About Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic and is also known as the city of a hundred spires due to it's number of large buildings. Situated on the Vltava River in central Bohemia, Prague has been the political, cultural and economic centre of the Czech state for more than 1,100 years. For many decades during the Gothic and Renaissance eras, Prague was the permanent seat of two Holy Roman Emperors and thus was also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. The history of Prague spans thousands of years, during which time the city grew from a castle known as Vyšehrad to the multicultural capital of a modern European state, the Czech Republic.

At the present time the city proper is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 1.9 million.Since 1992, the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, making the city one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, receiving more than 4.1 million international visitors annually, as of 2009. Prague is classified as an alpha- world city.

The city of Prague is spread over nine hills: Letná, Vítkov, Opyš, Větrov, Skalka, Emauzy, Vyšehrad, Karlov and the highest Petřín ant it experiences an oceanic climate which consequentially leads to warm summers and relatively cold winters.

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Prague has become one of Europe's (and the world's) most popular tourist destinations. It is the sixth most-visited European city after London, Paris, Rome, Madrid and Berlin. Prague suffered considerably less damage during World War II than some other major cities in the region, allowing most of its historic architecture to stay true to form. It contains one of the world's most pristine and varied collections of architecture, from Art Nouveau to Baroque, Renaissance, Cubist, Gothic, Neo-Classical and ultra-modern.

Since 1990, Prague economy structure has shifted from industrial to service-oriented. Industry is present in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, printing, food processing, manufacture of transport equipment, computer technology and electrical engineering. In services sector, most significant are financial services, commercial services, trade, restaurants and accommodations and public administration. Services account for around 80% of employment. There are 800,000 employees in Prague, including 120,000 commuters. The number of (legally registered) foreign residents in Prague has been increasing in spite of the country's economic downturn. As of March 2010, 148,035 foreign workers were reported to be living in the city making up about 18% of the workforce, up from 131,132 in 2008. Approximately one-fifth of all investment in the Czech Republic takes place in Prague city.