Prague: A City and Its River

Kateřina Bečková is a historian and curator in the City of Prague Museum. Derek Paton has been a translator of works of Czech history, politics, and art history for more than twenty-five years, twenty of which he has translated together with his wife Marzia Patton.

Since its birth as a city, Prague's appearance, character, and life have been shaped by the River Vltava. The flow of the river enabled the settlement of the Prague basin, the creation of the capital of the Bohemian Kingdom, and, later, the Czech state. In the course of their joint history, the city has gradually tamed the river, and as Prague has changed, so too has its river. This exquisitely illustrated book celebrates both the historical and living bond between Prague and the Vltava. After first exploring the river's major transformations - most radically those of the nineteenth century, when the river banks became riverside roads, centers of social life, and elegant promenades all overhung with architecturally imposing grand houses - Katerina Becková takes readers on a stroll, in photographs, through the contemporary city. She tells the stories of its flour mills, bridges, islands, embankments, monuments, and community spaces, linking unique, riverside panoramic views of the town with fascinating insight into the evolution of Prague's everyday life over time. Also including historical and documentary illustrations, maps, and lists of key figures, locations, and landmarks (both today's and yesterday's) with the various names they have had over the centuries, Prague: A City and Its River is both a cultural guide and beautiful work of art - an enlightening homage to the river that continues to shape one of the most historic and beautiful capitals of Eastern Europe.