Pardubický kraj, Czech Republic — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Pardubický kraj known for?

Pardubický kraj was first established in 1850, reappeared among the nineteen regions drawn between 1949 and 1960, and returned in its modern form in 2000, each time named after Pardubice. East Bohemia is the travellers' name for it. Most of the kraj lies in the eastern part of Bohemia, with a smaller share reaching into north-western Moravia.

Where is Pardubický kraj?

Pardubický kraj lies mainly in the eastern part of the historical region of Bohemia, with a small part reaching into north-western Moravia. Two lands share it. The join between them is old enough to have a name of its own, the Bohemian-Moravian border, and that line was already the eastern limit of the first version of this kraj when it was set out in 1850.

Pardubice anchors the whole. The capital gives the kraj its name and has carried its administration through each of the region's three separate existences. The shape has moved more than once.

In 1850 the region stretched as far as Český Brod, a reach the modern kraj does not have, and the boundaries set between 1949 and 1960 drew it differently again. After 1960 the kraj disappeared altogether, and Pardubice became the capital of a district inside the Eastern Bohemian Region until the modern unit was reestablished in 2000. East Bohemia is what the maps once called all of this.

Moravia keeps only a corner. The Moravian share sits at the north-western end of that historical land, small beside the Bohemian bulk of the kraj but enough to keep the region from being purely Bohemian.

What is Pardubický kraj like?

Identity here is layered rather than single. Pardubický kraj is mostly Bohemian ground with a Moravian corner, and its people have belonged to several different administrative units within living memory, since the region has been created, dissolved, and created again. The older label still sticks to the place.

East Bohemia is how visitors and locals alike often describe this country, a name that outlived the Eastern Bohemian Region into which Pardubice was folded after 1960. Pardubice supplies the constant. Through every version of the kraj the city has kept its position at the head of things, and the region's name has been built on the city's own in each of its three existences.

The Bohemian-Moravian border runs through the region's sense of itself as much as through its ground, because the towns on either side of it look back to different historical lands. That split is quiet, not sharp. Moravia holds only the north-western corner, so the Bohemian character carries the region, and the Moravian share reads as an edge rather than a rival half.

Continuity here belongs to the capital rather than to the boundary.

What is the history of Pardubický kraj?

Three separate lives, one name. The first Pardubice Region was established in 1850 and reached as far as Český Brod on one side and the Bohemian-Moravian border on the other. A second version came with the boundaries drawn between 1949 and 1960, when it was one of nineteen regions.

Then it vanished. Pardubice served as a district capital within the Eastern Bohemian Region until Pardubický kraj was reestablished in 2000 as one of the Czech Republic's modern regions.

What is the climate of Pardubický kraj?

Continental patterns run through the kraj. Winters settle in cold across the eastern part of Bohemia, summers turn properly warm, and the swing between them is wider here than in any region with a coast to moderate it. The Moravian corner sees the same.

Nothing in Pardubický kraj is far enough from anything else to run a different season, so the weather that reaches Pardubice reaches the Bohemian-Moravian border within the day. Spring arrives late and fast.

How do you get to Pardubický kraj?

Everything funnels through Pardubice. The capital sits at the head of the region's road links, and arrivals from the rest of Bohemia reach it before spreading east towards the Bohemian-Moravian border and the Moravian corner beyond. Distances inside the kraj are short.

Crossing Pardubický kraj end to end is a short drive rather than a journey, which is why the capital works as a base for the whole region.