Castle of Prague

The Castle of Prague (in Czech: Pražský hrad , word-with-word: “castle praguois”) is the strong Château where the Czech kings, the emperors of the Saint Germanic Roman Empire, the presidents of the Czechoslovakia then of the Czech Republic sit or sat. The crown jewels of Bohemia are stored there. It is perhaps the largest strong castle by its surface; it extends indeed on 570 meters from length and 130 broad.

Located on the hill of Hradčany and dominating the Old city of Prague and Malá Strana, this monumental unit emerges from a crown of gardens and roofs and deploys its long horizontal frontage from where spout out the towers of the cathedral and of Saint-Georges.

Hrad or Hradschin?

In Czech, hrad means “borough” or “fortress”. One finds, in the Slavic languages, this word in other forms like gorod , grod , grad , horod in the toponyms of Hradec Králové (the royal city), Volgograd (the city of the Volga), Novgorod (the new city), Oujhorod (the city on Ouj), Grodna, etc

The Hradčany ( Hradschin in German) indicates the district of the Castle of Prague which dominates Malá Strana (the Small District, in the south of the Castle) and Staré Město (the Old city, on Eastern bank opposite the Castle). It comprises many churches and of Renaissance palates and baroque, the noble ones seeking the proximity of the capacity. By Métonymie, Hradschin often indicates the Castle itself.

This article describes the history and the monuments of the only Castle.

Beginnings

The Castle of Prague occupies a Oppidum, hill naturally strengthened of which natural defenses are reinforced by the presence of the Man, inhabited as of the Neolithic . Archaeological excavations revealed the presence of a habitat of the Culture of twisted ceramics and age of copper. In any event, it should have been waited until the Années 1980 to cancel the belief until the Notre-Dame church, founded shortly after 885 by Bořivoj, announces the first tangible trace of the man on this naturally strengthened place. This belief, this myth will say one, is not neutral since it associates the preeminence temporal of the Czechs with the Castle, symbol of the capacity, which dominates, of its imposing mass, the capital, Prague and consequently the Bohemia, denying by consequence, a possible franque presence (thus German) on the spot. Let us recall that one of the first historical sources concerning the Czechs mention that they chose for king Franc, Samo.

In 1928, the archeologist Ivan Borkovský discovers, under the third court of the Castle, fall it from a warrior richly equipped (iron sword, chops, arc, quiver and arrows, razor and shield of wood) dating from second half of the 9th century, proof that an elite is present there before with the duke Spytihněv, the Přemyslides do not make their stronghold of it.

Always it is that the first hard copy concerning the Castle is the fact of Cosmas of Prague, a monk who writes the Chronica Boemorum shortly after the An millet and mentions that “formerly” a pagan furnace bridge placed at the highest point of the oppidum. On this site, a church is built by Venceslas, it is dedicated to Saint Guy, patron saint of the Saxons, thus signing the political orientation, cultural and nun of the Czech State being born. Insofar as the pagan furnace bridge mentioned by Cosmas were, always according to this last, devoted to Žiži, a goddess whose name evokes the life ( život in Czech), it is not interdict to also see, in this dedication of the first cathedral of the sovereigns of Bohemia with Saint Guy ( Vitus in Latin, name which refers to vita , “life”), a gesture impresses Syncrétisme.

The ducal palate then royal of Přemyslides

The site of the Castle present of natural defenses, from the steep slopes towards Malá Strana in the south and the Pit with the Stags in north which make an easily justifiable place of it. Only the western face goes up soft inclined towards Hradschin. Spytihněv made there dig a deep of 30 meters and broad ditch of 24 at the place of current the First Court and place of Hradschin. A drawbridge defends the access of the Castle which is in addition surrounded by a wood palisade. A paved street joined the western doors and east.

The Saint-Georges cloister

Towards 925, under the reign of Vratislav I {{er}}, a second church is built, it is dedicated to Saint Georges and is used as principal church of the Castle until in 973. It is a Romance church with a nave, directed East-West in the general axis of the Castle. It is surmounted by two towers located at the level of the chorus. In 973, a Couvent Bénédictin is assistant for him. Boleslav II undertakes thereafter a total rebuilding of the church which comprises from now on three naves. It is used as funeral vault for the members of the reigning dynasty. Spytihněv II associates to him two towers built on the level of the chorus.

Well later, the Saint-Georges basilica is seen adding a frontage baroque. One gives to it, nowadays, regularly concerts of classical music whereas the contiguous cloister belongs to the national Galerie and lodges the collections of art Renaissance and baroque.

The first stone palate

In 1067, Vratislav II, then in conflict with his/her Jaromír brother, bishop of Prague, decides transfer of the ducal seat of the Castle of Prague towards that of Vyšehrad, another fortress apart 2 km as the crow flies and located at the south of the Old city of Prague on same bank as it. In spite of this decision, work does not cease therefore with the Castle, the walls of defense out of wood are replaced by walls of stone and three doors give access to it: the Black Door in the east, the White Door in the west and the Southern Door which gives a side access. It is necessary to await 1140 and the reign of Vladislav II of Bohemia so that the dukes of Bohemia decide to sit again at the Castle.

At that time, the stone is reserved for military and religious constructions. The ducal palate is thus out of wood. It is necessary to await Spytihněv II so that the first construction hones way of it the day.

Přemysl Otakar II is one of the European sovereigns most important of its time. The money mines of Kutná Hora do not have there nothing to do and they give him also the means of rebuilding the royal palace (the dukes of Bohemia have the title of king and Prince-voter of the Saint Worsens since Ottokar I {{er}}) and the fortifications: to the west, the ditch is extended and to the east, the access by the Black Door is condemned.

The imperial seat of Luxembourg

The dynasty of Přemyslides dies out with Venceslas III, died without heir. The crown of Bohemia (and the rich person mines of money of Kutná Hora) pass by alliance to Jean of Luxembourg, the son of the emperor Henri VII, which married Elisabeth Přemysl, girl of Venceslas II and sister of Venceslas III. It is especially their son, Charles IV, king de Bohème and emperor of Germany, which brings radical changes to the Castle whose embellishments reflect the golden age that Bohemia saw then. In addition to the attention paid to the construction of the cathedral, Charles IV fact of building the Vault of All-the-Saint, in the prolongation of the imperial palace, where rests holy Procope de Sázava.

The Saint-Guy cathedral

Vaults and chiefs of work of the cathedral

The stained glasses were carried out according to the drafts of the painters and the Czech engravers most famous of the moment of which max Švabinský, František Kysela, Alfons Mucha, Cyril Bouda, Karel Svolinský and well of others. The work of Mucha of style late Art nouveau represents the Legend of Cyrille and Méthode (1931). In addition to this famous stained glass, one notices the others realized for the majority in the Années 1930, and of quite different style.

The funerary vault of holy Venceslas is decorated murals representing the life of the saint on the high part and a semi-precious stone facing on the low part. She contains the tomb of the saint.

The funerary crypt of the kings de Bohême contains the tombs of Charles IV of the Holy roman Empire and its three wives, of Venceslas Ier of the Holy roman Empire and of its brother Jean de Görlitz, of Georges de Poděbrady, Rodolphe II of the Holy roman Empire and other family members imperial of the Holy roman Empire or royal of Bohemia.

The tomb silver of saint Jean Népomucène (1736) on a project of Fischer von Erlach.

The Porte of Gold is a gate with the duplicated veins which form curvilinear triangles. It is surmounted by a mosaic, works Venetian craftsmen in quartz, Calcédoine and squares of glass of Bohemia, representative the last Judgment and dating from the reign of Charles IV. Behind this mosaic the “room of the treasure is” where the crown jewels of Bohemia are stored.

The southern Tour presents a Gothic base and a roof baroque, its window median is decorated of a Renaissance grid of an extraordinary smoothness. High, one 96 m admires the panorama there on the Castle and the city.

The monumental cross of wood in the left side behind the new sacristy was carved by František Bílek in 1899.

The Rebirth habsbourgeoise

At the end of the the Middle Ages, the Castle is given up by the kings of Bohemia and emperors of the Holy roman Empire which prefers to him, in the Old city of Prague, a more modern Royal palace with the site of current the municipal Maison. It is built, in 1380, on order of Venceslas IV and is useful during one century, of 1383 with 1484, of main home to the Kings de successive Bohême, Sigismond I {{er}}, Ladislas Posthumous the and Georges de Poděbrady before Vladislas IV Jagellon does not reinstate does not equip the Castle and it with prestigious works in Gothic style blazing where starts to feel the influence of the Italian Rebirth. One thus owes him the Vladislav room, the staircase of the Riders (1500), the second court and the Louis Palate.

The room Vladislav (1486), work of the architect Benedikt Rejt, is a pure blazing example of civil architecture of the Gothic with its ogival vaults with intersected veins which did not lose their structural role not to be any more but decorative with the service of a space dynamics. The Gothic vaults contrast with the mullioned windows whose modénature is typically Renaissance.

Adjacent in the Vladislav room, the Palais Louis (1502) takes his name of the wire of Vladislav Jagellon. It will be made famous while being the place of the Défenestration of Prague (1618) which puts fire at the powders in Europe of the Reform. Under its windows, in the gardens on the rampart, two obelisks mark the place of the fall of the imperial dignitaries.

This palate of kings de Bohême is given up thereafter by Habsbourg which prefer the western buildings and the gardens in north to him. Fallen in disaffection, it was used even as warehouse.

After the large fire which, in 1541, devastation Malá Strana and part of the Castle, many buildings are to be raised; one owes with Ferdinand I {{er}} and Rodolphe II the View-point, the room of the Diet, the house of Jeu de Paume, the Rodolphe gallery and the Spanish Room. After the death of Rodolphe II, the Castle ceases being imperial residence and enters in lethargy.

The Spanish Salle ( Španělský Sal ) is famous for its imposing proportions and its decorations in gilded stucco. “The Spanish” qualifier refers primarily to the court of Rodolphe which inherits the heavy ceremonial of the court of Spain and if this room is built, it is primarily to satisfy the desires of pump and size of the emperor. All that is luxurious or “with the mode” acquires “the Spanish” statute in the imperial city which is then Prague. The Spanish Room is modified several times during the history, the last modification goes back to 1868 for the crowning of the emperor François-Joseph (who did not take place); it gave him its style néo-rococo that one knows to him from now on, work of the architects Heinrich von Ferstel and Ferdinand Kirschner.

The carries Mathias is high in 1614 on order of Mathias I {{er}} with the site of old the Rempart S. It separates the first and second court. Composed like a Roman triumphal arch, it is the only work Maniériste Castle.

The view-point of the queen Anne and gardens royal

The Palate of royal summer ( Královský létohradek ) known as also Belvédère of the queen Anne ( Belvedér Královny Ass ) is built in 1537 for Anne Jagellon, queen of Bohemia and wife of Ferdinand I {{er}}. Work of Paolo della Stella, it is the purest expression of the architecture of the Italian Renaissance in Central Europe. The ground floor is surrounded by a richly decorated loggia of which the proportions point out that of the gantries of Brunelleschi. The upper floor is a posterior addition (1569) due to Bonifác Wohlmut and shelters a ballroom under a splendid ducted roof.

The gardens of the Castle are decorated of a “singing fountain” (the water drops while falling into the bronze basins make them resound) drawn in 1568 by Francesco Terzio and carried out by the founder of Brno, Tomáš Jaroš. In the beginning, these gardens are a place of acclimatization of exotic plants, a field of fire and a reception point in the open air.

A house of the Play of palm is located there. Decorated splendid Sgraffite S on a frontage treated out of gantry, it is the work of the architect Bonifác Wohlmut (1569).

The castle baroque

The architect of French origin , Jean-Baptiste Mathey builds, about 1680, the stables which are used today as rooms of temporary exhibition.

Of 1740 with 1780, under the aegis of Marie-Therese, queen of Bohemia, Anselmo Lurago undertakes the recasting of the Castle from which the various buildings are integrated behind austere frontages baroques. The First court, known as Main courtyard, is added in front of the Door of Mathias, is delimited by a monumental grid rococo which separates it from the place of Hradčany and rythmée by statues of giants in fight, carved by Ignác Platzer. In the third court, Nicolò Pacassi builds the building known as “municipal” which faces the Cathedral.

. The king binds friendship with the prince de Rohan, Louis, emigrated with his father, Henri de Rohan after the French revolution and installed in Bohemia with the Château of Sychrov. The Bourbons remain in Prague, until May 1836.

In 1848, it is Ferdinand I {{er}} of Austria which takes the continuation of the deposed sovereigns who live the walls of the Castle: following its abdication after the Spring of the people, it chooses the Castle of Prague for residence. Last king de Bohême crowned with Prague and one of rare Habsbourg “tchécophiles” with Rodolphe II, it is affectionately called by the Ferdinand Czechs the Good ( Ferdinand Dobrotivý ) when the Austrians call it Ferdinand der Gütige (Ferdinand the Benign one) and more maliciously Gutinand der Fertige (untranslatable pun whose best approximation is Finished Béni-oui-oui). He dies there the June 29th 1875.

As of the time of Marie-Therese, one can admire this picturesque panorama which, except for the night lighting, changed very little:

The presidential palace

With the creation of the First Czechoslovakian Republic, the need for adapting the Castle to new functions is done day. It is the work of the Slovenien architect of origin, Jože Plečnik, under the presidency of Tomáš Masaryk. It conceives the new paving of the courses interior, the residence of the presidents of the Republic and reorganizes the gardens, with the manner of what, of the years later Ieoh Ming Pei did for the Louvre: in a modernity without compromising but which integrates the legacy of the past perfectly. Like Pei, Plečnik is a foreigner (he is professor-guest with the academy of the Art schools of Prague), like Pei in Louvre, he is selected on the basis of contest, as for Pei still, its esthetic choices are severely criticized on ideological bases, contrary to Pei however, Plečnik does not see all its projects carried out (its project of showroom in the stables of the Castle is born only in 1949, post-war period and under the direction of its successor, Pavel Janák).

Starting from the door giving on the First Court, Plečnik creates a hall on all the height of the building which joined the Spanish Room. It is a severe ionic peristyle with the coffered ceiling decorated with copper plates. The wall of the bottom which gives access to the Spanish Room is treated like a triumphal entry.

In the southern wing, it arranges the presidential apartments distributed around a large impluvium. Let us quote the Living room of the Ladies, the library of president Masaryk in addition to various rooms.

To avoid with the Czechoslovakian dignitaries passing under the Mathias Door, symbol of Austro-Hungarian oppression, Plečnik bore two doors of each with dimensions (one gives towards the Hall and the Spanish Room, the other towards the presidential apartments) and paving on the ground in form of “Y” (of which the foot leaves the grid of entry and the branches move towards the side doors) underlines for which would be unaware of, the space symbolic system of the court.

Gardens of Jože Plečnik

The Garden on the Bastion, with the site of an old bastion become obsolete in the north-western angle of the Castle, is articulated to connect the Spanish Room to the First Court. Plečnik compensates for the uneven one while placing a staircase with two flights, one concave, the other convex one. that the Czechs call “Totality” in reference to the totalitarian character of the mode in place, the Castle is Beautiful with wood sleeping, the dignitaries of will nomenklatura communist have an ambiguous report/ratio towards this construction which points out feudalism to them and the First “middle-class” Republic but which is not less the symbol of the authority of the State and the Czechoslovakian nation.

With the presidential apartments arranged for Masaryk, the first secretaries of the Communist party prefer the “modest” villa more that president Beneš was made build in the Royal Gardens. Some minor modifications are undertaken: in addition to the above-mentioned completion of the projects of Plečnik, an information center for foreign tourists equipped with an exchange office (one undoubtedly remembers the segregation operated between the buildings and the foreigners systematically suspected by the Communist regime) designed by the architect Mr. Firbas; the house of the Mayor of the palate ( Staré Purkrabství ), a construction Rebirth located behind the St-George Basilica, is arranged, under the direction of the architect Josef Hlavatý, to receive a Musée of the toy and to become the House of the Czechoslovakian Children ( Dům čs. dětí ) whose patio is decorated of a sculpture symbolizing Youth by Josef Vacek; the House of Jeu de Paume in the Royal Gardens is restored and accommodates a temporary space of exposure within Pavel Janák.

At that time still, the ideological Council of the Castle of Prague entrusts to the department history of the art of the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science the care to inventory and analyze what remains old royal and imperial collections stored in the reserves. Some good surprise results from this. In spite of the sale of the collections of Rodolphe II and concentration in Vienna of the majority of the parts of value of the collections habsbourgeoises, one still counts fabrics of Tintoret, Rubens, Titien, Véronèse, etc which make it possible to set up a picture gallery.

After the velvet Revolution

Following the fall of the wall and with its election like chair Czechoslovakian republic, Václav Havel, like its famous Masaryk predecessor, names Bořek Šípek, which like Plečnik at the time, is then professor with the Academy of the applied arts of Prague, under architect of the Castle. This last in the long term carries out the design of spaces of exposure of the Picture gallery of the Castle and designs the furnishing of the offices of the presidency.

In the royal garden, the construction of a news Orangerie is entrusted to the British architect of Czech origin, Eva Jiřičná.

After the Revolution of velvet, the Czechoslovakian State then Czech undertakes the restitution of the goods confiscated or nationalized by the Communist regime after the Coup of Prague of 1948. A long legal battle begins, in 1992, between the catholic hierarchy and the authorities of the State on the property (highly symbolic system) of the cathedral Saint-Guy. The Court of Appeal judge, in June 2006 that since in 1954, the communist authorities had placed the cathedral under the management of the State, the property of the cathedral formally had never been cancelled by the communist capacity. There cannot be privatization since there was not nationalization. In February 2007, the Supreme court cancels the preceding verdict of the Court of Appeal and the cathedral becomes again Czech state-owned property. Negotiations are in hand between the representatives of the State and the catholic hierarchy to find a compromise on the management of the cathedral.

Plan

This plan of 1791, drawn up by František Hegert, watch, pink dark, the Castle in the center, between Malá Strana on the left (southern) and the system of fortifications “in Vauban” on the line (northern). Between the fortifications and the Castle, one distinguishes the Ditch with the stags ( Hirsh Graben on the plan, Jelení příkop in Czech) and the royal Gardens delimited in the east (in bottom) by the View-point from the Anne queen and in north (in top) by the stables (n° 195 and 196 on the chart), in their medium, and surmounting the Ditch with the stags, the Room of the play of palm.

Cathedral, in the center of the Castle are built only the chorus and the western tower, the transept will be finished only with. But, except for the completion of the cathedral, the plan only changed very little since. In the south of the cathedral, the place of the royal castle ( Königlicher Burg platz on the plan, Královské hradní náměstí in Czech) is indicated nowadays under the term of “Third Court”, the Second Court being located at the west (in top of this one on the chart) and the First Court preceding this one.

The First Court is, as one saw, conceived with. A surmounted monumental entry of statues of Titans fights about it separates it from the place of Hradčany. The door of Matthias separates it from the Second Court. In the south, the apartments of the presidency of the Republic, in north, a wing shelters the spaces of reception conceived by Plečnik and leading towards the Spanish Room.

The Second Court presents a severe frontage baroque which encloses, to north, the Spanish Room and the Picture gallery of the Castle and a door which gives access to the bridge which spans the Ditch with the stags towards the royal stables and Gardens. In the south, the building known as “municipal” and, distinct from the surrounding wings, the vault Holy-Cross which formerly sheltered the crown jewels of the States of Bohemia and is used today as reception and information center for the tourists.

The Third Court is born, in 1541, of the continuations of the large fire which devastated the Castle, on foundations of the Romance and Gothic houses then cleared. In its north-western angle, the old one prévôté is, at the beginning, the Romance episcopal palate rebuilt with, then (in the direction of the needles of a watch) the large tower and Gold the door of the Saint-Guy cathedral, the entry of the old Palais Royal (of which the Gothic architecture is, since the place, dissimulated behind a frontage baroque) and, in the south, the building known as “municipal” which shelters various administrations of the presidency of the Republic and the Castle.

Since this one and while going along the Royal palace, one joined the place Saint-Georges ( St Georg Platz on the plan, Nádvoří sv. Jiří in Czech). The frontage of the basilica and the cloister St Georges faces the bedside of the cathedral. Between them, the Establishment of the noble ladies with its gantry with columns capped of a half-dome. It dates from the time of Marie-Therese who there founds in the Années 1750 a sewing room for the young girls of the nobility and is the work of Anselmo Lurago which then replaces the Renaissance palate of the lords of Rožmberk of which it bears still sometimes the name.

While descending the street George ( Jiřská ulice ), the oldest artery of the Castle, one observes successively:

the old palate of Burgrave (1541, arch.: Giovanni Vintura), transformed in the years 1960 of last century into Museum of the Children by the architect J. Hlavatý. One will not fail to admire there the ancestors of the toys out of wooden which swarm in the stores “for tourists” with the Old woman-City.
the Lobkowicz Palate built about 1680 by Carlo Lurago in primitive Baroque. Seen from the Old woman-City, its austere frontages frame in an ideal way with the wing thérésienne the modénature Renaissance of old the Palais Royal.
While turning towards north, one falls on very famous the Ruelle from Gold (to read below).
the Black Tower ( Černá věž ), all at the end of the street, is used since any antiquity of door as access strengthened, a beautiful weephole defends the accesses and adds of them to the picturesque one.
The latter gives on the Old Steps Ladies of the manor (word-with-word translation of Staré zámecké schody ) which go down soft inclined towards Malá Strana.

The Gold Lane

Along the northern Wall which gives on the Pit to the Stags, the Gold Lane ( Zlatá ulička ) is made of a line of miniature maisonnettes, some not higher than a man, which lean with the enclosing wall between the White Tower and the Tower of Dalibor ( Daliborka ).

In the beginning, this lane one meter was broad with maisonnettes on each side. Those were inhabited by the archers of the king, defenders of the castle. During a certain time, a female prison was there also. With time, the function of archer lost his importance. The small buildings are then inhabited by craftsmen, civils servant. Later, she is even inhabited by the poor of the city.

Incongruous in this palatine complex, the small houses of the Gold Lane symbolize perfectly the magic aspect of Prague. A tough legend is referred to it which makes of it the place of residence of the Alchimiste S of the emperor Rodolphe II (it there placed in fact his archers and expelled the poor of Malá Strana which had built huts there after the terrible fire of 1541). In the drama Král Rudolf , Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic makes say to John Dee: “I like this splendid town of Prague, single and envoûtante like his king melancholic person. Believe me, this sinister city sends a puff of madness in the brain of those which elect residence there. All the heart of the east city in this Gold Lane where Rodolphe installed the furnaces of its alchemists. One finds there condensed such a strength, such a magnetism of occult forces that one succeeds there what elsewhere failed. ” Franz Kafka lived some time there, in 1916 - 1917. It is not interdict to think that it was inspired some when he describes the castle, in its Romance éponyme like a “cluster by dilapidated and pressed small houses” the ones against the others.

The maisonnettes were transformed into stores which sell articles for the many tourists who do not fail to visit it.

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