Settlement

In the long run the development of nature in big urban areas is influenced and controlled to a considerable extent by man’s activities. Its evalutation, therefore, must be governed by different criteria from those applied to rural or not densely populated landscape. Man has lived in Prague area from the very beginning of human history. This is testified to by archaeological finds from the older and newer Stone Age - Paleolithic and Neolothic. The oldest stone instruments in dated strata were found on the lydite knob of Zlatý Kopec (Golden Hill) near Přezletice in the close proximity of the southern city boundary. They belong to old Paleolithic and, judging by the fauna accompanying them, they are more than half-a-million years old.

The growth of Prague (according to the data of IMI Prague and C. Votrubec, 1960).

Slightly younger are the Mid-Paleolithic instruments found in the brickworks in Sedlec and on further sites in the near environs of Prague (Letky, Lobkovice, Chlum nr. Srbsko, Karlštejn). They were used by the Neanderthaler Man and other old types of man, while the younger Paleolithic instruments known from Jenerálka, Přezletice and other localities in the broader environs of Prague (e.g. Řevnice) belonged to men of the present type, similarly as the minor instruments used by the hunters of the Magdalenian culture known primarily from the caves of the Bohemian Karst.

People of the Middle Stone Age (Mezolithic) have left their traces primarily in the sands of the Labe basin as well as in the Bohemian Karst. In this evolutionary phase which lasted hundreds of thousands of years until some seven thousand years ago man was hunter and collector and, consequently, formed an inseparable component of natural ecosystems like other big mammals. He could not yet interfere actively with the course of nature and could find his living only in what nature was providing.

The principal break in the relation between society and nature came only in the 5th millenium B.C., when the Neolithic farmers came to Bohemia. They too used stone implements, but knew pottery, could cultivate grain and breed domestic animals. They changed nature for their benefit and so created actively a cultural landscape with fields, pastures, fallows and permanent settlements. They introduced cultural produce and bred domestic animals, including also the species introduced from other areas, such as goats and sheep. In this way Neolithic farmers and their successors influenced decisively the picture of Prague landscape and a major part of Central Bohemia during the past seven thousand years.

Even in primeval times Prague and its near environs occupied an important position on two big rivers, the Vltava and the Berounka, at the south boundary of the so-called old settlement area, i.e. the area which has been colonized and cultivated continuously from the Neolithic to the present day. The density of finds increases from SE to NW. South to southeast beyond Říčany there begins a region which was not colonized until the Middle Ages, while the East, North, West and Southwest, i.e. the Bohemian Karst, belong to the old settlement area in which we can find the traces of our ancient predecessors in the cadaster of almost every village.

In the 4th - 3rd millenia B.C. the Neolithic passed into the Late Stone Age - the Eneolithic - in which fortified settlements originated in Prague area, such as Šestákova Skála (Šesták Rock) in the Wild Šárka, the hillfort Zámky near Bohnice, Kazín near Černošice on the Berounka or Řivnáč near Levý Hradec which gave the name to one of the outstanding Eneolithic cultures - the Řivnáč Culture.

At the turn of the 2nd and the 3rd millenia B.C. the Bronze Age started. At its beginning another significant culture developed named after a site in Prague area - the Únětice culture. In the middle Bronze Age the development continued with the barrow culture and terminated in the younger Bronze Age by the Knovíz culture which had a number of strongholds in Prague area incl. the Hradiště above Závist which subsequently played a role of prime importance at the time of the Celts. In the Iron Age the Knovíz culture was succeeded by the Bylany culture. In the last four centuries B.C. Prague area was settled by the Celts as the first historical nation documented in Bohemian territory.

Map of medieval settlements in Prague (according to C. Votrubec, 1960).

Celtic period, connected with the La Tene culture in material respect, left us one of the most important archaeological objects - the Celtic stronghold Hradiště above Závist, covering not only the Hradiště hill proper, but also the Šance hill north of the Břežany Ravine. They are the remains of a Celtic town, called by the Latin term of oppidum, with a powerful system of mounds which is the biggest object of this type in the Czech Republic. It is remarkable that the area of the prehistoric oppidum abounds in natural values so that its part in the territory of Prague was declared a protected area (Šance, Natural Monument).

The territory of Prague was settled also in Roman times and at the time of the migration of nations. Subsequently, in the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., the traces of our Slavonic ancestors appeared. Their monuments, known as Prague type, are the oldest Slavonic culture in our territory, which developed into the hillfort culture and to historical times. Numerous Slavonic fortifications made use of older strongholds, e.g. in Šárka, Butovice and elsewhere.

It is obvious that historical Prague was built up successively in the area, which had been colonized and cultivated for thousands of years and even in the pre-Slavonic period, had always represented an important centre of power in Bohemia - a fact testified to by the concentration of prehistoric finds. Further development of Prague can be traced in historical sources. Its kernel had two centres - the Lesser Town and the Hradčany (Castle) on the left-hand river bank, and the Old Town on the right-hand river bank, to which the New Town was added at the time of Charles IV. At that time Prague ranged among the biggest European cities. Since then it has grown in several waves to its present size of almost 500 sq.km. It developed most in the second half of last century and in this century together with the development of industry. It should be noted that its recent increase has been due also to the incorporation of a number of marginal communities into Greater Prague.

As late as last century old Prague, closed within city walls, was surrounded by suburban territories with a number of minor communities and numerous solitary farms playing an important role in the supply of food to the growing city. Also the intensive, though dispersed extraction of various minerals, especially building materials, took place in city surroundings. In this way the whole area around Hlubočepy was changed by selective limestone extraction which imprinted this area with original features and uncovered and accentuated its geological structure. Also a number of formations, representing significant landscape elements at present, was moulded by mineral extraction. By way of example let us mention the Braník Rock where only small areas have been preserved from the initial surface. Similar is also the case of the Barrandov Rocks. Prague was surrounded with sand pits and clay pits of brickworks, minor quarries extracting Ordovician quartzites for the manufacture of paving stones known as “cat’s heads”. The Cretaceous plateaux were bordered with numerous quarries extracting sandy marlite and sandstone. Generally speaking the whole ground was scarred by the most varied human activities, whether they were quarry faces or road cuts, such as that along the railway in the Děvín, or such minor forms as deep farm road tracks or the terraces of long-extinct vineyards. In the middle of this area a number of natural areas has been preserved still hosting rich fauna and flora even at present and, therefore, deserving protection, because they belong to the vaues of the capital in the same way as historical monuments. Let us mention only the lydite gorge of the Džbán in the Wild Šárka, the karst slopes of the Prokop or the Radotín Valleys or the rock parade in Podhoří, still one of the biggest sites of the burning bush (Dictamus albus) in the Czech Republic.

Prague below the Žižkov hill with the House of Invalids in the background (about 1803). The Karlín division consisted then of gardens and fields with a few scattered farms (Lorenz Janscha).

The Prokop Valley extends in the centre, with the primeval Bubovice stronghold in the centre above it and modern housing estates all around.

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