High Castle Vyšehrad

Vyšehrad means in Czech 'High Castle'. Vyšehrad was the seat of the first Premyslid sovereigns. It seems that its origins date back to the tenth century. At that time, it was built in the south of the future city to rival the Prague Castle, guarding the north side of the town. The Castle Vyšehrad knew moments of glory and development (from the XIth century), afterwards a long period of decline in the mid-twelfth century. In the seventeenth century, the whole area became a baroque fortress. Nowadays, we can walk through the park, and enjoy the beautiful panorama of the city and the Vltava river which are below. The most important monuments of Vyšehrad include the Romanesque Rotunda of St. Martin from the eleventh century, later rebuilt in the nineteenth century. Another impressive monument is the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, with its twin towers that are typical and inseparable part of the Prague panorama. The church began to be built in the second half of the eleventh century. Later, it became Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, and the last renovations date from the nineteenth century, today it looks like neo-Gothic. Next to the church, a cemetary began to grow, already in medieval times. In the second half of the nineteenth century, it was transformed into a monumental cemetery, where the best representatives of the Czech culture are buried, eg. writers, poets, musicians, painters, sculptors and many other important personalities. We can mention the writers Karel Čapek and Jan Neruda, composers Antonín Dvořák and Smetana Bedřich, among others.