National Cultural Monument Vyšehrad today is a historic area, which looms atop a hill above the right bank of the Vltava River. In this large area, surrounded by walls, we can find a range of historically valuable buildings from a diferent time period, of different purpose and artistic value.
Vyšehrad is perceived as a mythical place associated with many legends of the early Czech history. It was built as a princely fort in the late 10th century and during the late 11th century it experienced its greatest glory, when it became the residence of the first Czech king Vratislav I. The so-called Vyšehrad Chapter was established with the church of St Peter and St Paul. The second wave of the fame Vyšehrad lived to see during the reign of the king and emperor Charles IV., who had renewed the area out of respect for his Přemyslide ancestors.
In the second half of the 17th century, Vyšehrad became a baroque fortress, a citadel, whose task was to guard Prague from the south. Later in the 18th century, the French army established a network of narrow underground tunnels with loopholes, called casemates.
There are many significant sights today at Vyšehrad, for example the Romanesque rotunda of St Martin, the Church of St Peter and St Paul, the remains of early Romanesque Basilica of St Lawrence, the remains of the Gothic gateway Šipka, Libuše's Bath or perhaps the Devil's column. An important monument is the burial place of meritorious Czech personalities with the central part called Slavín. Since 1962, the landscaped grounds of Vyšehrad are a National Cultural Monument.
Interesting fact:
One of the Gothic buildings that have been preserved is the external masonry of the guard bastion, called Libuše's bath. According to the romantic legend, Princess Libuše bathed there with her lovers, whom after the bath she threw off by a rock depression into the river.
