who came from a Czech aristocratic family. They lived in Bohemia at Konopiste Castle close to Prague. Ferdinand was in favour of a ‘triple monarchy’, expanding an Austro-Hungary Dualism into an Austro-Hungary-Czech triple monarchy, however, on June 28 1914 he and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo. This assassination led to World War I.

World War I ended with the defeat of Austro-Hungarian Empire and the creation of Czechoslovakia. Prague was chosen as its capital. At this time the city was a true European capital with a well developed industrial base. In 1930 the population had risen to a startling 850,000.

For most of its history Prague had been a multi-ethnic city with important Czech, German, and Jewish populations. From 1939, when the country was occupied by the Nazis, and during World War II most Jews either fled the city or were killed in the Holocaust. Most of the Jews living in Prague after the war emigrated during the years of Communism, particularly after the communist coup, the establishment of Israel in 1948, and the Soviet invasion of 1968.

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Prague itself was one of few European cities that were not damaged by bombardments, the citizens of Prague were however widely oppressed and persecuted by the Nazis. While the Americans were close to liberating Prague, they had to pull back and let the Red Army do the trick due to a prior agreement from the Yalta Conference.

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. The always lively intellectual world of Prague, however, suffered under the totalitarian regime in spite of the careful rebuilding of damaged monuments etc. after World War II. At the 4th Czechoslovakian Writers' Congress, held in the city in 1967, a strong position against the regime was taken. This spurred the then new secretary of the Communist Party Alexander Dubček to proclaim a new deal in his city's and country's life starting the short-lived season of the "socialism with a human face". It was the Prague Spring, which aimed at democratic reform of institutions. The Soviet Union and the rest of the Warsaw Pact reacted, occupying Czechoslovakia and the capital in August 1968, suppressing under tanks' tracks any attempt of renovation.

In 1989, after the Berlin Wall had fallen, and the Velvet Revolution crowded the streets of Prague, Czechoslovakia finally freed itself from communism and Soviet influence, and Prague benefited deeply from the new mood. In 1993, after the split of Czechoslovakia, Prague became capital city of the new Czech Republic.