A fortress on a rock above the Vltava, older than the castle in legend and younger in fact, with the national cemetery and almost no tourists.
The legend and the history
Czech legend puts the founding of Prague here: Princess Libuše standing on the rock, prophesying a city whose glory would touch the stars, and sending men to find a man building a threshold — práh — from whom the Přemyslid dynasty descended.
The archaeology is less romantic. Vyšehrad was fortified in the tenth century, later than the castle, and was a royal seat only briefly under Vratislav II in the eleventh century and again under Charles IV, who made it the starting point of the coronation route.
The Hussites destroyed it in 1420. The Habsburgs rebuilt it as a baroque artillery fortress in the seventeenth century, which is the brick and earth structure you actually walk on.
What is there
The Basilica of St Peter and St Paul, neo-Gothic twin spires visible across the city, with an extraordinary Art Nouveau painted interior — every surface covered in pattern, done between 1902 and 1903. It is the least-known great interior in Prague.
The Vyšehrad Cemetery and Slavín, the national burial ground. Dvořák, Smetana, Mucha, Čapek, Ema Destinnová and around 600 others. The Slavín tomb holds the collectively honoured. It is small, immaculate, and full of Art Nouveau sculpture.
The ramparts, which are the point. The walk along the southern and western walls gives the best view in Prague — the Vltava bending below, the castle upstream, the railway bridge, and the modern city beyond.
The casemates, brick tunnels inside the ramparts leading to the Gorlice hall, where six of the original Charles Bridge statues are stored. Guided visit only.
The Rotunda of St Martin, eleventh century, one of the oldest buildings in Prague.
The Devil’s Column, three stone pillars in the grass with an implausible story about a wager between a priest and the devil.
Why come
Because it is empty. Prague’s centre receives an enormous number of visitors and Vyšehrad receives very few, despite being fifteen minutes from the Old Town by metro. Locals bring children, dogs and beer here on a Sunday, and it is the easiest place in the city to see Praguers rather than visitors.
There is a beer garden by the ramparts with the river view.
Practical
The grounds are free and open long hours. The individual attractions are cheap and separately ticketed.
The approach from Výtoň is a steep climb; from Vyšehrad metro it is flat.
Combine it with a walk north along the river to Náplavka, the embankment where the farmers’ market and the bars are.
More History
St Vitus Cathedral
Six hundred years under construction and finished in 1929, with a Mucha window, the Bohemian crown jewels behind seven locks, and Wenceslas's chapel.
Josefov, the Jewish Quarter
Six synagogues, a cemetery with twelve layers of graves, and a collection that exists because the Nazis intended to make a museum of an exterminated people.
Strahov Monastery Library
Two baroque library halls of painted ceilings and gilded shelving, and a cabinet of curiosities including two whale penises and a narwhal tusk sold as a unicorn horn.