Where does Czech glass come from?
Bohemia, Moravia, Silezia, Czechia, Czechoslovakia?

The Czech Republic (sometimes also incorrectly called Czechia) is located in the very heart of Europe and historically, it has been a natural crossroad of paths of merchants, artists, thinkers and armies. They all left their imprint. Czechs are the most Western of the Slavic tribes, both geographically and in their attitudes. In fact, culturally, we always belonged to the West rather than the East. Here is a map of Central Europe for a better idea.

The Historic Regions of Bohemia, Moravia and Silezia today

Today's region of the Czech Republic (also collectively called the Czech lands) is composed of three historic regions:

• Bohemia (on the map right in green) is about 2/3 of the country in the west with Prague in the center of it. It is inhabited almost exclusively by Czechs (who could thus be called the only and true Bohemians). The word Bohemia comes from the German name for the region Böhmen. It has nothing to do with how Czechs call themselves (singular "Cech" plural "Cesi") or their lands ("Cechy" - only plural as it always referred to several lands).

• Moravia (blue) is in southeast, bordering Slovakia and Austria. In the ancient history, Moravia was the center of a vast kingdom "The Great Morava", which eventually shrunk to the current size. Even though today's Morava is small, the people are great and in our view, much more fun and down to earth then Czechs.

• Silezia (red) - the original historic region of Silezia ended up mostly in todays Poland and we have just a little tip of it in the northeast.

A Bit of Czech History

The Czech Kingdom had been an independent state since about the 9th century, but between 1526 and 1918, the it was part of the Habsburg Monarchy and much of the exported Czech crystal was simply labeled "Made in the Austro-Hungarian Empire", even though most the Empire's glass came from Bohemia and was made by Czechs.

Whenever possible, the makers tried to establish "Bohemia crystal" a trade name referring to the area where the glass comes from, not a particular type of glass or a particular maker. Several companies put the word Bohemia in their name for this reason. The effort is similar to the branding of the French region Champagne for sparkling wine production or the Swiss Emmental Valley as the only original source of the Emmentaler cheese.

For illustration, Czech Republic is also famous for its beer and the struggle with brands is even more difficult there. The original (and only) Pilsner, comes from Pilsen, Czech Republic (in Czech Plzen) and the brewery producing Pilsner Urquell. In the city of Budweiss (or Ceske Budejovice in Czech), you could find the original and only Budweisser beer, which tastes much different and better then the wish-to-be Budweisser made in the US and sold worldwide. And, of course, it tastes best from Czech glass.

In 1918, at the end of World War one, the Czech lands hooked up with Moravia and Slovakia, as well as part of Carpatian Ruthania and formed Czechoslovakia. The period in between the first and second world (often referred to as The First Republic) war was our happiest time and despite it's small size and population, Czechoslovakia was the 7th strongest economy in the world at that time. This prosperity reflected in the production of glass as well. The art-deco designs from those times, drawing from wide range of influences from art nouveau to cubism, still inspire us today. But forming Czechoslovakia was a political move aimed at giving the new country a better chance of survival, if it's bigger. It survived the Nazis and Communist this way, eventually died a peaceful death in 1993 and we became the Czech Republic.

Today, glass is produced in several regions of Bohemia and also in Moravia. One of our best suppliers is actually in Moravia and has a truly new take on the old traditions. So the only correct way to call this product would be "Glass from the Czech Republic".