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''),

(''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