Here are some fun and interesting facts about the Czech Republic:
- The sugar cube was invented in the Czech town of Dačice in 1843.
- The word robot comes from the Czech word robota (“work”, “hard work” in some Czech dialects) and was introduced in Karel Čapek’s science-fiction play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots).
- The prehistoric settlement of Dolní Věstonice in Southern Moravia is one of the oldest settlements in the world. It dates back to around 27,000 BC. The ceramic statuette of Venus of Dolní Věstonice is the oldest known ceramic object in the world, dating back to the same period.
- Sigmund Freud was born and spent the first years of his life in what is now the Czech Republic.
- The soft contact lens was invented in Czechoslovakia in 1961 by professor Otto Wichterle.
- Prague is farther to the West than Vienna.
- The synagogue in Plzeň (Pilsen) is the second largest synagogue in Europe and the third largest synagogue in the world.
- In 1985, the Czech engineer Pavel Pavel solved the mystery of the moai statues on Easter Island and explained how they were transported to their current locations.
- The Prague Castle is the largest castle area in the world. Its three courtyards and magnificent buildings cover over 7 hectares (18 acres).
- The word “Czech” is an adjective and therefore should not be used as the abbreviated name of the country. It works the same as the adjective “Dominican” in “Dominican Republic”. The official abbreviated name of the Czech Republic is Czechia.
- Czechia is a country with one of the highest density of castles in the world.
- The Hethitic language was first deciphered by Czech archaeologist Bedřich Hrozný in 1914.
- The Bata Shoe Organization was founded by Tomáš Baťa in the Czech city of Zlín in 1894 and is one of the largest shoe retailers and manufacturers in the world. Although the company is now Canadian owned and based in Switzerland, Czechs still think of Bata shoes as “their own”. There is a Bata store in many Czech towns.
- The town square in České Budějovice is the second largest preserved town square in Europe.
- The Nobel Prize in Literature for 1984 was awarded to the Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert.
- Ivana Trump is Czech and was born in Gottwaldov (now Zlín), Czech Republic.
- Czech astronomers named an asteroid “Dominik” after Dominik Hašek to thank the goalie for his contribution in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan where the Czech ice hockey team won the gold medal.
- Jaromír Jágr, a professional ice-hockey player who played for the NHL Pittsburgh Penguins for several years was born in Kladno, Czechoslovakia.
- Pilsner Urquell is a brand-name Czech beer produced in Plzeň (or Pilsen) and is the original Pilsner. Budweiser is a brand-name Czech beer produced in České Budějovice (Budweis in German) and is the original Budweiser.
- The Czechs are the #1 beer drinking nation in the world, consuming the most beer per capita in the world (143 liters or 38 gallons). They have been drinking beer since at least 900 A.D.
- Václav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic, liked to take visiting politicians to Prague pubs.
- The famous Prague brewery U Fleků was established in 1499.
- The Academy Award winning film director Miloš Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Hair, Ragtime, Valmont, Amadeus, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon) was born in Czechoslovakia and emigrated to the USA in 1968.
- Oskar Schindler with whom you may be familiar from Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List was born in a Moravian town called Svitavy (now in Eastern Bohemia) in 1908.
- The English playwright Tom Stoppard, who received an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love in 1999, was born Thomas Straussler in Zlín, Czechoslovakia.