Plzen

Plzeň is a city in the Czech Republic in western Bohemia, the capital of Plzeň Region. Population: 170,000. The city lies about 90 km by highway southwest of Prague at the confluence of Radbuza, Mže, Úslava and Úhlava rivers, creating Berounka. Plzeň is famous for its Pilsener beer, named Pilsner Urquell after Pilsen (the German name for Plzeň) and for the Škoda Works. The most prominent monuments are the Gothic church of St. Bartholomew, said to date from 1292, whose tower (325 ft.) is the highest in the Czech Republic, and the Renaissance town hall dating from the 16th century. Plzeň first appears in history in 976, as the scene of a battle in the war between Prince Boleslaus II and the emperor Otto II, and it became a town in 1295, established by Wenceslaus II. During the Hussite Wars it was the centre of Catholic resistance to the Hussites; it was three times unsuccessfully besieged by Prokop the Great, and it took part in the league of the Romanist lords against King George of Podebrady. The first Czech printing press was established here in 1468. During the Thirty Years' War the town was taken by Mansfeld in 1618 and not recaptured by the Imperialists till 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 Second World War, on May 5, 1945, Plzeň (and Western Bohemia) was liberated from Nazis by General Patton, unlike the rest of Czechoslovakia that was freed by the Red Army. The latter fact was the reason why Plzeň became the "firm shield of socialism and peace" after 1948. Many famous people were born in, or are associated with, Plzeň. Bedřich Smetana studied here in the 1840s, for example. The poet Miroslav Holub was a native. There is a neighborhood called Pilsen in Chicago. It was once inhabited by Czechs, but is Mexican today. External Links:\n* City of Plzeň\n* University of West Bohemia\n* Plzen zastinil obri skejtak - in Czech with a photo; news article about unveiling an 8-meter skateboardist sculpture\n*Steffi's Club by D.A. Blyler- Set in Plzen, the novel dramatizes the subterranean activities of the Czech city's inhabitants. \n\n\n\n