Hradec Králové

Hradec Králové (hrä`dĕts krä`lôvā), Ger. Königgrätz, city (1991 pop. 99,917), N central Czech Republic, in Bohemia, on the Elbe (Labe) River. It is an industrial center known for the manufacture of musical instruments. Founded in the 10th cent., it was a leading town of medieval Bohemia. It suffered heavily in the Hussite and Thirty Years wars. The town became a Roman Catholic bishopric in 1653. The city has a 14th-century Gothic cathedral, a 14th-century town hall, a 17th-century baroque palace, and two huge marketplaces from medieval times. There is also a medical institute (founded 1946). The battle of Sadová (1866), also called the battle of Königgrätz, was fought in the vicinity.

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Hradec Králové 

a city in Czechoslovakia, in the Czech Socialist Republic; the administrative center of East Bohemia. Population, 66,700 (1968). It is a major transport junction and center of machine building. The city manufactures equipment for the chemical, gas, sugar, and distilling industries, and produces motors, boilers (to a large extent for export), photographic supplies, garments, furniture, and pianos. There are enterprises of the food industry. It has institutes of medicine and pedogogy.

Hradec Králové has a Gothic cathedral (1306), a Jesuit church in the baroque style (1666), and 20th-century buildings by the architects J. Kotár and J. Gočár.