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Vysehrad Review

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Vysehrad

Fodor's Review:

Bedrich Smetana's symphonic poem Vysehrad opens with four bardic harp chords that seem to echo the legends surrounding this ancient fortress. Today, the flat-top bluff stands over the right bank of the Vltava as a green, tree-dotted expanse showing few signs that splendid medieval monuments once made it a landmark to rival Prague Castle.

The namesake of Vysehrad, or the "High Castle," is Vratislav II (ruled 1061-92), a Premyslid duke who became the first king of Bohemia. He made the fortified hilltop his capital, but under subsequent rulers, it fell into disuse until the 14th century, when Charles IV transformed the site into an ensemble of palaces, the main church, battlements, and a massive gatehouse called Spicka, whose scant remains are on V Pevnosti ulice. By the 17th century royalty had long since departed, and most of the structures they built were crumbling. Vysehrad was turned into a fortress.

Vysehrad's place in the modern Czech imagination is largely thanks to the National Revivalists of the 19th century, particularly writer Alois Jirásek, who mined medieval chronicles for legends and facts to glorify the early Czechs.

Traces of the citadel's distant past can be found at every turn, and are reflected even in the structure chosen for the visitor center, the remains of a Gothic stone fortification wall known as Spicka, or Peak Gate, at the corner of V Pevnosti and U Podolského Sanatoria. Farther ahead is the sculpture-covered Leopold Gate, which stands next to brick walls enlarged during the 1742 occupation by the French. Out of the gate, a heavily restored Romanesque rotunda, built by Vratislav II in the 11th century, stands on the corner of K Rotunde and Sobeslavova. It's considered the oldest fully intact Romanesque building in the city. Down Sobeslavova are the excavated foundations and a few embossed floor tiles from the late-10th-century Basilika svatého Vavrince (St. Lawrence Basilica). The foundations, discovered in 1884 while workers were creating a cesspool, are in a baroque structure at Sobeslavova 14. The remains are from one of the few early-Medieval buildings to have survived in the area and are worth a look. On the western side of Vysehrad, part of the fortifications stand next to the surprisingly confined foundation mounds of a medieval palace overlooking a ruined watchtower called Libuse's Bath, which precariously juts out of a rocky outcropping over the river. A nearby plot of grass hosts a statue of Libuse and her consort Premysl, one of four large, sculpted images of couples from Czech legend by J. V. Myslbek (1848-1922), the sculptor of the St. Wenceslas monument.

The military history of the fortress and the city is covered in a small exposition inside the Cihelná brána (Brick Gate), but the real attraction is the casemates, a long, dark passageway within the walls that ends at a dank hall used to store several original, pollution-scarred Charles Bridge sculptures. A guided tour into the casemates and the statue storage room starts at the military history exhibit; it has a separate admission fee.

With its neo-Gothic spires, Kapitulní kostel svatých Petra a Pavla (Chapter Church of Sts. Peter and Paul, K rotunde 10. 224-911-353) dominates the plateau as it has since the 11th century. Next to the church lies the burial ground of the nation's revered cultural figures. Most of the buildings still standing are from the 19th century, but scattered among them are a few older structures and some foundation stones of the medieval palaces. Surrounding the ruins are gargantuan, excellently preserved brick fortifications built from the 17th to the mid-19th century; their broad tops allow you to take in sweeping vistas along the riverbank. The church is open daily from 9 to noon and 1 to 5, with an admission charge of 10 Kc.

A concrete result of the national revival was the establishment of the Hrbitov (cemetery) in the 1860s, adjacent to the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. It filled the fortress with the remains of luminaries from the arts and sciences. The grave of Smetana faces the Slavín, a mausoleum for more than 50 honored men and women including Alfons Mucha, sculptor Jan Stursa, inventor Frantisek Krizík, and the opera diva Ema Destinnová. All are guarded by a winged genius who hovers above the inscription ac zemreli, jeste mluví ("Although they have died, they yet speak"). Antonín Dvorák (1841-1904) rests in the arcade along the north wall of the cemetery. Among the many writers buried here are Jan Neruda, Bozena Nemcová, Karel Capek, and the Romantic poet Karel Hynek Mácha, whose grave was visited by students on their momentous November 17, 1989, protest march.

  • Cost: Grounds and cemetery free, casemates tour 30 Kc, military history exhibit 10 Kc, St. Lawrence Basilica 10 Kc
  • Open: Grounds daily. Casemates, military history exhibit, and St. Lawrence Basilica Apr.-Oct., daily 9:30-5:30; Nov.-Mar., daily 9:30-4:30. Cemetery Apr.-Oct. daily 8-6; Nov.-Mar. daily 8-4
  • Metro: Line C: Vysehrad

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