4 Jul /16

Random Czech Facts

Random Czech Facts - EVS Translations

Random Czech Facts
Czech people are among the top educated in the EU and that comes as no surprise considering the oldest university in Eastern Europe, and one of the oldest in the world in continuous operation is, indeed, the Charles University in the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague.

But what comes us a surprise is that one of the smartest nations in the EU is also the heaviest consumer of beer….in the world, with an impressive annual consumption of nearly 150 litres per capita.

And the Czech really believe in and swear by their beer, yet maybe a bit too much as they appear to be among the least religious populations in the world.

Heavy drinkers of divine beer as they are, and seen times when beer has been cheaper than water, they had the first sobering-up station in the world, a drunk tank which treated over 180,000 people during the first 30 years of service.

Under beer intoxication or not, the Czech invented the act of defenestration, dismissing someone from authority by literally throwing him out of a window. The act of political disapproval was first recorded in 1419, yet the term was officially coined in 1618 when two Imperial governors and their secretary were thrown out of a window of the Prague Castle, sparkling the Thirty Years War.

The Prague Castle, listed in The Guinness Book of Records as the largest ancient castle in the world by area at over 7 hectares (18 acres), is the gem in the crown of another 2,000 castles which make the country the one with the highest density of castles in the world. And in one of those 2000 castles, in Waldstein Castle, the world famed writer and lover Giacomo Casanova spent the last years of his life, writing his most famous book The Story of My Life.

The oldest working astronomic clock in the world, set in 1410, is to be found in the capital of the Czech Republic, which is also famous as the City of a Hundred Spires or the Golden City.

But there is much more than golden past, as Czech gave the world the concept of intelligent artificial beings wiping out the human race and the word robot itself, soft contact lenses, ship propellers and even sugar cubes.

If you are interested in learning other facts about the Czech Republic or the Czech language, our in-house native speaker Czech translators and Czech interpreters are here to walk you in.