Resources | Plzen | YWAM Values | Home | Contact

In 1295 A.D., the city of Nova Plzen (New Plzen) was founded by King Wenceslas II, on the confluence of two rivers, the Radbuza and the Mze. This occurred at the crossroads of three important trade routes: Nurnberg, Regensburg and Saxony. Though 1295 marked the founding of Plzen as a "king's town", there is evidence that people lived in the area as far back as 500 B.C. The original city plan is still preserved and shows an example of a Gothic orthogonal chessboard, consisting of a network of streets crossing each other at almost perfect right angles, covering an area of almost 50 acres. The wall fortification and moats around the town made it almost impossible to invade. Nova Plzen grew very rapidly and soon became the third Royal Town in Bohemia, after Praha (Prague) and Kutna Hora.

More than 700 years later, with a population of more than 173,000, Plzen still has a prominent position as the Czech Republic's third largest city (the largest being Prague, the capital of Bohemia, and the second largest: Brno, the capital of Moravia). Known as an important cultural, educational, economic, commercial and industrial center, Plzen is perhaps best known for its brewery, where the process for making Pilsener beer was first created (Pilsener Urquell), and the Skoda factory, founded in 1859. With an advanced academic school system dating back to the Middle Ages, Plzen is home to the University of West Bohemia, the Technical College of Engineering and Electronics, and the medical and pedagogical faculties of Prague's Charles University (founded in 1378).

Plzen is increasingly becoming a city with an "international flavor" as there are more than 500+ foreign students attending universities in Plzen. Most of these students come from the Middle East or Gulf region. A multitude of languages ranging from English to Arabic can be heard on the city streets and in the local coffee houses.