Moravia
Moravia
Morava | |
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Moravia (green) overlapped with the current regions of the Czech Republic | |
Location of Moravia in the European Union | |
| Coordinates: 49°30′N 17°00′E / 49.5°N 17°E | |
| Country | Czech Republic |
| Regions | Moravian-Silesian, Olomouc, South Moravian, Vysočina, Zlín, South Bohemian, Pardubice |
| First mentioned | 822 |
| Consolidated | 833 |
| Former capital | Brno (1641–1948) Brno, Olomouc (until 1641), Velehrad (9th century) |
| Major cities | Brno, Ostrava, Olomouc, Zlín, Jihlava, Znojmo |
| Area | |
• Total | 22,348.87 km2 (8,628.95 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• Total | 3,000,000 |
| • Density | 130/km2 (350/sq mi) |
| Demonym | Moravian |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Primary airport | Brno-Tuřany Airport |
| Highways | |
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Moravia (Czech: Morava [ˈmorava] ⓘ; German: Mähren [ˈmɛːʁən] ⓘ) is a historical region in the eastern Czech Republic, roughly encompassing its territory within the Danube River's drainage basin. It is one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The medieval and early modern Margraviate of Moravia was a crown land of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown from 1348 to 1918, an imperial state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1004 to 1806, 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 five lands of Czechoslovakia founded in 1918. 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.
Its area of 22,623.41 km2 is home to about 3.0 million of the Czech Republic's 10.9 million inhabitants. The people are historically named Moravians, a subgroup of Czechs, the other group being called Bohemians. The land takes its name from the Morava river, which runs from its north to south, being its principal watercourse. Moravia's largest city and historical capital is Brno. Before being sacked by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War, Olomouc served as the Moravian capital, and it is still the seat of the Archdiocese of Olomouc. Until the expulsions after 1945, significant parts of Moravia were German speaking.