Prague 14 is one of the 57 districts of Prague, on the north-eastern edge of the city, on the land of the historic villages of Kyje, Hloubětín and Hostavice and the Černý Most I and II housing estates.
Prague 14 is one of the 57 districts of Prague. It lies on the north-eastern edge of the city, on land that includes the former villages of Kyje, Hloubětín and Hostavice, together with the Černý Most I and II housing estates. The administrative district of Prague 14 also includes the district of Dolní Počernice.[1]
History
The district of Prague 14 was created on 18 November 1994 from the earlier district of Praha Kyje and from part of the territory separated from Prague 9. This followed Resolution No. 41/14 of the Prague City Assembly of 23 June 1994.[2]
Hloubětín became part of Prague in 1922. One of the oldest mentions of Hloubětín dates from 1257.[1]
Kyje was joined to Prague in 1968, as was Hostavice.[1]
Parts of the district
Černý Most consists entirely of prefabricated panel housing. Černý Most I, with roughly 1,780 flats, was completed in 1980. Černý Most II has been built in stages since 1985 and is expected to hold about 7,270 flats once its fifth phase is finished. Together with the Černý Most shopping and entertainment centre and an IKEA store, the development fills the space between Kyje to the west and Horní Počernice to the east. The town hall of Prague 14 is housed in two panel blocks in Černý Most I.[1]
Prague 14 administers about two thirds of the cadastral area of Hloubětín, namely Nový and Starý Hloubětín, Za horou, the Lehovec estate and the Hloubětín estate.[1]
Housing in Kyje consists, with few exceptions, of family houses, in the quarters of Hutě and Rajská zahrada north of Chlumecká Street, and in Lehovec, Nad rybníkem, Aloisov, Staré Kyje and Jiráskova čtvrť in the central and southern part of the cadastral area. The Laktos and Coca-Cola production sites and the remote Jahodnice estate also belong to Kyje in cadastral terms. Kyje is the site of the Romanesque Church of St Bartholomew, which, according to the district's official website, is the oldest building in the whole of Prague 14 and appears on its coat of arms.[1]
The cadastral area of Hostavice comprises the original village of Hostavice and its quarter Jahodnice, which arose after 1925 as a villa colony for First World War legionaries south of what was then the Vienna road, today Českobrodská Street. Family houses predominate in Hostavice. The Jahodnice estate, built at the western edge of old Jahodnice, already belongs to Kyje in cadastral terms.[1]
Population
According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, Prague 14 had 53,587 inhabitants on 1 January 2023, of whom 14,080 were foreigners with temporary or permanent residence.[1] Elsewhere the district's official website gives about 40,000 inhabitants; according to the same source, the housing is a mixture of family houses and prefabricated blocks.[2]
Coat of arms and flag
Prague 14 has had its own coat of arms since 1997. When its design was decided, the winning proposal was the one showing symbols from the district's history.[2]
The coat of arms has a shield divided vertically. In the red field on the heraldic right is a stylised view of the west front of the tower of the Church of St Bartholomew in Kyje, a gallery-type church; the tower is silver, built of ashlar, prismatic, with a golden hipped roof topped by two golden finials. In the left field is the emblem of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star: a red eight-pointed Maltese cross above a six-pointed star on a black field.[2]
The right field stands for Kyje, and the tower recalls the oldest building there. According to the description of the arms, the church was consecrated to St Bartholomew by Bishop John II of Prague between 1226 and 1236. The left field stands for Hloubětín, and the emblem of the order recalls the time when Hloubětín belonged to it. In 1238 Queen Constance gave the village of Hloubětín to the newly formed hospital brotherhood, from which the first knightly order founded in Bohemia developed; the pope granted its badge in 1252.[2]
The district's flag consists of three stripes of equal width. The upper yellow stripe stands in for the gold of the roof of the Romanesque church in Kyje shown on the right of the arms, the middle black stripe matches the colour of the order's emblem on the left of the arms, and the lower stripe is red.[2]