A Germanic tribe, the Marcomanni, enters Bohemia, driving out the Boii
500
Slavic tribes enter the Bohemian lands.
800
Slavic settlement established on Hradcany Hill.
862
Missionaries Cyril & Methodius enter the Czech lands to translate the bible into Slavonic.
870
Prague Castle’s first stone buildings are constructed.
Period: 870 to 1198
Duchy of Bohemia
Period: 870 to 888
Borivoj I
880
Duke Borivoj of the Premyslids makes Hradcany his seat. Borivoj and his wife Ludmila are baptised
Period: 894 to 915
Spytihněv I
Period: 915 to 921
Vratislaus I
921
Borivoj’s grandson Wenceslas crowned duke of Bohemia.
Period: 921 to 935
Wenceslaus I
926
Original church of St. Vitus constructed at Prague Castle.
935
Wenceslas assassinated by Boleslav I.
Period: 935 to 972
Boleslaus I the Cruel
950
Bohemia incorporated into Holy Roman Empire.
970
Prague awarded a bishopric. Vysehrad established on the right bank of the Vltava river.
Period: 972 to 999
Boleslaus I the Cruel
Period: 999 to 1002
Boleslaus III the Redhead
Period: 1003 to 1004
Boleslaus IV the Brave
Period: 1004 to 1012
Jaromír
Period: 1012 to 1033
Oldřich
Period: 1033 to 1034
aromír
Period: 1034 to 1055
Bretislaus I
Period: 1055 to 1061
Spytihněv II
Period: 1061 to 1092
Vratislaus II
Period: 1085 to
Kingdom of Bohemia
Period: 1085 to 1092
Vratislaus II
Period: 1092 to 1092
Conrad I
Period: 1092 to 1100
Bretislaus II
1096
Pauper crusaders invade Prague and raze the original Jewish quarter.
Period: 1101 to 1107
Bořivoj II
Period: 1107 to 1109
Svatopluk
Period: 1109 to 1117
Vladislaus I
Period: 1117 to 1120
Bořivoj II
Period: 1120 to 1125
Vladislaus I
Period: 1125 to 1140
Soběslav I
Period: 1140 to 1172
Vladislaus II
1142
New Jewish quarter established between the Old Town and the river.
Period: 1158 to 1172
Vladislaus II
1172
Judith Bridge across the Vltava completed.
Period: 1172 to 1173
Frederick I
Period: 1173 to 1178
Soběslav II
Period: 1179 to 1189
Frederick
Period: 1189 to 1191
Conrad II Otto
Period: 1191 to 1192
Wenceslaus II
Period: 1192 to 1193
Ottokar I
Period: 1193 to 1197
Henry I Bretislaus
Period: 1197 to 1197
Vladislaus III Henry
Period: 1197 to 1198
Ottokar I
Period: 1198 to 1230
Ottokar I
1212
Holy Roman Emperor issues Golden Bull of Sicily, making Bohemia a kingdom.
1230
King Wenceslas I grants Prague’s Old Town official status.
Period: 1230 to 1253
Wenceslaus I
1234
Agnes of Prague founds hospital and a cloister in the Old Town
1235
Old Town enclosed by defensive walls and moat.
1253
Otakar II crowned King of Bohemia
Period: 1253 to 1278
Ottokar II
1257
Otakar II formally establishes Mala Strana, invites German craftsmen and merchants to live there.
1262
Otakar II issues Statuta Judaeorum, granting the Jewish community self-administration.
1270
Old-New Synagogue built in Jewish quarter.
1278
Otakar II killed at the Battle of Marchfel. Prague occupied by Otto V of Brandenburg.
Period: 1278 to 1305
Wenceslaus II
Period: 1305 to 1306
Wenceslaus III
1306
Wenceslas III, the last Premyslid king, is assassinated.
Period: 1306 to 1306
Henry the Carinthian
Period: 1306 to 1307
Rudolph I
Period: 1307 to 1310
Henry the Carinthian
1310
Bohemian estates elect John of Luxembourg as king.
Period: 1310 to 1346
John the Blind (Jan Lucemburský)
1316
Charles IV born in Prague
1338
Foundation of the Old Town Hall.
1342
Judith Bridge destroyed by flooding.
1344
Construction of St. Vitus Cathedral begins.
1346
King John the Blind killed at the Battle of Crecy.
Period: 1346 to 1378
Charles IV
1347
Charles IV crowned King of Bohemia. Prague becomes capital of Holy Roman Empire.
1348
Charles founds the New Town and establishes Prague University.
1357
Construction of Charles Bridge begins.
1370
Construction of Tyn Church begins on Old Town Square.
1378
Charles IV dies and is succeeded by his son Wenceslas IV.
Period: 1378 to 1419
Wenceslaus IV
1380
Outbreak of Black Death in Prague.
1389
Easter pogrom of Jewish quarter
1391
Bethlehem Chapel founded in Old Town.
1393
Murder of Jan Nepomuk.
1402
Charles Bridge completed. Jan Hus appointed preacher at Bethlehem Chapel.
1410
Astronomical Clock installed in City Hall.
1415
Execution of Jan Hus at Constance.
1419
First defenestration of Prague.
Period: 1419 to 1437
Sigismund
1420
Hussite Wars begin. Jan Zizka triumphs at battle of Vitkov Hill.
1424
Death of Jan Zizka.
1436
Compactata between Church and Bohemian Utraquists brings Hussite wars to an end.
1437
Emperor Sigismund, the last Luxembourg King of Bohemia, dies.
Period: 1437 to 1439
Albert (Albrecht Habsburský)
Period: 1440 to 1453
Interregnum
Period: 1453 to 1457
Ladislaus the Posthumous (Ladislav Pohrobek)
1458
George of Podebrady crowned King of Bohemia.
Period: 1458 to 1471
George of Podebrady (Jiří z Poděbrad)
Period: 1469 to 1490
Matthias I (Matyáš I. Korvín)
Period: 1471 to 1516
Vladislaus II the Jagiellonian (Vladislav II. Jagellonský)
1493
Vladislav Hall constructed at Prague Castle.
Period: 1516 to 1526
Louis the Jagiellonian (Ludvík Jagellonský)
1526
Bohemian estates elect Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand as king.
Period: 1526 to 1564
Ferdinand I
1530
Pinkas Synagogue constructed in Jewish quarter.
1560
Queen Anne’s Summer Palace opens.
Period: 1564 to 1576
Maximilian I
1573
Rabbi Loew moves to Prague.
1576
Rudolf II elected as Holy Roman Emperor.
Period: 1576 to
Rudolph II
Rudolf II relocates from Vienna to Prague Castle.
John Dee and Edward Kelley come to Prague.
Jewish Town Hall constructed.
Tycho Brahe appointed imperial mathematician by Rudolf. Brahe invites Johannes Kepler to assist him.
Brahe and Kepler begin work on the star chart, The Rudolfine Tables. Brahe dies of uremia.
Kepler publishes Astronomia Nova on planetary motion. Rudolf II signs Letter of Majesty, guaranteeing religious toleration.
Passauer army invades and plunders Prague.
Period: to
Matthias II
Death of Rudolf II. Emperor Matthias moves imperial court back to Vienna.
Second Defenestration of Prague. Thirty Years’ War commences.
Winter King and Queen crowned at St Vitus Cathedral.
Period: to
Frederick I (Fridrich I.)
Period: to
Ferdinand II
Defeat of the Czech nobles’ uprising at White Mountain.
Frederick and Elizabeth flee from Prague.
Twenty-seven Czech Protestant leaders executed in Old Town Square.
Wallenstein Palace constructed in Mala Strana.
Prague occupied by Protestant Saxon army.
The Peace of Prague brings civil war within the Holy Roman Empire to a close.
Period: to
Ferdinand III
Period: to
Ferdinand IV
Hradcany and Mala Strana occupied and looted by Swedish armies.
Treaty of Westphalia ends Thirty Years’ War. Prague’s population has shrunk to 20,000.
Marian column erected in the Old Town Square.
Period: to
Leopold I
Czernin Palace constructed.
Period: to
Joseph I
Period: to
Charles II
Giorgio Diodato establishes Prague’s first coffeehouse.
Maria Theresa accedes to Austrian throne, sparking the War of Austrian Succession.
Period: to
Maria Theresa
Occupation of Prague by French and Bavarian armies.
Period: to
Charles Albert
Austrians retake Prague. Maria Theresa crowned queen of Bohemia in St Vitus Cathedral.
Prussian army invades Prague, but is expelled one month later.
St Nicholas Church built in Mala Strana.
Prague’s population grows to 80,000.
Maria Theresa introduces education reforms.
Period: to
Joseph II
Hradcany, Mala Strana, Old Town and New Town merge into a single civic entity.
Mozart’s Don Giovanni premieres at Estates Theatre.
Period: to
Leopold II
Period: to
Francis I
Holy Roman Empire dissolved during Napoleonic wars. Bohemia incorporated into the Habsburg Austrian Empire.
National Museum of Prague founded at top of Wenceslas Square.
Period: to
Ferdinand V
Population of Prague exceeds 100,000.
Rail line established between Prague and Vienna.
Slavic Congress convened in Prague.
Prague student uprising quelled by Austrian troops.
Period: to
Francis Joseph I
Jewish quarter renamed Josefov.
Bozena Nemcova publishes The Grandmother.
Sokol athletic club founded.
Bedrich Smetana begins composing Ma Vlast.
Grand opening of National Theatre of Prague.
Café Slavia opens.
Ernst Mach photographs shockwaves at Charles University.
Josefov’s slums demolished and replaced by Parisian apartments.
Hilsner trial.
Prague’s population exceeds 200,000.
First World War breaks out. Bohemian troops conscripted to fight for Austria-Hungary.
Period: to
Charles III
Republic of Czechoslovakia founded by Tomas Masaryk. Marian Column torn down in Old Town Square.
Foundation of Czechoslovak Communist Party.First performance of Capek’s RUR in Prague. First edition of Hasek’s The Good Soldier Sveyk published.
Greater Prague created by uniting historic centre with the suburbs.
Franz Kafka’s The Trial is published posthumously.
Konrad Henlein forms Sudetendeutsche movement.
Benes succeeds Masaryk as president.
André Breton and Paul Eluard visit Prague.
Death of Tomas Masaryk.
Munich Agreement forces Czechoslovakia to cede its Sudeten territories to Nazi Germany.
Nicholas Winton sets up Czech Kindertransport to rescue Jewish children.Nazi Germany invades remnant of Bohemia and Moravia.
Jewish transports from Prague begin. Terezin refitted as a concentration camp
Reinhard Heydrich assassinated in Prague.
Prague Uprising. The Red Army liberates the city from Nazi control. Benes returns as president of the third republic.
Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia begins.
Communist coup initiates four decades of one-party rule. Death of Jan Masaryk. Benes resigns as president, succeeded by Klement Gottwald.
Milada Horakova show trial and execution.
Stalinist terror reaches peak with Slansky show trial and executions.
Death of President Klement Gottwald. Antonin Novotny becomes party leader.
World’s largest Stalin statue unveiled at Letna Park.
President Novotny introduces new constitution, declares socialism to be fully achieved.
Stalin statue demolished.
Prague students invite Allen Ginsberg to Prague. Vaclav Havel writes The Memorandum.
Vera Chytilova’s Daisies released.
Speakers at Fourth Czechoslovak Writers’ Congress criticise communist regime.
Alexander Dubcek becomes party leader. Dubcek launches reform program and permits freedom of speech. Prague Spring crushed by Soviet invasion. Dubcek capitulates in Moscow, calls for ‘normalisation’.
Jan Palach self-immolates in Wenceslas Square. Purge of party membership. Dubcek replaced as party leader by Gustav Husak.
Vaclav Havel writes open letter to ‘Dr Husak’. Plastic People of the Universe concert-goers attacked by police.
Czechoslovakia signs Helsinki human rights accords.
Trial of the Plastic People and other musicians.
Vaclav Havel and others form Charter 77.
Havel sentenced to four years in prison.
Prague’s population exceeds 1,000,000.
Mikhail Gorbachev visits Prague. Husak replaced as party leader by Milos Jakes.
Czechoslovakia 88 Symposium in Prague.
Police attack student march in Narodni Street Protests force party leadership to resign. Vaclav Havel elected first president of post-communist Czechoslovakia.
StB officially dissolved.
Lustration laws introduced.
Czechs and Slovaks split into separate nations. Havel becomes first president of Czech Republic.
