Prácheňsko (german: Prachens; la, Provincia Prachinensis) is a historical and cultural region in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
, covering roughly the
Otava River
The Otava (German Wottawa) is a river in West and South Bohemia, Czech Republic. It is a left tributary of the Vltava river. It is long, and its basin area is about , of which in the Czech Republic. The river flows through several towns, includ ...
basin, mostly in the northwest part of
South Bohemia
The South Bohemian Region ( cs, Jihočeský kraj; , ) is an administrative unit (''Regions of the Czech Republic, kraj'') of the Czech Republic, located mostly in the southern part of its historical land of Bohemia, with a small part in southwes ...
. It was an administrative
region
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
in southwestern
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
, created in the late 13th century and abolished by the
Austrian Empire's regional reform of 1848.
Description
Its boundaries extended through the
Bohemian Forest
The Bohemian Forest, known in Czech as Šumava () and in German as Böhmerwald, is a low mountain range in Central Europe. Geographically, the mountains extend from Plzeň Region and South Bohemia in the Czech Republic to Austria and Bavaria in ...
in the south, towards
České Budějovice
České Budějovice (; german: Budweis ) is a city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 93,000 inhabitants. It is located in the valley of the Vltava River, at its confluence with the Malše.
České Budějovice is t ...
to the north, close to the town of
Příbram
Příbram (; german: Freiberg in Böhmen, ''Przibram'', or ''Pribram'', in 1939–1945 ''Pibrans'') is a town in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. It is well known for its mining history, and more ...
, and southwest to
Železná Ruda
Železná Ruda (, german: Markt Eisenstein) is a town in Klatovy District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,600 inhabitants. It is located in the Bohemian Forest, close to the border with Bavaria and the German town Bayeris ...
. Ethnic groups of the region included
Czechs
The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, c ...
,
Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
,
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s and
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
, and by religion were Roman Catholics, Protestants (
Utraquists
Utraquism (from the Latin ''sub utraque specie'', meaning "under both kinds") or Calixtinism (from chalice; Latin: ''calix'', mug, borrowed from Greek ''kalyx'', shell, husk; Czech: kališníci) was a belief amongst Hussites, a reformist Christia ...
) and Jews. Today this area is divided among three
current regions, namely
South Bohemian (vast majority),
Plzeň
Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabita ...
and
Central Bohemian. Its capital was
Písek
Písek (; german: Pisek) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 30,000 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
Písek is colloquially called "''South ...
, now a major town of approximately 30,000 inhabitants.
The first region's centre, Prácheň
gord (which gave its name to the whole region), is now overtaken by forest. Its remains lie in the territory of
Velké Hydčice close to the town of
Horažďovice
Horažďovice (; german: Horaschdowitz) is a town in Klatovy District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,100 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
Admin ...
. The local dialect of the western part is still extant as is the use of the
bagpipe
Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Nor ...
in the music of the region. The main geographical feature of the Prácheňsko region is the river Otava. Principal towns of the former Prácheňsko were Písek (or ''Pisek'' in German),
Strakonice
Strakonice (; german: Strakonitz) is a town in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 22,000 inhabitants.
Administrative parts
Strakonice is made up of town parts of Strakonice I and Strakonice II, and villages of Dražejov, ...
(''Strakonitz''),
Sušice (''Schüttenhofen''),
Rožmitál (''Rosenthal''), Vimperk (''Winterberg''), Horní Planá (''Ober Plan''),
Železná Ruda
Železná Ruda (, german: Markt Eisenstein) is a town in Klatovy District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,600 inhabitants. It is located in the Bohemian Forest, close to the border with Bavaria and the German town Bayeris ...
(''Markt Eisenstein''),
Kasejovice
Kasejovice is a town in Plzeň-South District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,300 inhabitants.
Administrative parts
Villages of Chloumek, Kladrubce, Podhůří, Polánka, Přebudov, Řesanice and Újezd u Kasejovic are ...
(''Kassejowitz''),
Protivín
Protivín () is a town in Písek District in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 4,700 inhabitants.
Administrative parts
Villages of Chvaletice, Krč, Maletice, Milenovice, Myšenec, Protivín, Selibov, Těšínov and Zá ...
(''Protiwin'') and Horažďovice (''Horaschdowitz'').
Demographics
The current population of the region is approximately 200,000–250,000 inhabitants. The area suffered serious population losses because of the
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
Expulsion or expelled may refer to:
General
* Deportation
* Ejection (sports)
* Eviction
* Exile
* Expeller pressing
* Expulsion (education)
* Expulsion from the United States Congress
* Extradition
* Forced migration
* Ostracism
* Person ...
(about 25% of the population, mostly in the southern part) and because of
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
. Today the Jewish population is negligible and there is no active
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
.
A unique dialect of the Czech language with a large number of German loan words is spoken in the western part of the region.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prachensko
Bohemia
Historical regions in the Czech Republic