The following thesis addresses the process of growing old in an urban environment. It concentrates on the factors, which infulence the quality of senior citizens' lives and how they do it. The main focus is put on the city disticts that are subject to dynamic changes caused by the processes of post-socialist transformations, revitalization and gentrification. The thesis explores the problems but also the benefits, which these changes can bring to elderly citizens' every day lives. Looking for the answers to these questions is based on the case study of a city district in Prague - Karlín. The qualitative research have been done by semistructured interviews with local senior citizens. It has shown possible perception of some aspects of environment of Karlin and changes of this environment.

The aim of the thesis is to find out if then Prague quarter of Karlin has been under the process of gentrification recently. Karlin is an inner city and has been going through dynamic changes in the last thirteen years. This is not only because of post-socialist transformation but the regeneration was also accelerated by dealing with the consequences of the flood in 2002. Different census areas of Karlin are classified into three categories according to the degree of gentrification: gentrified, ungentrified and below average areas. The research is based on the results summarizing a field research which determined physical condition of the houses, the result of analyses of ownership and price levels of Karlin houses and the development of sociodemographic and economic structure. Key words: gentrification, post-socialist transformation, physical environment, sociodemographic and economic structure