Vyšehrad with the Basilica of St Peter and Paul above the Vltava
Vyšehrad with the Basilica of St Peter and Paul above the VltavaPhoto: Tilman2007, 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Vyšehrad is a rocky promontory above the right bank of the Vltava and a cadastral area of 0.36 km² lying entirely within the Prague 2 borough. It is taken up mainly by the site of a former hillfort, castle and fortress. It has been part of Prague since 1883.[1] Vyšehrad was declared a national cultural monument in 1962.[7] The organisation National Cultural Monument Vyšehrad is established by the City of Prague.[9]*

Legends

Old legends link Vyšehrad with the seat of Krok and his daughters Kazi, Teta and Libuše, with Horymír and his horse Šemík, and with Bivoj.[1] The monument's administration points out that the story of Šemík was first recorded only by Václav Hájek of Libočany and that Krok's seat is more likely to be sought near the Berounka river.[10]

Vyšehrad rock from the west, 1903
Vyšehrad rock from the west, 1903Photo: Jindřich Eckert, 1903 · public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Hillfort and castle

The earliest reports of Vyšehrad date from the second half of the 10th century, when coins were minted at the hillfort. It is assumed to have been founded by the Přemyslids in the 9th century as a counterpart to Prague Castle on the other bank of the Vltava.[1] Boleslaus II built a stone rotunda of St John the Evangelist here.[1] In the second half of the 11th century Vratislaus II rebuilt the wooden hillfort into a stone castle with a ducal palace and made it his main seat. He established a chapter here and had the church of St Peter and St Paul built for it; references to the chapter relate to the period around 1070.[1][4] The Rotunda of St Martin is the oldest surviving church building in Prague; it probably dates from the late 11th or early 12th century, although its exact age is a matter of scholarly debate.[3]

In the 12th century Duke Soběslav enlarged the chapter church, but after his death Vyšehrad declined and Prague Castle became the centre.[1] Charles IV built a Gothic castle here with a tower gate and a new palace, and also rebuilt the chapter church.[1] In 1420 the Hussites besieged Vyšehrad. On 1 November 1420 they defeated on the Pankrác plain an army that had come to relieve the garrison; the garrison then surrendered and the Hussites laid waste to the castle.[1] In the following centuries the place was a small town of poor craftsmen in which the Vyšehrad chapter held sway.[1]

Baroque fortress

In the mid-17th century the inhabitants were moved out of Vyšehrad and the castle was turned into a Baroque fortress, part of Prague's fortifications.[1] Construction of the present fortifications was begun in 1653 by Carlo Lurago; from 1656 until his death in 1678 it was directed by Gion Decapaoli. The Leopold Gate was built by 1672.[2] The fortress was never fully completed. French troops altered the casemates in 1741–1742, further work took place in 1808–1809 and in 1838–1844, when the Brick Gate was cut through.[2] When the demolition of Prague's walls was decided in 1866, Vyšehrad was spared because it belonged to the army. The army handed it over to the city in 1911.[2][8] The casemates include the Gorlice hall with an area of 330 m², where the original statues from Charles Bridge are kept.[2]

National symbol

In the second half of the 19th century the military importance of Vyšehrad declined, and the provosts of the Vyšehrad chapter Václav Štulc and Mikuláš Karlach made it a symbol of the earliest Czech history. On their initiative gardens were planted and many buildings were given a neo-Gothic form.[8] The chapter church of St Peter and St Paul was rebuilt in 1885–1903 by Josef Mocker, and the towers were completed by František Mikš.[8][4] The towers are 58 metres high, and since 2003 the church has held the title of minor basilica.[9] The Rotunda of St Martin, saved from demolition in 1841 by Count Chotek, was bought by the chapter in 1875 and restored from 1878 to a design by Antonín Baum.[3]

The founding of the Vyšehrad Cemetery is dated to 1660, when Dean Martin Veselanský enclosed the cemetery by the chapter church with a new wall. In the 1860s the Svatobor society proposed the cemetery as a national burial ground; Václav Štulc first enlarged it in 1869.[5] More than six hundred notable figures are buried on its almost one hectare.[5] The common tomb Slavín was built in 1889–1893 by the architect Antonín Wiehl and the sculptor Josef Mauder, largely from a gift by the Smíchov mayor Petr Matěj Fischer. The first to be buried in it was the poet Julius Zeyer in 1901, and by 2013 56 notable figures had been laid to rest there.[6][5]

From the 1880s the spaces of the fortress were turned into parks; the slopes were landscaped by František Thomayer among others, and two of the parks bear the names of the provosts Štulc and Karlach.[7] After the city took it over, Vyšehrad became a place of recreation.[7]

Pages linking here

Sources

  1. Encyklopedie Prahy 2 (Městská část Praha 2) — 4 February 2019
  2. Encyklopedie Prahy 2 (Městská část Praha 2) — 30 July 2018
  3. Encyklopedie Prahy 2 (Městská část Praha 2) — 30 July 2018
  4. Encyklopedie Prahy 2 (Městská část Praha 2)
  5. Encyklopedie Prahy 2 (Městská část Praha 2)
  6. Encyklopedie Prahy 2 (Městská část Praha 2)
  7. Národní kulturní památka Vyšehrad — 20 August 2021
  8. Národní kulturní památka Vyšehrad — 20 August 2021
  9. Národní kulturní památka Vyšehrad — 28 July 2026
  10. Národní kulturní památka Vyšehrad — 29 July 2026