River · Czechia
Vltava
The Vltava is the longest river in Czechia. It rises in the forests of the Šumava mountains, flows north through Prague and joins the Elbe at the town of Mělník.
Picture credit: Mattsjc (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Mattsjc (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Mattsjc (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is the Vltava?
The river starts here: Bohemian Forest (Šumava) in south-western Czechia.
It ends in the the Elbe at Mělník.
Countries on the river: Czechia.
The story behind it
The Vltava starts as two small brooks, one of them so tiny that you could dam it with your hands. It grows quickly, fills a chain of huge reservoirs behind dams, and turns their water into electricity. In Prague it flows under the famous Charles Bridge, past swans, rowing boats and stone statues, and every visitor takes a photo there. A Czech composer named Bedřich Smetana wrote a piece of music that follows the river from spring to city, and children in Czechia still learn it at school. Otters hunt in quiet backwaters, kingfishers flash blue over the surface, and pike wait under the banks. In 2002 a terrible flood put whole districts of Prague under water, so new barriers were built to protect the old streets.
Questions children ask
How long is the Vltava?
The Vltava is about 431 km long. Where it meets the Elbe it is in fact the longer of the two rivers.
Which country does the Vltava flow through?
The Vltava flows only through Czechia. It links the southern forests with the capital Prague and the northern lowlands.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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