Moravia

Lore & Background

The medieval and early modern Margraviate of Moravia was a crown land of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown from 1348 to 1918, not a direct imperial state of the Holy Roman Empire, a crown land of the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1867, and a part of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. Moravia was one of the historical lands of Czechoslovakia founded in 1918, but it was not a separate 'land' in the same administrative sense as the others. In 1928 it was merged with Czech Silesia, and then dissolved in 1948 during the abolition of the land system following the communist coup d'état. Olomouc served as the Moravian capital until it was sacked by the Swedish army in 1642, after which the capital was moved to Brno; Olomouc remains the seat of the Archdiocese of Olomouc. Until the expulsions after 1945, significant parts of Moravia were German speaking.

Reader's Guide

Moravia occupies most of the eastern part of the Czech Republic. Moravian territory is naturally strongly determined as the Morava river basin, with strong effect of mountains in the west and partly in the east. Moravia borders Bohemia in the west, Lower Austria in the southwest, Slovakia in the southeast, Poland for a short distance in the north, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Its natural boundary is formed by the Sudetes mountains in the north, the Carpathians in the east and the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands in the west. The Thaya river meanders along the border with Austria. Today Moravia includes the South Moravian and Zlín regions, the vast majority of the Olomouc Region, the southeastern half of the Vysočina Region and parts of the Moravian-Silesian, Pardubice and South Bohemian regions. The highest peak is Praděd (1491 m). The region's border closely follows the watershed of the Morava river, so almost the entire area is drained by that single stream; the Morava's biggest tributaries are Thaya (Dyje) from the right and Bečva from the east. Small peripheral parts of Moravia belong to the catchment areas of Elbe, Váh and especially Oder.

Did You Know?

• Moravia's name comes from the Morava river.
• The German name for Moravia is Mähren, from the river's German name March.
• The Venus of Dolní Věstonice, the oldest ceramic figure in the world, was found in Moravia.
• Moravia's lowest point (148 m) is at the confluence of the Morava and Thaya rivers.