Slavín - Prague, Czech Republic
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ToRo61
N 50° 03.872 E 014° 25.121
33U E 458395 N 5545967
Vyšehrad Cemetery and Slavín
Waymark Code: WM163ZZ
Location: Hlavní město Praha, Czechia
Date Posted: 04/29/2022
Views: 7
Vyšehrad [EN: "upper castle") (
visit link) is a historic fortification, castle and fortress in Prague, on a rock above the right bank of the Vltava River on the southern edge of the historic city, in the Vyšehrad district. In the Vyšehrad Cemetery with a Slavin near the Church of St. Peter and Paul, important Czech personalities are buried.
The place is associated with many historical legends and myths (e.g.
The story of Libuše and Premysl (
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"Vyšehrad national burial ground was established upon an impulse of provost Václav Štulc in the 1870s in place of an old Vyšehrad cemetery dating back to 1660. There already was a cemetery in this place in 1260. Its current appearance dates back to 1869 and it is one of the most significant Prague cemeteries. It spreads over 0.81 hectares. Antonín Barvitius designed the marble tombs on the Southern and the Eastern sides of the cemetery and Antonín Wiehl designed the arcades, which have been built according to the Italian style around the border of the cemetery. The cross vault of arcades decorated with paintings is carried by Tuscan pillars of sandstone. The main path leads through the cemetery towards Slavín, a mass-tomb of the national giants. The idea of building a mass tomb came from the Svatobor association in 1862, and it was headed by František Palacký. Slavín was built in 1889 - 1893 according to a project of architect Antonín Wiehl. Sculptural decorations are the work of Josef Mauder from 1892 - 1903: there is a sarcophagus above the central monument of Slavín, and an allegoric winged figure of the Genius Patriae. There are two statues on the sides of the monument, being the Mourning country on the left side, and the Victorious country on the right. On the front side of the monument, there are three panels bearing the names of the first fifteen persons buried at Slavín. The first was poet Julius Zeyer in 1901, who is the author of the verses on the pedestals of the statues on the side: Its sons’ dust this mourning country returns to the earth, Their deeds it will, rejoicing, declare to all mankind. Above the panels with names, there is an inscription of the Slavín motto: “Though dead, they still speak.”
Source and more information: (
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