Pretty in Prague Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Charles Bridge

Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic and one of Europe's most beautiful cities. Prague straddles the banks of the Vltava River (Moldau River in German). The Vltava is a major tributary of the Elbe River, connecting Prague with the great industrial cities of Germany and the North Sea. Of the 18 or so bridges that transverse the Vltava in Prague, the most well-known is the Karlav Most or Charles Bridge. The bridge was initially constructed in the mid-14th century (completed in the 15th century) by Charles IV, then King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor. From its inception, the Charles Bridge has served as the main connection between Prague Castle and the main part of Prague's Old Town across the river. Until the mid-18th century, the Charles was the only permanent bridge to serve the city. Originally known as the Prague Bridge, the throughway was renamed for the historic Bohemian king in the late 19th century.

The Charles Bridge eventually became a pedestrian-only bridge, providing citizens and tourists majestic views of both the Castle area and the Old Town sections of Prague. Artisans line the Bridge's 620 meter length, amid over 30 replicas of baroque statutes that date from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The original, mostly religious, statutes are preserved and may be viewed at the Czech National Museum.

Charles IV of Bohemia and Luxembourg ruled Central Europe as Holy Roman Emperor from 1346 until 1378. He was the first Bohemian king to be named Emperor, and his reign marked the height of the Bohemian Kingdom's power. Charles moved the Holy Roman Empire's administrative capital to Prague and rebuilt the city on the model of Paris. Charles was both a dynamic leader and a patron of education and the arts. His shrewd diplomacy and progressive rule reshaped both the Holy Roman Empire and the nature of the German city-states for centuries.

Answer: Gothic

St Vitus Cathedral stands atop Prague's Castle District (Czech Prazský Hradčany), and is both the Archbishop of Prague's seat and the largest cathedral in the Czech Republic. The modern church is one of the best preserved Gothic style cathedrals in Central Europe. Gothic architecture is noted for its use of the pointed arch and flying buttress support structures. Gothic buildings feature large vaults and windows, with high towers and soaring spires. The enduring vision of the Middle Ages remains the great Gothic cathedrals and castles, such as the Cathedral of Notre Dame in France, Cologne Cathedral in Germany and the Florence Cathedral in Italy.

The Cathedral was initiated in the 14th century during the reign of Bohemian Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. At this time the Prague bishopric was raised to an archbishopric. The Gothic church sits on a site that had been first used as a church in the early 10th century, built by the great Bohemian king Wenceslaus, later St. Wenceslaus. Like many great Gothic edifices, the work to complete the church took several centuries. In St. Vitus' case, the construction was not completed until the 1930s, some 600 years after its initial stones were set. The main cathedral hall offers stunning height and graceful arches, leading to ornate vestibules filled with intricate stain glass windows. The cathedral is visible from almost any spot in Prague, but is perhaps best viewed as you float along the Vltava River.

Answer: Astronomical Clock

The Prague Orloj, or the Prague Astronomical Clock, is the world's oldest operational astronomical clock. The clock is located in Prague's well-preserved Old Town section of the city. The clock represents both the visual and scientific spread of the Renaissance to Central Europe. Construction of the Orlaj began in 1410 as a collaboration of clockmaker Mikulas of Kadan and Charles University mathematics professor Jan Sindel. The clock comprises three main sections. The first section is an astronomical dial that represents the position of the sun and moon. The second section is a calendar dial accompanied with medallions representing the current month. The third section is called the "The Walk of the Apostles", and is an hourly automaton clock movement that on each hour shows figures of the twelve Apostles in and among additional moving sculptures.

Prague's astronomical clock is mounted on the Old Town City Hall and is a popular tourist attraction and meeting point. The fact the clock exists today is itself remarkable. Prague as a city fared much better than most European cities during the World Wars. The city was not of significant military importance to require major Allied bombing during World War II. However, in May 1945 during a period of unrest in the city, called the Prague Uprisings, German forces did fire rockets at the Old Town Hall, damaging the building and the clock tower. Significant restoration was required and the Orlaj as not returned to operation until 1948. It is a local superstition that Prague and the Czech people will prosper only so long as the Orlaj remains working.

Answer: Judaism

Prague has a long and complicated history of interconnection with the Jewish people and Judaism. Large numbers of Jews first settled in Prague during the 10th century. At various times, the Jews had been expelled from the city and at others welcomed as civic partners. The first synagogue was built in the late 10th century. As the population grew, a larger temple was built in the mid-13th century. This "new" synagogue was appropriately named the "Neu" Synagogue, but after the destruction of the old temple and the construction of several newer temples settled into its modern name, the "Altneu" or Old New Synagogue. The Old New Synagogue has remained a house of worship used by Prague's dwindling Jewish community and is considered the oldest remaining operational European synagogue.

The temple in the picture is Prague's magnificent Spanish Synagogue that stands on the footprint of the original "old temple". The Spanish Synagogue dates from 1867. The stunning interior of the temple houses a concert hall and Jewish museum. Both the Old New and Spanish Synagogues are part of the historic Josefov or Jewish Quarter in Prague. The small section of the city housed the Jewish ghetto or walled area to keep the Jewish people separated and safe from the rest of Prague. The Jewish Quarter was reduced in size during the 19th century, but a large cemetery and six temples have remained. Remarkably, rather than raze the remaining buildings, the Nazis preserved the area as part of a planned "extinct race" museum of sorts. Unfortunately, the people of the Jewish Quarter did not fare so well. A pre-war population of over 90,000 in the Josefov was reduced to less than 15,000 by World War II's end. In 2014, less than 5000 Jews remained in the Jewish Quarter. All in all, it is estimated that over 250,000 Jews were killed in Bohemian and Slovakian lands at the hands of the Nazis.

Answer: Lesser Town

The Mala Strana, or Lesser Town (Czech Mensí Město), is so named because the area is on the left side of the Vltava River, with historically smaller populations than the districts on the right side of the Vltava. Prague, like many European cities, did not grow as a single organic city. What we now call Prague encompasses a number of medieval towns and independent cities. Such was the case with the Mala Strana. The town dates back to 1257 and was founded by King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Ottokar II, nicknamed "The Golden King", built the Bohemian Kingdom into a regional power during his 26 year reign. Ottokar combined a number of even smaller villages into the new town. Later, Charles IV expanded the Mala Strana during his reign. However, in 1541 much of the medieval Mala Strana was burned, to be replaced by Renaissance and later Baroque style architecture.

The beautiful copper patina domes of the St. Nicholas Church are visible throughout the Mala Strana. St. Nicholas was constructed in the early 18th Century, during the occupation of Prague by the Hapsburg Empire, on the site of an earlier 13th Century Gothic church. The interior of the church is a fine example of the ornate flourishes that mark the baroque style. St. Nicholas boasts a massive organ with some 4000 pipes. Wolfgang Mozart, who visited Prague frequently, played the organ in St. Nicholas.

Answer: The Dancing House

Much of the beauty of Prague comes from its well-preserved baroque and rococo period architecture. Prague suffered relatively little from the World Wars and was spared large scale reconstruction during the dreary Communist period of the mid 20th century. However, there were a few causalities to Prague's skyline during the war period. A stray US bomb destroyed a building in Prague in 1945. The building was adjacent to the house where future Czech poet and President Vaclav Havel lived. During Havel's presidency, he approved plans for the site to be made into a showpiece of modern architecture. Famed Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry designed a deconstructed building of curved lines and non-uniform windows. When viewed from the exterior, the structure seems to undulate or "dance". The two distinct parts of the building were designed by Gehry to emulate the movement of famed dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as they twirled in tandem.

The Dancing House is owned by and financed through the Dutch insurance company Nationale-Nederlanden. The bold design and foreign ownership are symbols of the political and social reemergence of Prague to its place as a jewel of Western Europe. In 2005, the beauty of the Dancing House was commemorated in a 2000 Czech krona gold coin. The enclosed picture is a view of the Dancing house from the adjacent Vltava River.

Answer: Hot springs

Karlovy Vary (German Karlsbad and English Carlsbad) is a resort city some 130 km west of Prague. The city was founded in 1350 by the Bohemian king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Legend has it that Charles was hunting deer in the Tepla River valley, when he discovered one of the hundreds of hot springs that run in and around the area.

Karlovy Vary has been one of Europe's most lavish and expensive resort areas for centuries. The Hapsburgs built grand baroque cathedrals and large estates along the river banks. The spas drew many 18th and 19th Century art and social figures to Karlovy Vary, including Casanova, Beethoven and Mozart. Karlovy Vary is home to an annual international film festival and has been the scene of numerous movie shoots, most notably 2006's "Casino Royale". The city is also known for its extensive array of fine shopping, lavish hotels and distilling the unique Czech liqueur Karlovarská Becherovka. The highly prized Czech glass manufacturer Moser Glass is headquartered in Karlovy Vary.

Answer: Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka and Prague are forever intertwined. Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in the Old Town sector of Prague and is buried here. He trained as a lawyer and worked as an insurance advocate. Kafka professed to hate his day job, calling it acts to earn "bread money", while he spent his free time writing fiction. Kafka's works were complex and dark tales of alienation, pain and isolation, emotions that the writer conveyed from his personal experience. Kafka was both proud of and indifferent to his heritage as a Czech and a Jew. Much of Kafka's life echoed his writings. He was fascinated by Zionism but felt unconnected to Judaism as a religion. Kafka enjoyed an active sex life and had a long string of attachments to women but never married or fathered children. Like many European intellectuals of the period, Kafka dabbled in socialism and anarchist political doctrines, but his writings were not overtly political.

Kafka died in 1924 from tuberculosis and was buried in the New Jewish Cemetery within the City. During his life, Kafka's work was not widely known as the few of his stories published were in smaller literary magazines and attracted little public or critical interest. Only after his death, during the rise of the existentialist movement, were Kafka's novels and short stories rediscovered. Kafka's morbid, dark and often grotesque stories resonated with the disaffected post war generations. Today Kafka's major works, "The Trial" (Der Prozess), "The Castle" (Das Schloss), "Amerika" and "The Metamorphosis" are often required reading for students across the world. Kafka's influence has affected the lexicon, situations that combine the nightmarish and fantastical with the mundane is described as "Kafkaesque".

The photo depicts a popular bronze statue created in tribute to Kafka and his story "Description of a Struggle" by Czech sculptor Jaroslav Róna. The statute sits between the beautiful Spanish Synagogue and the Holy Spirit Catholic Church at the entrance to Prague's Jewish Quarter. Prague also has a museum dedicated to Kafka and his work located near his birth place in the Malá Strana (Lesser Town).

Answer: Eiffel Tower

At the time of its erection in 1889, the Eiffel Tower became the world's tallest man-made structure. The Tower was first open to the public during the Paris World's Fair and was an instant phenomenon and tourist attraction. The Eiffel Tower stands 324m (1024ft) dwarfing the height of previous iron towers. Czech visitors to the Tower were inspired to construct an iron latticed tower in Prague. Private donations funded the 1891 construction of the Petrin Lookout Tower (Czech Petřínská rozhledna). From a distance, the Prague tower bears a striking resemblance to the French original, earning it the nickname the "Little Eiffel Tower".

While similar in appearance, there are several distinctive differences between the Petrin and Eiffel Towers. The Prague tower has an octagonal shape, whereas the Eiffel Tower is built upon square cross sections. Furthermore, the Petrin Tower is supported by a solid base entrance hall, where the Eiffel is anchored by its four latticed steel columns. The Petrin Lookout Tower stands a respectable 63.5m at its pinnacle and has served both as a transmission tower and an observation point. Prague residents like to boast that when the height of Petrin Hill is considered the top of the Petrin Lookout Tower stands 50 meters higher than the pinnacle of the Eiffel Tower.

Answer: Pilsner

Beer is everywhere in Prague and is available at all times. Every café is adorned with signs and bright umbrellas (as pictured in the photo) advertising the many different breweries servicing the thirsty city and its tourists. Czech beer is traditionally a light beer with a sharp hop flavor. Beer production in Bohemia can be traced to the 8th and 9th centuries. The Bohemian town of Pilsen (Czech Plzeň), located 90km from Prague, has been a center for beer production since the 13th century, but it was not until the mid 19th century that the town became synonymous with "Pilsner" style lagers. A new brewery opened in 1839 that combined lighter malting, Pilsen water, Czech grown hops and Bavarian "lagering" techniques. The new golden colored beer was an instant classic distributed and imitated across the globe. In 1859, Pilsner Bier was registered as a brand name by the town.

In 1898, Pilsner Urquell (Czech for "original source of Pilsner") was introduced. This beer has long remained the most popular beer in the Czech Republic. Similarly, famed American beer Budweiser also has Czech roots. Budweiser literally means from the town Ceské Budějovice, also in Bohemia. Budějovice (Budvar in German) was the historical competitor of Pilsen as the Czech brewing capital. In 1876, the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Co. of St Louis, Missouri began marketing a beer in the lager style using the name Budweiser after visiting breweries in Budvar. For over a century, there has been a dispute between the US company and a local Czech company, Budweiser Budvar, over ownership of the name. As such, American Budweiser is labeled as "Bud" or "Anheuser Busch B" in most of Europe.