City Conglomerates in the Czech Republic

Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis – Geographica, Vol. 48, No. 1-2, 2019, pp. 5–24 5 CITY CONGLOMERATES IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC 1 Robert Szmytkie 1 University of Wrocław, Institute of Geography and Regional Development, Department of Human Geography, Plac Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław, Poland [email protected] Abstract The main purpose of this article is to identify city conglomerates which function in the settlement system of the Czech Republic and to present their typology with reference to the characteristics of their form of settlement and their functional and spatial structures. This paper is comprised of two principal parts. The fi rst part discusses the issue of city conglomerates in the context of the discourse regarding polycentric urban forms, and attempts to organize the terminology applied to city conglomerates and double towns in particular. The second part raises the issue of urban incorporation within the Czech Republic, with a particular focus on the causes underlying the loss of administrative independence. Against this background, seven towns with the characteristics of double towns, i.e. city conglomerates that contain within their borders two settlements with their own urban pasts and characteristics, have been identifi ed. Four of the identifi ed double towns (Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav, Frýdek-Místek, Sedlec-Prčice and Veselí nad Lužnicí-Mezimostí nad Nežárkou) have a twin layout, in which their parts have similar functions and represent competing centres (focal centres of similar rank). The other three double towns (Bohumín, Hranice-Drahotuše, Kutná Hora-Kaňk) have a satellite (monocentric) layout with the constituent parts of varying degrees of importance, regardless of their functional type (the larger town is usually several times larger than the smaller one). Key words: city conglomerates, double towns, polycentric urban forms, administrative changes of cities, Czech Republic. INTRODUCTION Uhříněves and Zbraslav in 1974). However, similar processes also occurred in smaller cities such In the 20th century, several dozen towns in the as Ostrava (which incorporated Mariánské Hory, Czech Republic lost their administrative autonomy Přívoz, Slezská Ostrava, Svinov and Vítkovice), and became part of another city, usually larger, in Brno (Husovice and Královo Pole), Olomouc their vicinity. In the majority of cases, the underly- (Hodolany and Nová Ulice) and Liberec (Horní ing administrative decision was a consequence of Růžodol, Rochlice and Vratislavice nad Nisou). the spatial development of the larger “neighbour”, and triggered or intensifi ed spatial and functional Towns were also subject to changes in administra- transformations, both of which resulted in the tive boundaries as they incorporated surrounding incorporated locality becoming an integral part villages, and this sometimes involved even small (district) of the urban settlement that expanded its towns or townlets (městys). In these cases, changes borders. The highest number (16) of urban locali- were often made somewhat prematurely or without ties was incorporated into Prague, which saw rapid regard for the direction of spatial development, growth in the 20th century (Libeň in 1901, Břevnov, hence the constituent settlements rarely integrated Bubeneč, Karlín, Košíře, Královské Vinohrady, into a single, coherent urban organism and thus Nusle, Smíchov, Vršovice, Vysočany and Žižkov in the larger space remained a de facto conglomerate 1922, Modřany in 1968, Horní Počernice, Radotín, of several separate settlements. Accordingly, they AUPO Geographica Vol. 48 No. 1-2, 2019, pp. 5–24 6 City conglomerates in the Czech Republic may be considered as city conglomerates (Szmytkie METHODS 2009). The combination of the terms “city” (a settlement having an urban status) and “conglomerate” The fi rst stage of the research involved the iden- (a form created from the combination of varying tifi cation of city conglomerates which function parts) is an accurate representation of the nature of in the urban network of the Czech Republic. The this group of urban forms. The term “conglomer- fi rst requirement was to determine the criteria that ate” is used in geology and physical geography to distinguish city conglomerates from other spatial denote sedimentary rocks made from rock clasts forms of cities. The specifi city of conglomerate cit- cemented together by a binding material. In the case ies is expressed in the separateness of their constit- of city conglomerates, their constituents are settle- uent parts, which can be considered from different ments and the binding material is the administrative aspects (e.g. spatial, functional or as local communi- decision which contributed to their merger. ties functioning within the city), or in the preserva- tion of the individual character of settlements (now Such forms are particularly prevalent in countries that parts of the city). The distinctiveness of the units have undergone frequent territorial division changes which form city conglomerates was determined on at the local level, particularly in Germany and Poland, the basis of three basic criteria: the function of the which both have around 24 city conglomerates, e.g. settlement in special divisions (as a basic settlement Albstadt, Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Ebersbach-Neugersdorf, unit, as part of the municipality and/or the cadas- Oranienbaum-Wörlitz, Zeulenroda-Triebes in Ger- tral area), their spatial separation and the character many and Boguszów-Gorce, Czerwionka-Leszczyny, of their population changes since incorporation – Jelenia Góra, Kędzierzyn-Koźle in Poland (Szmytkie signifi cant population growth usually leads to the 2009). City conglomerates also exist in other Euro- transformation of the original spatial structure, sig- pean countries, e.g. Knokke-Heist in Belgium, Koht- nifi cant depopulation and loss of urban character la-Järve in Estonia, Charleville-Mézières in France and (see Szmytkie 2009). Vysoké Tatry in Slovakia. In the Czech Republic, most of the 592 urban localities have incorporated some The second stage of the research covered the typo- basic settlement units (základní sídelní jednotka) with logy of identifi ed city conglomerates in relation to a rural character within their borders. However, only the character of the settlement form and functional a few incorporated settlements have an urban past. structure. The character of the settlement form was determined on the basis of the proportional size of The main purpose of this article is to identify city con- former towns included in particular city conglom- glomerates which function in the Czech Republic’s erates (expressed in terms of the population) and settlement system, and to present their typology with their hierarchy in the settlement system, in reference reference to the character of their settlement form, to the territorial division units which function in the as well as their functional and spatial structures. This Czech Republic. On this basis, units are divided paper is comprised of two principal parts. The fi rst into three hierarchical categories: municipality with part discusses the issue of city conglomerates in the extended powers (obec s rozšířenou působností – context of the discourse regarding polycentric urban obec III. stupně), municipality with an authorized forms and attempts to organize the terminology municipal authority (obec s pověřeným obecním applied in respect of city conglomerates, in particular úřadem – obec II. stupně) and municipality (obec – double towns, used in the literature. The second part obec I. stupně). To determine the functional types raises the issue of urban incorporation/integration of settlements, the method proposed by Jerczyński processes in the Czech Republic, with a particular (1977) was used. According to this method, which is focus on the causes underlying the loss of admin- based on the analysis of the Ossan triangle in order istrative autonomy. Against this background, seven to present the proportions of employment in three towns with the characteristics of double towns, i.e. main sectors of the economy (agriculture, industry city conglomerates containing two urban settlements and services), 10 functional types of settlement can within their borders, have been identifi ed. be distinguished. AUPO Geographica Vol. 48 No. 1-2, 2019, pp. 5–24 City conglomerates in the Czech Republic 7 This paper uses the available cartographic materials (relative to a baseline region) interaction between Geoportál ČÚZK (ČÚZK 2010) and statistical data them and each having a specialized economic published by the Czech Statistical Offi ce (CZSO structure. 2014; Růžková and Škrabal et al. 2006). Champion (2001:664) suggests that there are three THEORETICAL BACKGROUND basic defi nitions for a polycentric urban region, varying in how restrictive they are: Because of the nature of city conglomerates (which are urban settlements containing two or more locali- • a collection of settlements in a region (least ties with their own urban past), they should be treated restrictive); as polycentric urban forms. Polycentricity may be con- • as above, but with some interaction between sidered on different scales of reference. Hall (2009) settlements; distinguishes four levels on the polycentricity scale: • as above, but each centre has a specialist func- intra-urban or local scale, regional scale, national scale tion within the region (most restrictive). and continental scale. In turn, Davoudi (2003) divides polycentric forms into: intra-urban scale, regional

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