The Czech Republic Trivia Quiz

Answer: Styria

The odd one out is Styria, which is a region of central Austria. Its capital and largest city is Graz.

Formed in the late 9th-century as a small duchy around the city of Prague, the Czech state was originally called Bohemia. In 1212, Bohemia was elevated to a kingdom and over the following two centuries it expanded its territory to well beyond the borders it has today. The historic territory of Moravia occupies the eastern part of modern day Czech Republic. Co-operation between the Margraviate of Moravia and the Duchy of Bohemia (and later the Kingdom of Bohemia) stretches back more than a millennium. The historic territory of Silesia lies mostly in Poland, with small parts in Germany and the Czech Republic. Czech Silesia lies on the northeastern (Polish) border of the Czech Republic, incorporating the cities of Ostrava and Opava.

The photo shows the Arms of Bohemia.

Answer: Brno

According to the 2011 census, Brno was home to 385,000 people and was the second-largest city by population in the Czech Republic (after Prague). It is also a historically important city, having previously been the capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. The photo shows the Brno skyline.

The alternatives are all the second-largest city in a European country: Banja Luka is the second-largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina (after the capital, Sarajevo); Debrecen is second only to Budapest in the list of the largest Hungarian cities; and Maribor is about half the size of Slovenia's capital, Ljubljana.

Answer: Germany

You would have to drive a total of 1,276 miles to travel in a complete circle of the Czech Republic. The longest section of this journey would be along the Czech border with Germany, which is 506 miles in length. The border with Poland is 411 miles long. That with Austria runs 225 miles. The shortest border is with Slovakia -- just 134 miles.

The photo shows the nearest major German city to the Czech border, Dresden.

Answer: Sri Lanka

With an area of just 25,330 square miles, Sri Lanka is less than 85% of the size of the Czech Republic. The other three are all larger: Jordan has an area of 34,495 square miles, Iceland 40,000, and Cuba 42,4236 square miles.

The photo shows Sri Lanka as seen from space.

Answer: St Vitus Cathedral

Dating back to 925, its full name is St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral, although it is popularly known simply as St Vitus. Home to the tombs of numerous Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, it also houses the national crown jewels. For me, the highlight of any visit to Prague Castle is the stained-glass windows in St Vitus (pictured) -- well worth the trip to see these.
Of the alternatives, St. Ansgar's Cathedral is in Copenhagen, Denmark; St. Olav's Cathedral is in Oslo, Norway; and St. Peter and St. Paul's Cathedral is in Tallinn, Estonia.

Answer: English

Czech, a West Slavic variation from the Indo-European language family, is the both the official and the majority language the country, with around 12 million native speakers worldwide. Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible languages, with Polish a close cousin.

In addition, the Czech Republic has fourteen other officially recognized languages: Slovak, German, Polish, Belorussian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Greek, Hungarian, Romani, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
If you were tempted by Vietnamese, then perhaps the photo of fish and chips, the quintessentially English food, should have dissuaded you.

Answer: Elbe

The River Elbe rises almost 5,000 feet up in the Krkonose ("Giant Mountains") in northwester Czech Republic. It them flows across northern Czech Republic and into Germany, where it passes through Dresden, Wittenberg, Dessau, Magdeburg and Hamburg before emptying into the North Sea at Cuxhaven.

The photo shows the The Dolní Zleb Ferry in the Czech Republic. This is the southernmost of the 24 ferries that cross the Elbe between its source in Czech Republic and Hamburg in Germany.

Answer: Internet Cafe

Snìzka stands in the Krkonose mountains in the extreme northwest of the Czech Republic, right on the border with Poland. In 1974, the Polish built the disc-shaped observatory and meteorological office seen in the photograph. In the same building is a restaurant. Also on the Polish (north) side of the mountain is the St Lawrence Chapel.

A chairlift carries visitors up the Czech side of the mountain from the town of Pec pod Snìzkou. Having made it to the top, you can send postcards home from what may well be Europe's highest Post Office -- a surprisingly-large new Post Office building was constructed here in 2004.

There is, though, no internet café at the top of the mountain.

Answer: Where Is My Home?

Written by composer Frantisek Skroup and the playwright Josef Kajetán Tyl in the 1830s, "Where Is My Home?" was adopted as the first verse of the Czechoslovakian anthem when the country was formed in 1918. The second verse was part of the Slovak song "Nad Tatrou sa blýska" ("Lightning over the Tatras" in English). When the two countries divided in 1993, the anthem was also split, with each of the two countries taking as their new anthem one verse from their former combined anthem.

Of the alternatives: "Mila Rodino" ("Dear Native Land") is the Bulgarian national anthem; "Boze pravde" ("God of Justice" is the Serbian anthem); and "Lijepa nasa domovino" ("Our Beautiful Homeland") is the Croatian anthem.
One additional clue that I couldn't avoid giving you here was that the Czech anthem is the only one in Europe that is followed by a "?". If you spotted that, well done.

Answer: Václav Havel Airport

Located six miles west of the centre of Prague, Václav Havel Airport was previously known as Prague Ruzynì International. Opened in 1937, it was renamed in 2012 to honour the first President of the Czech Republic, who had died the previous year. Handling more than ten million passengers annually, Václav Havel is the busiest airport in any the states that joined the European Union in the 2004 expansion. Václav Havel is also a film star -- scenes in the 2006 James Bond film "Casino Royale" that were purported to take place at Miami International were actually filmed at Václav Havel Airport.

The alternatives all rank in Europe's 100 busiest airports: Domodedovo International Airport serves Moscow, Russia; Sabiha Gökçen Airport serves Istanbul, Turkey; and Henri Coandã International Airport serves Bucharest, Romania.