Everything about Pilsen totally explained
» For the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, see Pilsen, Chicago.Pilsen (; ; Plzeň or Plzen are also used in English) is a city in western
Bohemia in the
Czech Republic. It is the capital of the
Plzeň Region and the fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic. It is located about 90 km west of
Prague at the confluence of four rivers (
Radbuza,
Mže,
Úhlava, and
Úslava) which form the
Berounka River.
Pilsen is also the seat of the Municipality with Extended Competence and Municipality with Commissioned Local Authority. The city is known world wide for the
Pilsener beer.
History
Pilsen was first mentioned as a castle in 976, as the scene of a battle between Duke
Boleslaus II of Bohemia and
Emperor Otto II. It became a town in 1295 when King
Wenceslaus II granted Pilsen its
civic charter and established a new town site, located some 10 km away from the original settlement, which is the current town of
Starý Plzenec. It quickly became an important town on trade routes leading to
Nuremberg and
Regensburg; in the 14th century, it was the third-largest town in Bohemia after
Prague and
Kutná Hora. During the
Hussite Wars, it was the centre of
Catholic resistance to the
Hussites:
Prokop the Great unsuccessfully besieged it three times, and it joined the league of Romanist nobles against King
George of Podebrady. In 1468, the town acquired a
printing press; the
Troyan Chronicle, the first book published in Bohemia, was printed on it.
Emperor
Rudolf II made Pilsen his seat from 1599-1600. During the
Thirty Years' War the town was taken by
Mansfeld in 1618 after the
Siege of Plzeň and it wasn't recaptured by the Imperial troops until 1621.
Wallenstein made it his winter-quarters in 1633. The town was unsuccessfully besieged by the
Swedes in 1637 and 1648.
At the end of the 17th century, the architecture of Pilsen began to be influenced by the
Baroque style. The historic city center has been under
historic preservation since 1989.
On
May 6,
1945, at the very end of
World War II, Pilsen was liberated from
Nazi Germany by the 16th Armored Division of General
Patton's 3rd Army. Also participating in the liberation of the city were elements of the 97th and 2nd Infantry Divisions. Other Third Army units liberated major portions of Western Bohemia. The rest of
Czechoslovakia was liberated from German control by the
Soviet Red Army. Elements of Third Army remained in Plzen until late November 1945 assisting the Czechs with re-building from the war. After seizing power in 1948, the Communists undertook a systematic campaign to suppress all acknowledgement of the U.S. Army's role in liberating the city and Western Bohemia. This effort continued until 1989 when the Communists were removed from power.
Since 1990, the city of Plzen has organized annual Liberation Festival taking place in May, which has already become a local tradition, and has been attended by many American and Allied veterans.
In
1953, the totalitarian, Soviet-oriented Czechoslovak government launched a currency reform. This decision caused a wave of discontent throughout the society, while the
events in Pilsen were more intense.
Education and economy
Pilsen is a centre of academic, business, and cultural life for the western part of the Czech Republic. The
University of West Bohemia in Pilsen is quite known for its School of Law, School of Mechanical Engineering and School of Applied Science in particular.
Since the second half of the 1990s the city has experienced high growth in foreign investments.
Pilsen produces approximately two-thirds of the Pilsen Region GDP, even though it contains only 29.8% of its population.
(External Link
) Based on these figures, the city of Pilsen has a total GDP of approximately $7.2 billion, and a per-capita GDP of $44,000. While part of this is explained by commuters (people who work in the city, but live elsewhere) it's one of the most prosperous cities in the Czech Republic.
The
Škoda company, established in Pilsen in 1859, has been an important part of the Austro-Hungarian, Czechoslovak and Czech engineering. The company's production had been directed to the needs of the
Eastern Bloc, and after the
Velvet Revolution, it consequently ran into selling problems and debts. After huge restructuring process it has just two principal subsidiaries: Škoda Transportation (locomotives, tube-trains or trams, since sold to
Portland,
Tacoma,
Seattle and
Sardinia) and Škoda Power (turbines).
Many foreign companies now own manufacturing bases in Pilsen including
Daikin and
Panasonic. There has been much discussion of redeveloping those large areas of the Škoda plant which the company no longer uses.
Pilsen also has the biggest brewery (Pilsner Urquell) and the biggest distillery (Stock) in the Czech Republic.
Tourism
The most prominent sights of Pilsen are the
Gothic St. Bartholomew's Cathedral, founded in the late 13th century, the tower of which (102.26 m / 335 ft) is the highest in the Czech Republic, the
Renaissance Town Hall, and the the
Moorish Revival Great Synagogue in Pilsen, the second largest synagogue in Europe, after the
Dohány Street Synagogue in
Budapest. There is also a 20km historic underground tunnel/cellar network, among the longest in Central Europe. Part of this network is open to the public for tours of approximately 750 metres in length and up to a depth of 12 metres.
Pilsen is also well-known for the
Pilsner Urquell (since 1842) and
Gambrinus (since 1869)
breweries, currently owned by South African breweries. A popular tourist attraction is the Plzeňský Prazdroj brewery tour where visitors can discover the history of beer. The
pilsener style of beer was developed in Pilsen in the 19th century.
Transport
Image:Skoda03T_Plzen.jpg|One of the modern trams operating in Plzeň.
Image:Skoda05T_Plzen.jpg|One of Škoda's prototype trams is tested on the tram network in Plzeň.
Image:T14 1.JPG|Another Škoda prototype being tested.
Sport
Famous people
Petr Čech (born 1982), football goalkeeper
Josef Finger (1841-1925), physicists and mathematician
Gertrud Fussenegger (born 1912), writer
Karel Gott (born 1939), singer
Peter Grünberg (born 1939), German physicist and 2007 Nobel prize winner
Miroslav Holub (1923-1998), poet
Rudolf Karel (1880-1945), composer
František Křižík (1847-1941), inventor
Emil Lederer (1882-1939), economist and sociologist
Ota Šik (1919-2004), economist
Josef Skupa (1892-1957), puppeteer
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884), composer
Emil Škoda (1839-1900), engineer and industrialist
Tomáš Šmíd (born 1956), tennis player
Martin Straka (born 1972), ice hockey player
Petr Sykora (born 1976), ice hockey player
Jiří Trnka (1912-1969), artist
Růžena Šlemrová (1886-1962), actress
Anna Steimarová (1889-1962), actress
Twin cities
Pilsen is twinned with the following cities:
Santo André, Brazil
Takasaki, Japan
Yekaterinburg, Russia
Birmingham, United States
Regensburg, Germany
Winterthur, Switzerland
Liège, Belgium
Hengelo, The NetherlandsFurther Information
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