Hradec Králové (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 94,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the Hradec Králové Region. The city is situated in a flat landscape, at the confluence of the Elbe and Orlice rivers.

From 1306, Hradec Králové was a dowry town ruled by Bohemian queens, which helped further development of the city. In the second half of the 18th century, a large military fortress was built in the city, which changed its character. In the first third of the 20th century, after the fortress was abolished, the city was rebuilt again and became appreciated for its high architectural level.

Hradec Králové is a regional centre of culture and education, known for the Klicpera Theatre and University of Hradec Králové. The historic centre of Hradec Králové is well preserved and is protected as an urban monument reservation, and the wider centre is protected as an urban monument zone. The most important monument of Hradec Králové is the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit.

Administrative division

thumb|Municipal parts of Hradec Králové

Hradec Králové consists of 21 municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census):

  • Březhrad (899)
  • Hradec Králové (14,782)
  • Kukleny (2,617)
  • Malšova Lhota (869)
  • Malšovice (2,557)
  • Moravské Předměstí (4,966)
  • Nový Hradec Králové (22,458)
  • Piletice (186)
  • Plácky (1,108)
  • Plačice (737)
  • Plotiště nad Labem (2,087)
  • Pouchov (2,007)
  • Pražské Předměstí (13,045)
  • Roudnička (873)
  • Rusek (411)
  • Slatina (742)
  • Slezské Předměstí (8,948)
  • Svinary (1,064)
  • Svobodné Dvory (2,632)
  • Třebeš (7,225)
  • Věkoše (2,436)

Etymology

The city was originally named Hradec, which is a diminutive of hrad (i.e. 'castle'). Later, when it was owned by Bohemian queens, the Králové suffix (genitive of králová, 'queen' in Old Czech) was added. So the name Hradec Králové literally means "queen's castle".

Geography

thumb|The Elbe running through the city

Hradec Králové is located about east of Prague and forms an agglomeration with the city of Pardubice, which is located about south of Hradec Králové. It lies in the East Elbe Table, in the eastern part of the Polabí lowlands. The highest point is the hill Slatina at above sea level. The city is situated at the confluence of the Elbe and Orlice rivers. The municipal territory is rich in small fishponds.

Climate

Hradec Králové has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb; Trewartha: Dcbo). The annual average temperature is , the hottest month in July is , and the coldest month is in January. The annual precipitation is , of which July is the wettest with , while February is the driest with only . The extreme temperature throughout the year ranged from on 10 February 1956 to on 2 August 1934.

History

11th–16th centuries

The first written mention of a castle named Hradec is in Chronica Boemorum written in 1119–1125, when the record of the castle is associated with the year 1091. The document from 1073 that mentioned Hradec is a forgery from the 12th century. The first written mention of the settlement of Hradec is from 1225 and it was already referred to as a city. In 1306, Hradec became a dowry town ruled by Bohemian queens. It was the residence of Elizabeth Richeza of Poland in 1308–1318 or Elizabeth of Pomerania in 1378–1393. In the 14th century, thanks to the presence of the queens, the city became a military and political centre of a region with a high level of education and culture.

Extensive fires in 1290, 1339 and 1407 accelerated the reconstruction of the city. In 1420, during the Hussite Wars, the city was conquered by the Hussites and became their military centre. In 1423, the Hussites completely destroyed the castle where the queens used to live. During the rule of King George of Poděbrady, the city experienced a new period of economic, political and cultural prosperity.

Subsequently, however, the population began to decline, primarily due to people moving to the suburbs (suburbanization), dropping below the 100,000 threshold in 1997. According to the 2011 Czech census, the population had fallen to just over 94,000. However, the entire Hradec Králové–Pardubice agglomeration had a total population of 340,423 as of 2019. Over 20,000 people commute into the city itself for both work and study.

Population structure

<gallery>

Sčítání obyvatelstva 2011, 569810 Hradec Králové, věková struktura.svg|Age structure of the population of Hradec Králové in 2011

Sčítání obyvatelstva 2011, 569810 Hradec Králové, rodinný stav.svg|Marital status of the population of Hradec Králové in 2011

Sčítání obyvatelstva 2011, 569810 Hradec Králové, vzdělání.svg|Educational attainment of the population of Hradec Králové in 2011

</gallery>

thumb|[[Hradec Králové Synagogue]]

Ethnic composition

{| class="wikitable"

|-

| Czech

| 95%

|-

| Moravian

| 0.19%

|-

| Slovak

| 1.42%

|-

| German

| 0.12%

|-

| Polish

| 0.18%

|-

| Romani

| 0.07%

|-

| Undeclared and other

| 3.0%

|}

Religion

{| class="wikitable"

|-

| No religion

| 66.89%

|-

| Believers total

| 21.21%

|-

| Roman Catholic Church

| 15.86%

|-

| Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren

| 1.33%

|-

| Czechoslovak Hussite Church

| 1.29%

|-

| Other

| 2.73%

|-

| Undeclared

| 11.90%

|}

Compiled from the 2001 census statistics, when Hradec Králové had a population of 97,155.

Economy

thumb|Former seat of the Petrof company

The largest industrial employers with headquarters in the city are ARROW International, a manufacturer of medical instruments and technology owned by Teleflex, and Trelleborg Bohemia, which focuses on the production of rubber and rubber products.

A traditional industry is the musical instrument manufacturing. Hradec Králové is known for the Petrof piano manufacturer, founded in 1864.

Transport

thumb|Riegrovo náměstí with the main railway station

Hradec Králové is connected with Prague by the D11 motorway, which runs along the western municipal border. Three main roads cross the city centre: the I/11 (which connects the D11 motorway with Šumperk and continues to Ostrava), the I/35 (from Liberec to Mohelnice, further continuing to Olomouc as the D35 motorway) and the I/37 (which connects Hradec Králové with Pardubice).

The city is located on the intraregional railway lines Pardubice–Liberec and Prague–Trutnov. The municipal territory is served by five train stations and stops: Hradec Králové hlavní nádraží (main station), Hradec Králové zastávka, Hradec Králové-Kukleny, Hradec Králové-Slezské Předměstí and Plotiště nad Labem.

Hradec Králové is served by the Hradec Králové Airport. It is a public domestic and private international airport, located about from the city centre.

Intra-city transport is provided by the company Dopravní podnik města Hradce Králové, a.s., which is owned by the city of Hradec Králové. In addition to buses, trolleybuses also provide intra-city transport. Trolleybus service was started in 1949. There are eight trolleybus lines in operation.

Education

thumb|Former tanner high school designed by J. Gočár

Hradec Králové serves as the educational centre of the region. The first school was founded here in 1362. Today the University of Hradec Králové, established in 2000, is located in the city. Charles University in Prague has two faculties in Hradec Králové: Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Pharmacy. The University of Defense in Brno has its Faculty of Military Medicine in Hradec Králové.

Culture

thumb|Klicpera Theatre

Hradec Králové has a strong theatrical tradition. The Klicpera Theatre is considered one of the best drama theatres in the country and is a four-time winner of the Czech "Theatre of the Year" award. The Drak Theatre is a professional puppet theatre founded in 1958. Since the 1970s, the theatre has performed all over the world, collaborated with foreign stages, and won awards at many festivals.

The REGIONS International Theatre Festival Hradec Králové is an annual cultural event held in the city. It is one of the largest theatrical showcases in the country. It was founded in 1995 by the Klicpera Theatre.

Jazz Goes to Town is an international jazz festival, which has been held in Hradec Králové every October since 1995. Since 2003 the city hosts Hip Hop Kemp. It is the biggest hip hop festival in Central and Eastern Europe. Since 2007 the city hosts Rock for People, the biggest rock festival and one of the largest open-air music festivals in the Czech Republic.

The city is home to one of the Czech Republic's leading orchestras, the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra. It was established in 1978.

The Gallery of Modern Art in Hradec Králové is an art gallery in Hradec Králové. It was founded in 1919.

Religion

Hradec Králové is the seat of the Diocese of Hradec Králové, established in 1664.

Sport

The football club FC Hradec Králové plays in the Czech First League in the Malšovická aréna stadium with a capacity of 9,300 people.

The ice hockey club of Hradec Králové is Mountfield HK, which plays in the Czech Extraliga.

The women's basketball team, Hradecké Lvice, plays in the national women basketball league.

A motorcycle speedway track existed in Svobodné Dvory from 1951 until the mid-1960s. The track hosted a team called Východočeský KV Hradec Králové, which won two bronze medals in the Czechoslovak Championship in 1961 and 1962.

Sights

thumb|Cathedral of the Holy Spirit, White Tower and former city hall

thumb|Museum of Eastern Bohemia

The historic city centre is located around the square Velké náměstí, where all the most valuable historic buildings are located. The face of the modern city dates from the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, when many monumental representative buildings in the Art Nouveau and Functionalism styles were built here.

The Church of Saint John of Nepomuk was built on the site of the former castle in 1710–1729. The interior contains valuable paintings from 1887, created in the Beuron Art School style.

The Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové was founded in 1880. The large museum building was designed by architect Jan Kotěra and built in 1909–1912. The museum has approximately 3,000,000 items in archeological, scientific and historical collections. One of the most valuable exhibits is the oldest surviving collections of Czech Renaissance polyphony, the Codex Speciálník manuscript.

Notable people

  • Elizabeth of Pomerania ( – 1393), queen; lived and died here
  • Jan Šindel (1370s – ), scientist and professor
  • Cyprián Karásek Lvovický (1514–1574), astronomer and mathematician
  • Bohuslav Balbín (1621–1688), writer, historian and geographer
  • Václav Kliment Klicpera (1792–1859), playwright; lived and worked here
  • Carl von Rokitansky (1804–1878), physiologist, pathologist
  • Antonín Petrof (1839–1915), piano maker
  • František Plesnivý (1845–1918), architect
  • Viktor Mucha (1877–1933), dermatologist
  • Josef Gočár (1880–1945), architect
  • Josef Čapek (1887–1945), painter, writer and poet
  • Otakar Vávra (1911–2011), film director
  • Avigdor Dagan (1912–2006), Israeli diplomat
  • Jiří Horák (1924–2003), politician
  • Václav Snítil (1928–2015), violinist
  • Jiří Petr (1931–2014), agroscientist, Rector Emeritus of CZU
  • Dominik Duka (1943–2025), prelate of the Catholic Church
  • Dušan Salfický (born 1972), ice hockey player
  • Vít Jedlička (born 1983), politician and publicist
  • Kateřina Siniaková (born 1996), tennis player, Olympic winner
  • Filip Hronek (born 1997), ice hockey player

Twin towns – sister cities

Hradec Králové is twinned with:

  • Alessandria, Italy
  • Arnhem, Netherlands
  • Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
  • Chernihiv, Ukraine
  • Giessen, Germany
  • Kaštela, Croatia
  • Metz, France
  • Wałbrzych, Poland
  • Wrocław, Poland

Cooperation agreements

Hradec Králové also cooperates with:

  • Montana, Bulgaria
  • Székesfehérvár, Hungary

See also

  • New Hradec, North Dakota

References

  • Tourist Information Centre Hradec Králové
  • Virtual show