PRAGUE CASTLE - VYŠEHRAD around the year 1000

River valley from the south with Prague Castle (in the background) and Vyšehrad. From the left, slopes of Petřín can be seen, below the fortified settlement of Prague there is already a developed settlement around the castle with a marketplace (Lesser Town). The Prague Castle is accessible through three gates – from the west from what is later Hradčany and Pohořelec, from the east through the part of Opyš and from the south through a gate in the tower from the settlement around the castle. At the castle, you can already see fortification towers, the roof of the oldest Church of the Virgin Mary, the building of the Bishop’s residence, the Rotunda of St. Vitus, the princely palace, St. George’s Nunnery with a basilica and dwellings of princely retinue members. Vyšehrad, originally called Chvrasten, was a newly built fortified settlement with sanctuaries (Chapel of St. John the Evangelist and the predecessor of the Chapel of St. Lawrence) and a mint. During the Polish occupation and after it (after 1003), it was the residence of Prince Jaromír (1003 - 1012). Over the precipice into Vltava River, behind walls of wood and clay, there is a princely palace, the Rotunda of St. Bartholomew and a gate for incomers from south and east Bohemia. Both castles were still wooden but whitewashed, so the walls and buildings looked as if they had been bricked “of stone and lime”.