Abstract
The text considers the role of the river, particularly on flooding, in determining the urban structure of a town. Using the 2002 flooding of Prague as a casestudy, an assessment is made both from the perspective of how the responsible institutions had prepared for the impending natural calamity and from the perspective of how the press relayed the events.
Questions arise about the extent to which floods and flood control can enter into a town's cultural heritage, and whether a flood can attain symbolic significance; more specifically, what symbols are construed as connected to the Prague flood.