Czechia

Europe · Central Europe

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Capital
Prague
Population
10,905,028
Area
78,865 km²
Official language
Czech, Slovak
Currency
Czech koruna (CZK)
Car code
CZ
Traffic side
Electricity
230 V · 50 Hz
Internet domain
.cz
Membership

Overview

Czechia is a landlocked country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria. The country consists of two historical regions, Bohemia in the west and Moravia in the east, which together formed a single state with Slovakia until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993. The official language is Czech, and the country has one of the highest per capita beer consumption rates in the world, a brewing tradition dating back to the Middle Ages. Czechia has been a member of the European Union since 2004, and its capital, Prague, is one of the region's most popular tourist destinations.

Prague's old town, with the Charles Bridge, built in the 14th century, and Prague Castle, one of the largest ancient castle complexes in Europe, has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1992. The medieval old town of Český Krumlov, a small town in southern Bohemia built around a meandering river and a Renaissance castle, is also UNESCO-protected. Kutná Hora, a former silver-mining town, home to St. Barbara's Cathedral and the Sedlec Ossuary, decorated with thousands of human bones, is also on the UNESCO list. Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), the well-known spa town, is known for its mineral springs and 19th-century Art Nouveau architecture, regularly visited by international aristocracy during that period.

Bohemian Switzerland National Park, in the north of the country, is known for its sandstone rock formations, including the Pravčická brána, the largest natural sandstone arch in Europe. The Moravian Karst cave system, including the Punkva Caves, features underground rivers and the Macocha Abyss, forming one of the largest karst cave areas in Europe. The Czech brewing tradition, recognized as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2024, is closely tied to cities such as Pilsen, where the pilsner beer style originated in 1842. Local cuisine is built around hearty meat dishes and dumplings, with vepřo knedlo zelo, pork, dumplings, and sauerkraut, as a signature dish, traditionally served with Czech beer.

Map

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

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Cultural

Historic Centre of Český Krumlov

#617 · 1992Outstanding architectural ensemble

Situated on the banks of the Vltava river, the town was built around a 13th-century castle with Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements. It is an outstanding example of a small central European medieval town whose architectural heritage has remained intact thanks to its peaceful evolution over more than five centuries.

Cultural

Historic Centre of Telč

#621 · 1992Masterpiece of human creative genius · Outstanding architectural ensemble

The houses in Telc, which stands on a hilltop, were originally built of wood. After a fire in the late 14th century, the town was rebuilt in stone, surrounded by walls and further strengthened by a network of artificial ponds. The town's Gothic castle was reconstructed in High Gothic style in the late 15th century.

Cultural

Historic Centre of Prague

#616 · 1992Interchange of human values · Outstanding architectural ensemble

Built between the 11th and 18th centuries, the Old Town, the Lesser Town and the New Town speak of the great architectural and cultural influence enjoyed by this city since the Middle Ages. The many magnificent monuments, such as Hradcany Castle, St Vitus Cathedral, Charles Bridge and numerous churches and palaces, built mostly in the 14th century under the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV.

Cultural

Pilgrimage Church of St John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora

#690 · 1994Outstanding architectural ensemble

This pilgrimage church, built in honour of St John of Nepomuk, stands at Zelená Hora, not far from Ždár nad Sázavou in Moravia. Constructed at the beginning of the 18th century on a star-shaped plan, it is the most unusual work by the great architect Jan Blazej Santini, whose highly original style falls between neo-Gothic and Baroque.

Cultural

Kutná Hora: Historical Town Centre with the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec

#732 · 1995Interchange of human values · Outstanding architectural ensemble

Kutná Hora developed as a result of the exploitation of the silver mines. In the 14th century it became a royal city endowed with monuments that symbolized its prosperity. The Church of St Barbara, a jewel of the late Gothic period, and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec, which was restored in line with the Baroque taste of the early 18th century, were to influence the architecture of central Europe. These masterpieces today form part of a well-preserved medieval urban fabric with some particularly fine private dwellings.

Cultural

Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape

#763 · 1996Masterpiece of human creative genius · Interchange of human values · Outstanding architectural ensemble

Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the ruling dukes of Liechtenstein transformed their domains in southern Moravia into a striking landscape. It married Baroque architecture (mainly the work of Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach) and the classical and neo-Gothic style of the castles of Lednice and Valtice with countryside fashioned according to English romantic principles of landscape architecture. At 200 km2 , it is one of the largest artificial landscapes in Europe.

Cultural

Holašovice Historic Village

#861 · 1998Interchange of human values · Outstanding architectural ensemble

Holašovice is an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a traditional central European village. It has a large number of outstanding 18th- and 19th-century vernacular buildings in a style known as 'South Bohemian folk Baroque', and preserves a ground plan dating from the Middle Ages.

Cultural

Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž

#860 · 1998Interchange of human values · Outstanding architectural ensemble

Kroměříž stands on the site of an earlier ford across the River Morava, at the foot of the Chriby mountain range which dominates the central part of Moravia. The gardens and castle of Kroměříž are an exceptionally complete and well-preserved example of a European Baroque princely residence and its gardens.

Cultural

Litomyšl Castle

#901 · 1999Interchange of human values · Outstanding architectural ensemble

Litomyšl Castle was originally a Renaissance arcade-castle of the type first developed in Italy and then adopted and greatly developed in central Europe in the 16th century. Its design and decoration are particularly fine, including the later High-Baroque features added in the 18th century. It preserves intact the range of ancillary buildings associated with an aristocratic residence of this type.

Cultural

Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc

#859 · 2000Masterpiece of human creative genius · Outstanding architectural ensemble

This memorial column, erected in the early years of the 18th century, is the most outstanding example of a type of monument specific to central Europe. In the characteristic regional style known as Olomouc Baroque and rising to a height of 35 m, it is decorated with many fine religious sculptures, the work of the distinguished Moravian artist Ondrej Zahner.

Cultural

Tugendhat Villa in Brno

#1052 · 2001Interchange of human values · Outstanding architectural ensemble

The Tugendhat Villa in Brno, designed by the architect Mies van der Rohe, is an outstanding example of the international style in the modern movement in architecture as it developed in Europe in the 1920s. Its particular value lies in the application of innovative spatial and aesthetic concepts that aim to satisfy new lifestyle needs by taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by modern industrial production.

Cultural

Jewish Quarter and St Procopius' Basilica in Třebíč

#1078 · 2003Interchange of human values · Testimony to cultural tradition

The ensemble of the Jewish Quarter, the old Jewish cemetery and the Basilica of St Procopius in Třebíč are reminders of the co-existence of Jewish and Christian cultures from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. The Jewish Quarter bears outstanding testimony to the different aspects of the life of this community. St Procopius' Basilica, built as part of the Benedictine monastery in the early 13th century, is a remarkable example of the influence of Western European architectural heritage in this region.

Natural

Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe

#1133 · 2007Ecological and biological processesTransboundary site

This transnational property includes 93 component parts in 18 countries. Since the end of the last Ice Age, European Beech spread from a few isolated refuge areas in the Alps, Carpathians, Dinarides, Mediterranean and Pyrenees over a short period of a few thousand years in a process that is still ongoing. The successful expansion across a whole continent is related to the tree’s adaptability and tolerance of different climatic, geographical and physical conditions.

Cultural

Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region

#1478 · 2019Interchange of human values · Testimony to cultural tradition · Outstanding architectural ensembleTransboundary site

Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří (Ore Mountains) spans a region in south-eastern Germany (Saxony) and north-western Czechia, which contains a wealth of several metals exploited through mining from the Middle Ages onwards. The region became the most important source of silver ore in Europe from 1460 to 1560. Mining was the trigger for technological and scientific innovations transferred worldwide. Tin was historically the second metal to be extracted and processed at the site. At the end of the 19th century, the region became a major global producer of uranium. The cultural landscape of the Ore Mountains has been deeply shaped by 800 years of almost continuous mining, from the 12th to the 20th century, with mining, pioneering water management systems, innovative mineral processing and smelting sites, and mining cities.

Cultural

Landscape for Breeding and Training of Ceremonial Carriage Horses at Kladruby nad Labem

#1589 · 2019Outstanding architectural ensemble · Outstanding traditional human settlement

The property is situated on the Elbe (Labe) River flood plain where there is sandy soil, ox bow lakes and the relic of a riparian forest. The structure and functional use of plots of land (pastures, meadows, forests, fields, park), network of paths, avenues, trees in regimented lines and arranged clusters as well as the solitary trees, the network of watercourses, ensembles of buildings in the farmsteads and the overall composition including functional relations and links between these components - all this fully serves the needs of breeding and training of the Baroque draught horses of the Kladruber breed which were used during the ceremonies at the Habsburg Imperial Court. The composition of the landscape is the evidence of the intentional artistic approach to the landscape. The property is a rare example of the synthesis of two types of cultural landscape - living and organically developing landscape where its key function dominates and the manmade landscape intentionally designed and created using the principles of the French and English landscape architecture which is an outstanding example of the specialised decorative farm - ferme ornée. The Imperial Stud Farm was founded in 1579 and its landscape has been used for this purpose since then.

Cultural

The Great Spa Towns of Europe

#1613 · 2021Interchange of human values · Testimony to cultural traditionTransboundary site

This transnational serial property comprises eleven spa towns, located in seven European countries: Baden bei Wien (Austria); Spa (Belgium); Františkovy Lázně; Karlovy Vary; Mariánské Lázně (Czechia); Vichy (France); Bad Ems; Baden-Baden; Bad Kissingen (Germany); Montecatini Terme (Italy); and City of Bath (United Kingdom). All of these towns developed around natural mineral water springs. They bear witness to the international European spa culture that developed from the early 18th century to the 1930s, leading to the emergence of grand international resorts that impacted urban typology around ensembles of spa buildings such as baths, kurhaus and kursaal (buildings and rooms dedicated to therapy), pump rooms, drinking halls, colonnades and galleries designed to harness the natural mineral water resources and to allow their practical use for bathing and drinking. Related facilities include gardens, assembly rooms, casinos, theatres, hotels and villas, as well as spa-specific support infrastructure. These ensembles are all integrated into an overall urban context that includes a carefully managed recreational and therapeutic environment in a picturesque landscape. Together, these sites embody the significant interchange of human values and developments in medicine, science and balneology.

Cultural

Žatec and the Landscape of Saaz Hops

#1558 · 2023Testimony to cultural tradition · Outstanding architectural ensemble · Outstanding traditional human settlement

This cultural landscape has been shaped for centuries by the living tradition of cultivating and trading the world’s most renowned hop variety, used in beer production around the globe. The property includes particularly fertile hop fields near the river Ohře that have been farmed continuously for hundreds of years, as well as historic villages and buildings used for processing hops. The urban component of the property is represented by the medieval centre of Žatec with its southern extension, known as the “Prague Suburb” (Pražské předměstí) including numerous specific 19th to 20th-century industrial structures. Together, these illustrate the evolution of the agro-industrial processes and socio-economic system of growing, drying, certifying, and trading hops from the Late Middle Ages to the present.

Data: UNESCO WHC · CC BY-SA 4.0

Frequently asked questions

What is the capital of Czechia?

The capital of Czechia is Prague.

What is the area of Czechia?

The area of Czechia is 78,865 km².

What is the population of Czechia?

The population of Czechia is 10,905,028.

What is the currency of Czechia?

The currency of Czechia is Czech koruna (CZK).

What is the official language of Czechia?

The official language of Czechia: Czech, Slovak.

What side of the road does Czechia drive on?

Czechia: Right-hand traffic.

Is Czechia a member of the European Union?

Yes, Czechia is a member of the European Union.

Is Czechia a member of the United Nations?

Yes, Czechia is a member of the United Nations.