VYSEHRAD HILL, Fortress

Hi, my name’s Scott, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the wonders of the world: the Vysehrad hill and fortress, a pleasant place for a trip outside Prague Old Town.

Legend has it that just before the year 1000, at the foot of the Vysehrad hill, Princess Libuse, founder of the first royal dynasty of Bohemia, pronounced the prophecy: “I can see a city whose glory shall reach the stars!”

As a symbolic entrance to the capital, Libuse is said to have ordered a carpenter to build a threshold (“Praha” in the ancient Bohemian language), which is where the name of the city is believed to derive from. At the same time, the queen is said to have ordered the building of a residence and a large church on the top of the hill.

Prague Castle was actually built considerably earlier than the buildings on the Vysehrad hill, but a number of Dukes of Bohemia did live here until the 13th century, when the residence was completely abandoned; it was subsequently turned into a fortress....