Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
than an hour, the Protestant forces of the “Winter King” Frederick of Palatinate were roundly
beatenbytheCatholictroopsoftheHabsburgEmperorFerdinandII.Asamoreorlessdirect
consequence,theCzechslosttheiraristocracy,theirreligion,theirscholarsand,mostimport-
antly, the remnants of their sovereignty. There's nothing much to see now, apart from the
small monument (
mohyla
), and a pilgrims' church, just off Nad višňovkou. This was erected
by the Catholics to commemorate the victory, which they ascribed to the timely intercession
of the Virgin Mary - hence its name,
Panna Maria Vítězná
(St Mary the Victorious).
Another attraction here is watching the planes coming in to land at nearby
Václav Havel
Airport
- Bílá hora is right under the flight path and jets swoop in low over the hill on their
approach to the runway.
Břevnovský klášter
Markétská 1 • Guided tours Sat & Sun: April-Oct 10am, 2pm & 4pm; Nov-March 10am & 2pm • 80Kč •
brevnov.cz
• Tram #22 to Břevnovský klášter
The idyllic Baroque monastery of
Břevnovský klášter
was founded as a Benedictine abbey
by Boleslav II and St Adalbert, tenth-century bishop of Prague. The myth goes that they
met when walking in the forest at a place where a beam (
břevno
in Czech) served as a foot-
bridge across a stream. It was given the full Baroque treatment in the eighteenth century by
bothChristophandKilianIgnazDientzenhofer,andbearstheircharacteristic interconnecting
ovals, inside and out. They also built the church of sv Markéta, one of the finest chunks of
Baroque finery in the capital.
Popmuseum
Bělohorská 150 • Wed & Thurs 4-8pm, Sat 2-6pm or by arrangement • 80Kč • 776 141 531,
popmu-
seum.cz
• Tram #22 to Břevnovský klášter
Close to the Břevnovský klášter, on the opposite side of Patočkova, is the compellingly ob-
scure
Popmuseum
. Here, you can sit down and listen to a whole load of scratchy recordings
and bootlegs of Czech bands from the late 1950s' and 1960s' heyday of Czech underground
rock (
bigbít
, as it's known in Czech), when, against the odds, the locals fought for the right
to party. There's a vast array of memorabilia on display, from old tickets and promo material
to a
Daily Mirror
article on Manfred Mann's 1965 Czech tour, and a home-made amp called
Samuel, so famous (in Czechoslovakia) it had a band named after it. You can also try out
their ancient Czech electric guitars and instruments.
Smíchov
Historically,
SMÍCHOV
is a late nineteenth-century working-class suburb, whose skyline is
pepperedhereandtherewithsatanicchimneys-fewofwhichnowbelchsmoke.Itwashome
(until recently) of the Tatra factory that produced trams for the Communist bloc, and still
