In this section, it is more appropriate to write about the stories and events that have taken place in the region or are at least linked to it, such as tales and legends, rather than the factual history of Central Bohemia. For example, the history of the development of public administration in Central Bohemia, of course, will not be so engaging to read, for most of the ordinary mortals. It is not the aim to provide a scientific explanation either, but rather to contribute to the awareness of one's own history and to encourage "explorations for knowledge".

The territory of today's Central Bohemia Region, which cannot exclude the city of Prague - for historical reasons, represents not only the geographical but also the significance center of Bohemia, where the most important events of our history took place and take place. The richness of the watercourses, the most important of which are the Vltava, the Elbe, Berounka, Sázava and Cidlina, as well as the favorable micro climate have lured  people to settle since the prehistoric times. Significant archaeological sites of this region that have been uncovered since the second half of the 19th century can be found throughout the whole region. Many of them are unique and have nationwide, pan-European, or even global significance. The oldest traces of human settlements in the Central Bohemia Region were discovered around Beroun and date back to 1.5 million years ago. The Bohemian Karst area is the location of the engravings of Capricorn and Horse, the only manifestations of the young paleolithic art in Bohemia.

For all important younger prehistoric sites, it is worth mentioning the Neolithic settlements of linear ceramics culture in Bylany near Kutná Hora and the astronomically oriented fenced settlement of the people with the bowl culture in Makotřas. The municipalities of Únětice, Knovíz and Bylany near Český Brod gave a generally recognized name to prehistoric cultures of the Bronze and Iron Ages. The findings of the Bylany (Halstat) funerals on the wagons made many municipalities in the Kolín area famous. The reconstruction of one of them can be found in the Kolín Museum. The marlite head of Héro, which is one of the most important Celtic stone sculptures discovered east of the Rhine, was found in Mšecké Žehrovice. All three Central Bohemia Celtic oppida - in Stradonice, Závist and Hrazany belong to internationally important localities.

The emergence of the state is framed by tales and legends, which aim to strengthen its position and importance. The Premyslid Bohemia is not an exception. Of course, we do not have to believe the story, but we can visit places associated with them. Central Bohemia offers countless places of that kind, as the region was the center of the emerging state. For example, the legend of Horymir and his horse Šemík is a famous one. By jumping from Vyšehrad, Šemík rescued his master from certain execution and brought him all the way to his native village of Neumětely. Here you can find a stone under which Šemík is allegedly buried. Local people, in memory of the horse's action, built a monument above that stone.

A few verified historical facts - for the protection of the emerging state, not only the Premyslid, but also other princes built fortified settlements such as Levý Hradec, Budeč, Stará Boleslav, Libice, Stará Kouřim, Tetín, Lštění, Mělník. To this day a number of pre-Romanesque and Romanesque monuments have been preserved, especially the churches in Budeč by Zákolany, Jakub by Kutná Hora, Tismice, Vinec, Týnec nad Sázavou, Kondrac, Poříčí nad Sázavou or Pravonín, as well as the relics or the oldest parts of the first medieval monasteries of Ostrov by Davle and Sázava. It was in one of these fortifications, in Stará Boleslav, at the door of the church, that Prince Wenceslas was murder at the order of his brother Boleslav in 935. It did not take long, and Wenceslas became the chief patron of the country under which the Czech troops entered the battles. The beginnings are usually very difficult and often bloody. Almost the whole family of Slavniks fell victims to that. This family also produced the first Prague bishop of Czech origin, bishop Vojtěch. The family settled in Libice fortification near the confluence of Cidlina and Elbe, and they represented strong and therefore undesirable competitors for Premyslid in the battles for power. Premyslid Prince Boleslav II. decided to solve the problem very vigorously. On 27 Sept 995, the Prince's army came to Libice, and after a two-day battle, the fortress was conquered and all members of the Slavnik family were murdered. Only those family members who stayed abroad  survived.

Vojtěch was unable to return to the Bishop's office for the resistance of Boleslav. After some time spent in the monastery, Vojtěch decided to spread the Christian faith as a missionary among the Gentiles in Hungary, Poland and Prussia. Despite the serious warning of the Gentiles, he entered their sacred grove and was therefore murdered on April 23, 997. Polish King Boleslav the Brave redeemed his body from the Gentiles. The agreed price was the weight of gold corresponding to the weight of the body. Soon, in 999, the Church consecrated Vojtěch. Above his grave, Archbishopric was founded in Polish Gniezno. The Bohemian prince Břetislav I., in the effort to use the saint's fame, conquered Gniezno in 1039 and over the grave of St. Vojtěch, he declared one of our oldest laws - Břetislav's decree, and then let Vojtěch's remains be solemnly transferred to Prague.

Kouřim, a small ancient town east of Kolín, of less than 3,000 inhabitants, has its beginnings deep in the Middle Ages too. The story tells how the town got its name - Father Čech remained at the Říp mountain, while his brother Lech left to Kouřim, where he settled and where he gave his brother a smoke sign. That's why the place was called "Kouřim" (smoke). And to confirm the "presence" of Lech in Kouřim, there is a Stone of Lech near Kouřim. The legend says that whoever manages to jump around the stone on one leg, on Christmas Eve, the treasures hidden beneath it will open to him. Kouřim was a significant and important residence for many years. For several centuries the town was the center of one of the Czech regions, but there are also numerous monuments proving that fact. For example, the Church of St. Štěpán with a unique underground chapel of St. Catherine, with 15th century paintings, is one of the most valuable Early Gothic buildings in Central Europe.

Not far from Kouřim, in the village of Chotouň, St. Prokop, the founder of the Sázava Monastery, was born. The legend says, that near the Sázava river, in 1032, hermit Prokop met Prince Oldřich. The hermit offered the prince a wooden bowl of water. It turned into wine, which must have inspired Oldrich. Out of gratitude for this miraculous act, the Prince helped Prokop establish a monastery. The monastery differed from other monasteries of its time, as it used the Slavonic liturgy, which meant that worship took place in the Slavic language and not in Latin, as was common at that time. The year 1097 meant the end of the Slavonic liturgy in Sázava monastery. Prince Břetislav II. drove the Slavic monks out of the monastery and brought in Latin Benedictines.
Kutná Hora is the most important historical monument of the Central Bohemia Region. The city center was registered among UNESCO-protected monuments in 1995. The first mention of Kutná Hora dates back to 1289, but the city started to develop and flourish already in the 13th century after the discovery of silver deposits. Kutná Hora became a royal city with many privileges and for a long time it was the second most important city in the Czech kingdom. The rulers, as the owners of urbury (share in the extracted precious metal), were of course interested in the development of mining. In 1300, Wenceslas II. issued the Mining Code, Ius regaele montanorum, which regulated the legal relations arising from the mining business. At the same time, a reform of minting was implemented too. The Prague Groshes were introduced and minted only in one central mint, i.e. in the Vlašský dvůr in Kutná Hora. The wealth of the city and its inhabitants allowed large sums of money to be devoted to construction work. This is evidenced by the many monuments - the temples of St. Barbara and St. Jacob, the Virgin Mary's Church on Náměti, the Vlašský dvůr and others. In 1409, Wenceslas IV. signed the Kutná Hora Decree in the Vlašský dvůr. He declared that at Charles University, Czech influence shall prevail instead of foreign.

The Hussite period was not a happy time for Kutná Hora. The mint interrupted its operations, many mines were flooded and caved. Wealthy German burghers, who managed most of the mining activities, fled the city. After the Hussite wars, silver mining was restored, the city prospered again, but the size of its former glory and wealth was never reached again. In 1471, Vladislav Jagellon was elected the Czech King during the Assembly in the Vlašský dvůr. As mining progressed deeper into the ground, technical difficulties increased, especially with the drainage of groundwater. That made mining very expensive. The middle of the 16th century brought the decline of the Kutná Hora Mines. The mining ended also in the deepest mines of those days - mine Osel was 550m deep. At the same time, in the 16th century, precious metals started to flow into Europe from America. After the Thirty Years War, i.e. after 1648, Kutná Hora lost the character of a mining town. Mining returned to the town in the second half of the 20th century, when the zinc and lead ores were mined. In 1991, the last Kutná Hora mine was closed. It is estimated over the years, a total of 2,000 tons of silver were extracted. Mělník, situated at the confluence of the Elbe and the Vltava river, is known primarily for the cultivation of grapes and their vintage. Emperor Charles IV himself let the Burgundy vineyard planted and invited French winemakers to cultivate the brand on the local old vineyards. Mělník is less known as the royal dowry town. Out of the royal towns, a group of so called devoted dowry towns was formed - Mělník, Hradec Králové, Dvůr Králové nad Labem and other. As the name itself indicates - dowry, the towns served as a provision for Czech queens.

Cultivation of grapes was not the only thing that Charles IV. brought to the Central Bohemia Region. The most famous Czech castle, Karlštejn, is located in this region near the town of Beroun. Its construction began in 1348 and was completed in 1365, when the Chapel of St. Cross in the Great Tower was consecrated. Karlštejn occupies a prominent position among Czech castles. It was built in the top Gothic style and served as a place to store the royal treasures, especially the collections of holy relics and imperial coronation jewels. The Czech ones were transported to Karlštejn at the beginning of the Hussite wars for security reasons. They remained stored here with short pauses for nearly 200 years.

The castle has undergone several building modifications. The last purist reconstruction, led by architect Josef Mocker at the end of the 19th century, gave Karlštejn the present look. The original staircase arrangement of individual castle buildings was preserved. From the lowest-lying operating areas - Předhradí, Studniční tower and Purkrab palace, the castle continues with the majestic Five-storey Imperial Palace and above it the Marian Tower. The castle's structure culminates at the highest point of the rocky promontory with the monumental, 60-meter-high Great Tower and a system of massive fortifications. The original Gothic wall decoration in the Chapel of St. Cross of the 14th century is highly unique, as a well-known set of 129 Master Theodoric paintings. We shall finish talking about the time of Charles IV. with yet another legend. It is a known fact, that the Emperor had a stone bridge built in Prague, the Charles Bridge, instead of the old Judith Bridge torn down in a flood. In order to increase the strength of the building, raw eggs were allegedly added to the mortar. Of course, the eggs came also from the area around Prague. Certainly many eggs were used. Only the inhabitants of Velvary, a small town north of Prague, sent boiled eggs - in order not to break during transport. So much about one of the many important contributions of the Central Bohemia Region to Prague.

At the beginning of the 15th century, the peaceful times of the reign of the Father of the Homeland were gone. The widespread dissatisfaction with the state of society ultimately resulted in the Hussite movement. We are reminded of those times, for example, by the ruin of Krakovec Castle near Rakovník. It is connected with the stay of Jan Hus before his departure to Kostnice. Piety and the desire for a better, more just society of common people led to the notion of an approaching and inevitable end of the world. The date of the Last Judgment was also known - 11 - 14 February 1420. Salvation could only be achieved in a few specifically designated places - cities and mountains (or rather hills). The town of Slaný was one of the five chosen cities. Today we know for certain that the end of the world did not come.

The Hussite movement, of course, did not end with unsuccessful waiting for the end of the world. It was necessary to solve a lot of practical issues - for example, who will rule the country instead of Zikmund of Luxembourg, who was unacceptable for the Hussaits. In June 1421, the Land Assembly met in Čáslav in the Dean's Cathedral of St.Peter and Paul. Estates representatives of the kingdom formed the Assembly. Instead of the king, a collegial head of the state was elected - a twenty-member government composed of 5 noblemen, 7 yeomen and 8 burghers - 4 of them from Prague. Jan Žižka of Trocnov also became a member. The Assembly in Čáslav agreed primarily the Hussite program, the famous Four Prague Articles - 1. the free proclamation of the word of God, 2. the communion under both kinds, 3. the deprivation of the Church of their secular property and the government, 4. the universal punishment of mortal sins. At the beginning of the 20th century, the remains of Jan Žižka were discovered in the alcove of the Marian chapel. Another place that prides itself with a grave of the warrior is Hradec Králové. The last major battle, in which Jan Žižka led Hussite troops before his death, was the battle at Malešov near Kutná Hora in the summer of 1424. The Holy Cross coalition of moderate Hussites and Czech Catholics wanted to eliminate the influence of the Hussite radicals headed by Jan Žižka. The coalition really had a bad day at Malešov. In one of the bloodiest battles of the Hussite period, Žižka troops crushed the enemy's army very convincingly. Later, a legend was told that the victory was to a large extent helped with a launching of wagons fully loaded with stones down the hill against the oncoming army. Whoever comes to the monument of battle must admit that probably no wagon, fully loaded, would be able to gain speed from such a mild hill. Jan Žižka reached the top of his power. There was no one able to challenge him. In September 1424, Žižka appeared with his troops in front of Prague. As a revenge for betrayal leading up to the battle at Malešov, furious Žižka wanted to plunder out the city. Prague preacher Jan Rokycana convinced him to change his mind.

The Battle of Lipany in 1434 brought the end of the long Hussite wars. Ten years after Malešov the situation turned around. The Holy Cross coalition of Czech Catholics and Moderate Hussites defeated the hard core of the Hussites. Before the battle itself, the warring parties attempted to negotiate. However, due to irreconcilable differences, the meeting failed to bring any success. The history recorded a quote of an unnamed radical Hussite: " Then we decide with our fists!". It was not a brutal force, but a military trap that caused the defeat of the radicals. The coalition troops pretended to retreat from the battlefield. The Hussites did not wait and opened their wagon walls and set off to chase the "fleeing" enemy. At that moment, the coalition troops rode in and rushed into the wagon walls. That was the end of the Hussite hope for victory. Prokop Holý died in that battle. Commanders Ondřej Keřský and Jan Čapek from Sán fled the lost battle. Only the fleeing of the latter was unjustly remembered as betrayal. The winners burned to death some 700 arrested members of the field troops in the barns of Český Brod. The defeat of the radical part of the Hussites led to an agreement with the Council, the so-called Basel Compacts, and also to the return of Emperor Zikmund to the Czech throne. Jan Roháč from Dubé led the last military resistance of the Hussites against Zikmund, at Sión Castle near Kutná Hora, but they failed. Sión was captured and Jan Roháč of Dubé, one of Žižka's commanders at the Battle of Malešov, was executed in 1437.

For a moment, we will continue listing out the battles fought in the territory of our region. At the end of the Thirty Years War, the warring parties met to negotiate in Münster and Osnabrück. At the same time, however, they did not cease to seek to strengthen or at least maintain their position in the peace negotiations. In the spring of 1645, the Swedish Army under the command of General Torstenson attempted to penetrate from Bohemia to Moravia, where the Swedes had occupied several supporting positions in previous war years. On the other side, in Upper Hungary, Emperor Ferdinand was under threat of rebellion, a Swedish ally, the prince of Rákoczi from Transylvania. At the town of Jankov, located between Benešov and Votice, the slow advancing Swedish army encountered the Emperor's army under the command of marshals Hatzeld and Götz. In the battle full of twists and turns, the victory clung to the imperial side, when the imperial cavalry bypassed and penetrated into the rear of the Swedes. Sadly, for the imperial troops, they penetrated too deeply, right into the Swedish camp. Instead of finishing the Swedish defeat, the soldiers began to pay more attention to more interesting activities - looting, plundering, and so on. They also managed to capture Torstenston's wife. For them, the battle was over. The Swedes used their absence on the battlefield and launched a counterattack. The imperial troops were crushed to the last man. They recovered all their possessions, and also the opponent's, and General Torstenson got his wife back. Marshall Gőtz died in that battle and his happier colleague Hatzeld was captured by the Swedes. The Thirty Years' War ended only three years later with the Westphalia Peace Treaty.

The development of our state was decided in the wars of the Austrian heritage around mid 18th century. In the first years of her reign, Maria Theresa forcibly defended her empire's integrity. Right at the beginning, Prussia  broke the richest Silesia away from the Habsburg monarchy. The Bavarian Prince Elector, Albrecht, was elected the Czech King. Maria Theresa defended Bohemia and in the so-called Seven-Year War from 1756 to 1763 she vainly attempted to regain lost Silesia. The Prussian King Frederick II launched the Seven-Year War and initially there were no forces to stop him. In the spring of 1757 he burst into Bohemia with his troops. In the Battle of Sterbollah, he defeated the Habsburg army and besieged nearby Prague. The army of Marshall Leopold Daun was the only rescue for Bohemia and the monarchy. On June 18, 1757, they faced the Prussian army at the Battle of Kolín. The Prussian King suffered his first defeat on that battlefield. The victorious troops drove the opponents away from Prague and thus saved the city from conquest and plunder. So much for the great battles that took place in the Central Bohemia Region. The Vltava river was a very important traffic artery before the construction of the railway and modern road network. The river was used to transport timber, beer, salt, graphite and other raw materials and products. In the 19th century, the name of the Czech industrialist Vojtěch Lanna, native of České Budějice, who lived between 1805-1866, is connected with the transport of goods along the Vltava River. Lanna was a successful businessman in many fields and sectors. It was not only water transport, he was also active in construction of bridges, railways and mining of coal and metallurgy. Jan Váňa's discovery of black coal in the Dříň area in 1846 attracted significant entrepreneurial personalities in Kladno lead by Lanna. With his partners, brothers Klein, Lanna established the Kladno Quarries and Coal Mining Company in 1848, which in the following decades opened many new mining fields in Kladno and its surroundings. In 1852, he expanded his business to the metallurgical industry. In that year, he acquired Kladno Vojtěšská iron-mill and established iron-works. A year later, in 1853, he built the first new-generation blast furnace.

The biggest prosperity of the Kladno Iron-works and Steel Industry is rightly attributed to the Poldina Iron-works (PoldihütPoldihütte). It was founded in 1889 by Karl Wittgenstein, the director of the Prague-Ironworks Company. The Iron-works produced high-quality world-famous alloy steels. The name and the corporate brand (a woman's head) came from the founder's wife, Leopoldina. After World War II, it was nationalized. Unsuccessful privatization after 1989 brought the company to bankruptcy.

Iron and steel production has close ties with railways. The construction of the first steam railway in Central Bohemia was completed in 1845. The route led from Olomouc via Pardubice to Prague. It was linked to a track built from 1839 from Vienna. The opening ceremony was scheduled for 20 August 1845, the opening of public passenger transport on 1 September 1845 and freight transport was to start a month later. The very first days of operation were marked by a tragic event. On 9 September 1845, Chief Inspector Jan Perner, who led the construction of the entire track, was returning from Moravia, by train. He kept looking out of the window to see the progress of finishing work on the track body. When the train left the Choceň tunnel (nowadays no longer existing), Jan Perner descended to the lowest step of the slow-moving train that was entering Choceň Railway Station and looked back, probably towards the tunnel. That was a fatal moment, for his head struck the pillar of the station entrance gate. He died one day later due to his severe injury, at the age of 31. Today his name is commemorated by the Jan Perner Transport University in Pardubice.

Antonín Dvořák is one of the most important natives of the Central Bohemia Region. He was born in 1841 in Nelahozeves near Kralupy nad VltavouVltavou in a family of a butcher. He became a butcher himself, at the request of his parents. For two more years, he studied music in Prague and participated in the local musical events. After a short and temporary return home, he settled in Prague. He got a viola player position in the Prague ensemble of Karl Komzák, with whom he then joined the orchestra of the Provisional Theater. As a piano teacher, he met his future wife, Anne Roza Čermáková, although originally he was courting her sister Josephine, an actress of the Temporary Theater. Besides the place of his birth, Dvořák is also connected with the Central Bohemia Region through the village Vysoká u Příbrami. In 1878, Dvořák's brother-in-law, count Václav Kounic, a lawyer and the owner of the Vysoká manor and Josefina's husband, had a small castle built near the forest with a large park and lakes, today the Antonín Dvořák Monument. The composer often frequented here as a guest of the Kounic family. In 1884, after his great success in England, he bought from his brother-in-law a plot of land with a granary, which he soon turned into a cozy rural home - the Rusalka villa. He  enthusiastically cared for his orchards, enjoyed gardening, pigeon keeping and composing. Here, he started composing, or completed more than thirty new works and edited and revised a number of earlier compositions. Among the most important ones we could name operas Dimitrij, Jakobin, Čert a Káča, Rusalka and Armida, St. Ludmila Oratorio, the Wedding Shirt Cantata, Requiem, Symphony No. 7 in D minor and No. 8 in G major, the second line of Slavic Dances, the Preludes of My Home, In Nature and Carnival, Humoreska, Symphonic Poems Vodník, Polednice, Zlatý kolovrat, Holoubek, Bohatýrská píseň... The success of Dvořák's compositions - Moravian duets, Slavonic dances and especially Stabat mater brought the author the opportunity to work in England. In June 1891, during his fifth trip to England, Dvořák received Honorary Doctorate from Cambridge University. And it was not the last award. Already in 1890, he was elected a full member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts and in 1891 he received an honorary doctorate from Cambridge and received an honorary doctorate of philosophy at the Czech University in Prague. At the same time he became a professor of composition, instrumentation and studies of forms at the Prague Conservatory. In 1892, he accepted an offer to be the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. His ninth symphony in E minor with the subtitle "From the New World" is the most famous work composed during his stay there. The emperor appointed him and Jaroslav Vrchlický members of the Vienna House of Commons. At the end of his life he held the post of artistic director of the Prague Conservatory. He died in Prague on May 1, 1904.

From Dvořák's admiration for technology, especially locomotives, it is just a short journey to another story from our region. In 1895 in Mladá Boleslav, two partners - mechanic Václav Laurin and the book-maker Václav Klement, started to manufacture Slavia bicycles. A few years later, in 1899, they started to manufacture motorbikes and succeeded in various international competitions. Laurin and Klement wanted more success, and in 1905 they made their first car - Voiturette A. That vehicle soon ensured the company a stable position on the gradually evolving international vehicle market. The production has expanded considerably, and soon its size exceeded that of a family enterprise. In 1907, the founders transformed the company into a joint stock company. In the twenties of the last century, the company needed to secure the support of a strong industrial partner. Therefore, in 1925 they merged with Škoda Plzeň, which also meant the end of the separate brand Laurin & Klement. In the following years, the production was modernized, which at that time included besides cars also various types of trucks, buses, aircraft engines and agricultural machinery. In 1991, Volkswagen got a stake in the company.

Škoda become the largest exporter of the Czech Republic

Southwest of Mladá Boleslav, in the middle of forests and sandstone rocks you can find Kokořín. The castle is known for its romantic reconstruction at the beginning of the 20th century. Originally, it was a Gothic castle founded in the first half of the 14th century by Hynek Berka from Dubé. The last private owner, J. Špaček, rescued the castle from falling into the state of complete desolation. He became rich thanks to his horse rental business with the Austrian postal service. He could therefore finance a costly rebuilding of the castle. Supervision was led by leading experts of that time - the writer Zikmund Winter and historians, Čeněk Zíbrt and Augustin Sedláček.

In 1887 Konopiště estate, near the town of Benešov, was bought by the nephew of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I and the successor to the throne, Franz Ferdinand d'Este. There were major changes made to the estate. The new owner's goal was to turn the chateau into a quiet but representative residence. The archduke banned all traffic around the castle with the aim to transform the area into an extensive landscaping park. Of course, all the operating buildings like the yard with barns and granaries, and the sugar refinery were closed, the administrative building, the brewery and the distillery were relocated to Benešov, all in order not to disturb the chateau master and his family. The chateau building itself underwent construction modifications. Overall, the exterior of the chateau on the southern side was reminiscent of the Renaissance chateau residence of the north-Italian type, while on the other three sides it gained the appearance of a medieval fortress. The successor to the throne entered an unequal marriage with the "mere" countess Zofia Chotková, which brought major complications to his life. For example, before the marriage, he had to give up his future children's throne succession rights. Both spouses died on 28 June 1914, in Sarajevo, where they attended military maneuvers. Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. Gavrilo Princip, the  17-year-old Serbian assassin, obviously aimed primarily at Ferdinand, the representative of the hated Austria-Hungary, but because he was a clumsy shooter, he shot Zofia too. The whole assassination actually succeeded only thanks to several incredible coincidences. This, however, did not prevent it from serving as a reason for the opening of the First World War. Not far from Benešov, in the southeastern part of the Central Bohemia Region near the town of Vlašim, there is a legendary hill Blaník, rising 638 m above sea level. The legend says that when the worst times hit Bohemia, the miraculous Brunclík's sword would emerge from Charles Bridge in Prague, and catching fire it will turn to where the mountain Blaník lies. Then, with three strikes, the sword will summon Prince Wenceslas, who sleeps with his cavalcade inside the mountain, and then the sword will descent to the surface of the Vltava River and will disappear forever with a final hiss. The significance of Blaník as a legendary mountain was stronger mainly in busy and turbulent times in our history. For example, in May 1868, a stone was removed from the mountain to be put in the foundations of the National Theater building. And in 1868-1771, great camps of the people took place at the summit of Blaník for the enforcement of Czech stateship rights, which would have meant strengthening of the state status of the Czech lands in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. However, all the effort of the participants associated with their steep climb up to Blaník failed to bring the desired result. Improvement of the statehood, and indeed radical, only came in 1918 with the birth of Czechoslovakia. Today, a wooden lookout tower in the shape of a Hussite signal tower stands at the top of the hill, dating back to the early 1940s.

If we can generalize, then a typical Czech landscape would be the one present in the paintings of Josef Lada (1887-1957). The native country was the theme and the main model for his drawings. The painter and writer comes from Central Bohemian Hrusice, where he located the story of his famous tomcat Mikeš and his buddies. The village of Hrusice is located near the place where the D1 motorway overcomes the river Sázava, which is quite close to Prague. The dominant feature of the village and of Lada's pictures is the church of St. Wenceslas, originally from the first half of the 13th century. The local pub became famous as it was pictured in a painting called the Pub Fistfight. Lada's collection of paintings is extensive. He created some 15,000 drawings, illustrated 200 books, 40 of which he also wrote. He gained worldwide fame as an illustrator of Hašek's Good Soldier Švejk: The highlights of his work that capture the life of the village throughout the year include the Months, the Christmas and Easter cycles, and many others. Last but not least, Josef Lada was the author of scenes, acts and costumes for the plays performed at the National Theater. Lada's native village opened his memorial exhibiting his drawings, illustrations and many personal items.

The village of Lány lies west of Kladno. Since 1918, the Lány chateau is owned by the state. There is also an extensive game park that belongs to the chateau. Until 1921, the chateau was rebuilt to become the summer residence of the presidents of the Republic, following the design of Josip Plečnik, the exclusive architect of Tomáš Garik Masaryk. The president resided permanently in Lány even after his abdication in December 1935. By the Act of the National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic no. 232/1935 Coll. of 21 December 1935 on State Honor to the First President of the Czechoslovak Republic, T.G. Masaryk, he received the right to use the chateau for the rest of his life out of gratitude and recognition for his "liberation and state forming effort". At the same time, the law stated that he shall continue receiving the presidential salary. TGM died at the Lány Chateau on 14 September 1937.

The writer and playwright Karel Čapek (1890 - 1938) used to visit TGM at Lány, and not only because of his book Interviews with TGM. He also became a Central Bohemia citizen, because after marrying actress Olga Scheinpflug in 1935, the writer and clerk Václav Palivec donated the newlyweds as a wedding gift the right of use of the Empire House in Staré Hutě near Dobříš. For the following three years, Karel Čapek devoted himself to modifications of the house and the garden. In Strž, as he named his summer residence, Čapek wrote literary works, such as the Journey to the North, the White Disease, the First Party, the Mother, the Life and Work of Composer Foltýn. Here, he also received a number of personalities of Czech culture and politics, especially in the turbulent summer of 1938. At present, the house serves as the Karel Čapek Memorial. Čapek's warning of dictatorship and totalitarianism proved rational, as the events that followed shortly after his death show - the disintegration of Czechoslovakia and the subsequent occupation of the Czech lands by Germany. To respond to the rising oppression and terror by the Germans, the London foreign resistance decided to send paratroopers to Bohemia. On 27 May 1942, the Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich was seriously injured on his way from his home in Panenské Břežany to the office. The assassination was carried out by the paratroopers, especially Jan Kubiš and Josef Gabčík with the help of the home resistance. Despite intense medical care, Heydrich died of the injuries on 4 June 1942. As part of the drastic retaliation measures taken by the German occupation authorities, K.H. Frank ordered the complete destruction of the Lidice village in Central Bohemia. The gestapo in Kladno suspected Horak's family of participating in the resistance movement, because their son was a member of the Czechoslovak army in the UK, but the German investigation into the link with resistance did not confirm anything.

At that time, Lidice had 503 inhabitants. On 10 June 1942, the Germans burst into the village. There were 173 Lidice men shot in the garden of Horak's farm. Women and children were transported to Kladno, but after three days they were violently separated from each other. The children were separated - besides those singled out for allocation to German families and babies up to one year of age, the rest of the children were killed using exhaust fumes in specially modified vehicles in a Polish extermination camp in Chelmno. The women were sent to the concentration camp in Ravensbrück. Nothing was to be left to remind of Lidice. The houses were first burned and then completely destroyed by a plastic explosive, including the St. Martin Church. All landscaping was completed in 1943. There was only an open flat countryside left where Lidice used to be. Ležáky village near Chrudim had the same fate. The Lidice destruction report has swept the world. However, the intention of the Nazis to eradicate the Czech village from the surface of the world failed. In honor of Lidice, many communities around the world were renamed to Lidice. Many newborn girls at that time were called Lidice. After the  liberation in 1945, the Czechoslovak government publicly promised to restore the village. In the summer of 1947, the foundation stone of the new Lidice was placed 300 meters from the original village. At the same time, a memorial and a museum were built. A total of 340 Lidice citizens fell victims of Nazi murdering. Upon the end of the war, 143 women survivors returned to their homeland, and after a two-year search also 17 children.

In 1942, an SS training grounds were set up in Neveklov and Sedlčany area. The inhabitants of this region had to move out. The Konopiště Chateau also became a part of the military grounds and housed the SS Staff. After the war, people could come back, but often to villages damaged by training shooting. The war events later echoed in the search for the so-called Štěchovice treasure. The village of Štěchovice lies north of the former SS training grounds and these military units allegedly at the end of the war hid the "treasure" somewhere in the village. Already after the war, the US Army discovered boxes with documents in Štěchovice and took them away. After the protest of the Czechoslovak government, the US authorities returned the files. There are people who still believe that Štěchovice hides more yet undiscovered "treasures". There were more military training facilities spread across the Central Bohemia Region. At present, the Czech Armed Forces continue to use only Jince training grounds in Brdy in the southwestern part of the region. Milovice - Mladá, northeast of Prague, was probably the best known military training area. It is mainly associated with the stay of the occupation forces after 1968. The very "history" of the grounds, however, begins already during Austria - Hungary in 1904. Gradually, the grounds hosted the armies of Austria, Czechoslovakia, then the Third Reich (for example, General Rommel trained German troops here before their deployment to Africa) and again Czechoslovakia. Soviet Union troops were the last to operate here. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact troops in 1968, the training grounds were taken over and used by the Soviet Army. Gradually, around 100,000 people lived here - soldiers and their family members. With their departure in April 1991, Milovice - Mladá military training facility was closed. The only thing "left to finish" is the elimination of the consequences of military activity, especially unexploded ammunition and the decontamination of the the soil and groundwater.

Apart from the treasure, the above-mentioned village Štěchovice is also known thanks to the dam built on Vltava in 1939 - 1945. The dam was used to construct the first large water pumping power plant at Homole Hill. It was commissioned in 1947 and after the reconstruction of 1990s it has continued to produces electricity till present days. Vrané was the first large Vltava dam, built in 1930-1935. The system of the Vltava cascade later enhanced with the Slapy dam, completed in 1954, Lipno was put into operation in 1959, Kamýk and Orlík were completed in 1961. Completion of the Vltava waterworks system was highlighted and glorified as one of the successes of the Czechoslovak national economy.

On the contrary, the construction of motorways definitely did not belong to such successes. The first section of the motorway in Czechoslovakia lead from Prague to Mirošovice, it was 21 kilometers long and was put into operation on 12 July 1971. Prague and Brno received a motorway link only in 1980. However, project and preparatory works had been prepared already before the Second World War. The construction of the motorway itself was inaugurated on 2 May 1939, on the third kilometer of the future route at Průhonice. As early as August 1939, construction works were in full swing on eight stretches, and works started on five additional stretches, but the war had stopped the work for a long time. By the end of the 1950s, traffic density had grown and soon exceeded the level just before the war. The existing road network was inadequate. In 1963, a road network was identified for preferential modernization, and the shape and extent of the motorway network was defined too. In 1967, the construction of the D1 Prague - Brno motorway was started for the second time. The motorway was completed 40 years later than originally planned.

Finally, a few words about the Central Bohemia Region and its rather recent establishment. Constitutional Act no. 347/1997 Coll., On the creation of higher territorial units, decided on the structure of the territorial and self-governing organizational units. This law created the current administrative regions. The law came into effect on 1 January 2000. Another Act no. 129/2000 Coll. of 12 April 2000, On the regions, provided content to the new regional structure. In November 2000, the first elections to the regional representative assemblies were held, and from 1 January 2001 all provisions of the Act became effective. A number of other laws regulate the powers and activities to be performed by administrative regions.

So, that was shortly about the history of the Central Bohemia Region.