Prague Castle (Czech Pražský hrad) is the second largest closed
castle complex in the world with a floor area of around seven hectares
(after the Marienburg of the Teutonic Order) and is located on the
Hradschin in the Czech capital Prague.
The castle complex was
founded in the 9th century and has since changed its appearance
significantly: generations of master builders of different architectural
styles were involved, and the individual stages of history left their
mark. It was the residence of the Kings of Bohemia, two Holy Roman
Emperors and the Presidents of Czechoslovakia. Today it is the seat of
the President of the Czech Republic. Vitus Cathedral is located in the
middle of Prague Castle.
The actual castle (hrad), the protected residence of
the ruler, encompassed the area on the Hradčany spur from its eastern
end – the so-called Opyš – to a natural moat, which in the early Middle
Ages divided the hill at the site of today's entrance gate. The central
part of the castle is called the Acropolis in research. The outer bailey
(předhradí) adjoined the early medieval main castle in the west. The
likewise densely populated area of today's Lesser Town, which belongs to
the castle, is called Suburbium (podhradí).
The development of
Prague Castle in the early and high Middle Ages can be divided into four
phases A–C, from the 9th to the 12th century, based on archaeological
finds and finds, according to the main stages in the construction of the
fortification. In the third phase, however, only different, not
necessarily simultaneous conversions of the fortification B1 from the
second phase were made, which is why they are called B2-Bx.
The oldest written mention of Prague Castle is the
message about the founding of the Church of St. Mary by the first
historically documented Přemyslid prince Bořivoj before the year 885.
However, the central and eastern part of the spur was already before the
construction of the oldest wooden Earth fortifications and the onset of
written sources at the end of the 9th century and secured by a 4 m wide
ditch running across the spur, which survived under the northern part of
the later transverse main fortification. Probably the ditch was
accompanied by a fence. The natural protection of the spur included its
slopes, which were probably accompanied by a simple wooden
fortification, such as a palisade, and a transverse ravine at the site
of today's entrance to the castle complex. The oldest settlement phase,
which began in the middle of the 9th century at the latest, was ended by
the construction of the wood-earth wall in the first two decades of the
10th century (before 908-917) at the latest.
St. Mary's Church,
which was rediscovered to the west of the main fortifications, was also
founded during this phase. A direct relationship between the
fortification and the church, however, has not been archaeologically
proven.
During the first large-scale conversion, a wood-earth
wall, i.e. a 5 and 6 m wide grate construction filled with clay, was
erected with a stone front panel, which could be excavated at several
places in the castle. This type of construction was known in the Great
Moravian Empire and at the same time or later also in Bohemia, but it
was also widespread on the entire eastern flank of the Frankish Empire,
i.e. also in central Germany and north-eastern Bavaria. Contrary to what
was initially assumed by Borkovský and other archaeologists, it is not a
question of a lighter fortification between the main castle and the area
known as the western bailey, but the expansion of the wall meant a
fundamental change in the Přemyslid residence. According to
dendrochronological analyses, the oak beams in the front wall were
felled and installed between the second half of the 9th century and the
first third of the 10th century, but no later than 917.
Thus, one
can hypothetically relate the structure of the mighty fortification to
Bořivoj (ie before 890). More likely, it was his successor Spytihněv
(895-915) who expanded the castle into the Central Bohemian center of
the Přemyslids. Relations with the Great Moravian Empire or Svatopluk's
Great Moravian interlude (890-894) could have exerted an influence.
Even today, it is often assumed that before Prague Castle was built,
Levý Hradec Castle had a central function and that it is to be regarded
as the direct predecessor of Prague Castle in terms of the residence
function. According to the latest archaeological investigations and the
processing of the old finds from both castles, however, this must be
questioned, so that Prague Castle was probably the center of Přemyslid
rule from the beginning.
The second church building is St. George's Basilica (Bazilika svatého Jiří), donated by Prince Vratislav I (915-921) before 920 in the eastern part of the castle. As a third sacred building, the St. Vitus Rotunda was built at the beginning of the 930s, perhaps at the suggestion of Prince Wenzel I (921-935). The foundations of the two important ecclesiastical institutions in the two parts of the central area probably belong to the castle fortifications from around 900.
Further written reports on the fortification of the
castle are only available for the time of the reign of Břetislav I
before 1055.
In some places under the north wing, III. The castle
courtyard and the old royal palace could be identified in different
phases of reconstruction of the castle fortifications. The younger wall
was much wider (up to 12 m) and more variable in construction, but
mostly also designed as a wood-earth wall or a similar construction.
What is striking, however, is the use of a larger number of stones in
the body of the wall. A 650 cm wide stone wall without any other
structural elements was found on the northern slope of the mountain
spur. The change in the construction form of the younger wall on the
north slope to a dry wall made entirely of stone is so clear that it is
probably not just a local change, but a major conversion. There is no
evidence of such a stone wall on the southern slope. For the more recent
fortifications on the southern slope, the wood found in situ has been
dendrochronologically dated to the 890s to the first third of the 10th
century; the youngest wood was felled after 921. The youngest of the
pieces of wood from this context recovered and preserved during earlier
archaeological investigations dates after 939. However, the youngest
annual rings of these pieces of wood in particular were no longer
preserved, so that the final felling date of the trees may also be
somewhat later. The more recent additions, especially the stone wall,
can therefore hypothetically be linked to a more extensive
reconstruction plan, which in turn can be linked to reports of an
extensive reconstruction of the fortifications before 1055.
The
transfer of the seat of rulers to Vyšehrad
The prince and first Czech
king Vratislav II moved his residence from Prague Castle to Vyšehrad
around 1070, probably due to power disputes with his brother Bishop
Jaromír. However, the castle remained the seat of the bishops of Prague.
large-scale Romanesque conversion to a stone
castle took place under the reign of Soběslav I in 1135, parallel to the
expansion of Vyšehrad. Soběslav probably returned to Prague Castle at
the end of his reign, but his successor Vladislav II (1140–1172) at the
latest. During this time, a 3 m wide ashlar wall was erected.
Accordingly, in research it was mostly given the names Romanesque Wall
(románská hradba) or Soběslav Wall (soběslavská hradba).
The
expansion of the castle under Charles IV in the middle of the 14th
century
In 1303 the castle was destroyed by a devastating fire and
the royal residence remained unused. With the accession of the
Luxemburgers to the Czech royal throne in 1310, a new important stage in
the history of the castle began. Charles IV had the castle rebuilt in
1333 during the reign of his father John the Blind. First, the royal
palace was redesigned again. Eleven years later, on his efforts, the
diocese of Prague was elevated to the status of an archbishopric. Then
in 1344 the new construction of St. Vitus Cathedral (chrám Svatého Víta)
began.
Already under his son Wenzel IV the interest in the castle
died out again. He had a new royal court built at the eastern exit of
the old town, to which he moved in 1383 and which served as the
residence of the Bohemian rulers until 1484. South of Zeltnergasse
(Celetná) stood the Queen's palace not far away. Another small Gothic
castle for Wenceslaus IV was built from 1380 on a ledge above the Vltava
bank west of the parish church of St. Wenceslas of Zderaz (Kostel sv.
Václava na Zderaze) in Prague's New Town. A third of several of the
king's castles was the Nový hrad u Kunratic Castle (also in German:
Wenzelstein Castle), which is also located in the city of Prague today.
After the Luxembourgers died out and a short Habsburg
interlude, the Jagiellonians, who had already provided the Polish kings
and were soon to win the Hungarian throne as well, inherited them. Under
Vladislav II Jagiello, King of Bohemia since 1471 and also of Hungary
from 1490, the Renaissance found its way into Central Europe. The castle
was expanded and the court moved back from the royal court in the old
town to the castle a year after the Prague uprising of 1483.
From
1490/1493 to 1502, master builder Benedikt Ried built the Vladislav
Hall, probably the most important Renaissance hall building north of the
Alps. It was placed on the high medieval hall of the royal palace and
the Romanesque ground floor was thus demoted to the second basement
(cellar). It is an attractive mixture of Renaissance parts and late
Gothic elements such as the elaborate ribbed vault that spans a huge
room. With this vault, the heaviness of the room is lifted and the
character of the room is transformed into a playful lightness of form.
Such sling ribs were widespread in Europe and as a result can also be
found in the parish church of Weistrach. Furthermore, Prague Castle
consists of portals and extraordinarily large windows with Renaissance
profiles, which are among the earliest examples north of the Alps
(inscriptions dated 1493). Only the much younger hall construction of
the Munich Residence (1568-71), the so-called Antiquarium, is
comparable.
The last medieval heyday lasted until the death of
his son Ludwig II in 1526. In 1541 the castle was again destroyed in a
major fire. Under the art-loving Emperor Rudolf II, who held court in
the Hradschin surrounded by scholars and artists from 1583 until his
death in 1612, the castle experienced its last heyday before the Thirty
Years' War.
In the 16th-century Ludwig wing is the room from whose
windows the governors of Emperor Ferdinand II were thrown in 1618. This
Second Prague Defenestration marked the beginning of the uprising of the
Bohemian Protestants against the Catholic Habsburgs and is often
referred to as the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. At the end, while
the peace negotiations were still going on, Christina of Sweden arranged
for the art theft in Prague. For 400 years, the palace was one of the
Habsburgs' centers of power.
The 18th and 19th centuries
The
entrance courtyard was rebuilt between 1753 and 1775 by Nicolo Pacassi
for Maria Theresia. Emperor Ferdinand I lived here in the 19th century
after handing over the government to his nephew Franz Joseph in 1848. At
other times, the imperial palace functioned as barracks.
Prague
Castle in the 20th century
After 1919 the castle was rebuilt into the
seat of the President of the Czechoslovak Republic, changing the levels
of the castle courtyards and their paving. On behalf of President Tomáš
Garrigue Masaryk, the prominent Slovenian architect Josef Plečnik was in
charge of the adaptation and transformation works.
In this
context, the first systematic medieval archaeological investigations in
Bohemia were carried out by K. Fiala and Karel Guth in 1925-1929. The
excavations were continued by Ivan Borkovský from the 1930s. Rescue
excavations in the 1980s and 1990s led by Jan Frolík brought new
insights and led to the supplementation of previous ideas about the
beginnings and development of the early medieval fortification system
and often to their revision. In recent years, the excavations that have
been going on since 1925 have been intensified by a team of
archaeologists.
With 1.8 million visitors per year (as of 2014), the
castle is the most visited monument in the Czech Republic. It can be
reached from Lesser Town via the Old Castle Stairs (to the east
entrance), the New Castle Stairs and Neruda Alley (Nerudova) (both to
the west entrance).
The castle complex includes, grouped (from
west to east) around three courtyards, George's Square and Georgigasse /
Jířská, in addition to the President's premises:
the Gothic St. Vitus
Cathedral with the royal crypt in the inner courtyard
the baroque
royal palace in the second courtyard
the Romanesque St. George's
Basilica (sv. Jiří) with the Adam and Eve towers on George's Square
the Old Royal Palace with the Gothic Vladislav Hall in the third
courtyard
the baroque Holy Cross Chapel, which once housed the
cathedral treasury, in the second courtyard
the baroque castle
gallery in the second courtyard with works by Rubens, Titian and others
the Mrákotín Monolith, an obelisk commemorating the victims of World War
I next to St Vitus Cathedral in the first courtyard
the
fortifications on the northern edge of the castle area with the Mihulka
Tower in Gothic and Renaissance styles and the Gothic towers White Tower
and Daliborka
the Golden Lane (Zlatá ulička) surrounded by these two
towers with Gothic and Renaissance houses, where Franz Kafka temporarily
lived in house No. 22 in 1917
the Black Tower to the east
the
baroque Matthias Gate (Matyášova brána) from 1614 in the second
courtyard
Šternberský palác (Sternberg Palace) with works from the
National Gallery on Jiřská (Georgigasse)
Theresian noble women's
convent in the former Palais Rosenberg, founded in 1753 by Maria
Theresia
Palais Lobkowicz, private museum with part of the art
collections of the princely family on Georgigasse near the east entrance
Around the castle are the gardens of Prague Castle.
Queen Anna's
Pleasure House (Letohrádek královny Anny), also known as the Belvedere,
was built in Renaissance style between 1538 and 1560 in the eastern
corner of the Royal Garden by Emperor Ferdinand I. In front of the
summer house stands the bronze Singing Fountain built by Tomáš Jaroš in
1564-1568.