town guide mělník

1Town Guide Mělník

Looking at all the tourists to our venerable Mělník, making their way through the town, not knowing where to go and what to see and not knowing the many monuments and wonderful sites of which our town has so many to boast, I decided to write this „guide“...

From whichever side we approach Mělník we see from afar how it is perched pictur-esquely on a pretty hill top. Its majestic church tower is visible not only from the Petřín look-out tower but also from Milešovka, Ještěd, Bezděz and other elevated places in the northern half of our kingdom.

A major factor in Mělník’s picturesque quality is the fact that it towers above the con-fluence of our country’s largest rivers: the Elbe and the Moldau, which are now joined bya third waterway - the Hořínsko-Vraňanský lateral canal.

The charming situation is supplemented by the gardens, parks, groves and vineyards that surround Mělník, the last of which has given the town our world renown as the source of the acclaimed and celebrated Mělnik wine.

The various sights and monuments that our town shelters in its womb, now most re-cently accompanied by the modern Hořínské canal lock, attract ever more visitors, who look at and delight in everything with the enchanting view of the wider surroundings, and cannot bear to leave our town and its wine.

B. Marjanko: Picturesque guide to Mělník and its surroundings, 1906Even today the words of this one-hundred-year-old guidebook to the town of

Mělník could form the beginning to a guide to the former royal dowry town. The visi-tor is still greeted by the tower of the Church of St. Peter and Paul, even if the town’s triangular silhouette, with the highest point located in the tower cross, is no longer so prominent due to the spreading building work. We find the vineyards in a rather wid-er ring from the historic core, in which, however, we have many opportunities to sam-ple Mělník wine, just as P. D. Bartoloni did, subsequently writing about the experience in his Chvalozpěv na mělnické víno (Eulogy to Mělník wine) (1694): “... let’s hurry on without stopping – to drink my excellent Mělník wine...” We can sit back and relax in the observation point and enjoy the view of the horizon with the legendary Říp hill, or a little further away to the peaks of the Czech Central Mountain Range. And if our gaze dips beyond the vineyard below under the hill we see the point at which the two largest Czech rivers meet, to which attaches itself a lateral canal, an entirely new structure in the time of B. Marjanko, although now already a technical monument.

It is precisely the observation point that makes our town unique, although there are many other points of interest in a tour of the city, which while it may not be large in size has more than a thousand years of history. So let’s set off and have a look at it.

Introduction

2 Town Guide Mělník

HistoryMělník – a town associated with the earliest days

of the Bohemian state, a dowry town of Bohemian prin-cesses and queens

The historic core of Mělník, the medieval walled town, developed on the site of the original fortified set-tlement, perhaps called Pšov, whose fortification is re-corded from archaeological research from the ninth century. With the wedding of the first historically evi-denced Czech prince Bořivoj in 875 to Ludmila, daugh-ter of Prince Slavibor, Pšov passed under the control of the Přemyslids. It became one of the points of supports along the perimeter of their central Bohemian domain and later one of the centres of the system of castles, and therefore of the administrative organization built up at the end of the tenth century by Prince Boleslav II. His wife Emma had coins minted here – denars, which bear her name (Emma Regina) and the Mělník designa-

tion (Civitas Melnic), con-firming the change in thetown’s name. Her person-al mint is not the only evi-dence of Emma’s singu-larity. Another is the manuscript Grumpold’s legends of Saint Wence-slaus, which the princess had illuminated at the beginning of the elev-enth century by the re-nowned Fulda school of artists, and on whose firstpage Emma herself is shown paying homage to Saint Wenceslaus. Some are also of the opin-ion that it was at Emma’s instigation that the capit-ular chapter was founded at the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Mělník, one of the oldest in the Czech lands. Its first recorded provost was Šebíř (Severus), to whomCosmas dedicated his chronicle Chronica Boemorum (1125). And perhaps it’s from Emma’s time that the tra-dition stems of Mělník being a dowry town for Czech princesses and queens.

Mělník is first referred to as a town in the charterof King Přemysl Otakar II. of 25 November 1274, in which the ruler grants Mělnik a privileged share of trade along the Elbe. The town also held a host of other rights (e.g. the right to exclusive privileges over the production and sale of beer, the brewing of beer, the right to capital punishment, the right to

hold a market, the right to use the Pšovka stream, the privilege of the inalienability and non-confiscationof town goods). In 1449 the town obtained the right to decide on its matters itself through aldermen headed by the burgomaster. The previous magistrate’s house was changed into the town hall.

At this time the town was emerging from the dis-ruption of the Hussite wars, when in 1421 it joined the side of the moderate Prague population and as the only town alongside Catholic Pilsen took part in de-feating the camps and Taborites of the Calixtin-Catho-lic coalition at the battle of Lipany on 30 May 1434. During the wars the Mělnik chapter was dissolved and the town became Utraquist; several assemblies and congresses of the Utraquist party were also held here (1438, 1439, 1442).

The town won renown in the first half of the six-teenth century due to its viticulture, the beginnings of which here go back as far as the ninth century, al-though the conditions for its real development were created in the time of Charles IV (1346–1378), who had a grapevine brought to Mělnik from Burgundy and es-tablished a special au-thority to protect the vineyards. Charles IV also proclaimed Mělník to be a royal dowry town in perpetuity. Mělník was the seat of Kunigunde of Hungary, wife of Přemysl Otakar II, Elizabeth of Bo-hemia, wife of John of Luxembourg, who in 1322 gave birth here to a son Jan Jindřich, later Mar-

History

Aerial view of Mělník – the boundary of the original town in the town walls is visible

Denar of Princess Emma (around the year 1000)

Town sealing-stick from the beginning of the 14th century


grave of Moravia, Elizabeth of Pomerania, wife of Charles IV, Sofia, wife of Wenceslaus IV, Barbora Celská,wife of Sigismund of Luxembourg, Johana of Rožmitál, wife of Jiří of Poděbrady, who died in Mělník in 1475 and was buried here. Their seat was the castle, original-ly Romanesque, later Gothic, which from the sixteenth century began to be transformed into a chateau. This was first mortgaged to and then owned by aristocraticfamilies, of whom the most important were the Berka of Dubá family, the Černín family and the Lobkowicz family.

The first half of the seventeenth century, with theevents of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) brought the town much hardship. Mělník was a moderate support-er of the Estates Uprising (1618-1620), giving loans to the directors, recognising the election of Frederick the Winter King), but was still punished with confiscationsof property. A period of re-Catholicisation ensued, causing its populace in 1628 to be predominantly Cath-olic. Mělník had to endure hostile military incursions, particularly of Saxons and Swedes, was ravaged by devastating fires (1646, 1652, 1681), and the Black

Death (plague). The church, chateau and town hall were all damaged, the school, hospital, church land, fortificationsand oth-er buildings, while fields,and uncultivated vine-yards were devastated.

The seventeenth cen-tury, with its wars of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and the Seven Year War (1756-1763) caused

the town significant damage, although it was worst af-fected by the fire in 1765, which destroyed 42 housesincluding the town hall and the Capuchin monastery. This was followed by another phase of the town’s Ba-roque transformation.

The town’s development took off in the first half ofthe nineteenth century, during the unfolding of the na-tional movement, whose main proponents in Mělník were the teacher Josef Věnceslav Vlasák and the dean Antonín Hnojek, while the Mělník theatre also played its role. The actual development of civic life became possible with the fall of Bach´s absolutism, a period of political oppression (1859). Clubs and associations sprang up, some of which were particularly active, for example the Choral Society (1862) or Sokol (1868).

In 1850 Mělník became a district town with all the relevant institutions based there – the district execu-tive authority, police station, court. A precondition for economic development was the building of a railway line (North Western Line) connecting the town (1874), and in 1888 the construction of a bridge across the

Elbe, while at the end of the nineteenth century a ship-ment area was created which was later to become a dock. Financial institutions were also founded. The second half of the nineteenth century also saw the de-velopment of vocational and high schools. Still today there exists the fruit and vintner’s school, whose foun-dation in 1885 reflected the growing interest in viticul-ture. Agricultural production was also oriented on growing and refining sugar beet and in 1869 the sugarfactory, for long the only industrial enterprise in the town, started operations.

Following the declaration of an independent Czech-oslovak Republic (1918) others began to appear in the Mělník vicinity in communities which in 1923 were an-nexed to Mělník (Pšovka, Mlazice, Rousovice). The town began to develop promisingly, systematically and pro-fessionally led by the newly created construction ad-ministration (1926) led by J. B. Zelený. Residential build-ing was expanded to take in the villa quarter, municipal technical facilities were built (water-supply system, sewerage system), the streets were repaired, new pub-

History

Czech translation of the charter from Přemysl Otakar II. of 25 November 1274

The Mělník town sign on the town hall. It combines the Czech lion as the country and royal emblem with the eagle as the Přemyslid em-blem.


lic buildings were erected (e.g. the post office, house of culture, savings society,district authority) and sports and recreation facilities (e.g. public spa, rowing club), and the town hall was refurbished. Town transport was also organised so as to protect the historic centre. Not all the plans were implemented, however.

The town planning, which was designed to transform Mělník, where the value of the historic buildings would be respected and added to alongside those of modern developments, was interrupted by the events of the Second World War. Mělník became a Protectorate border town and the seat of the occupying author-ities.

It was liberated on 10 May 1945 by the forces of the 1st Ukrainian Front, as part of which also fought the 2nd Polish Army. This joyful moment was, however, directly preceded by tragedy, when on 9 May Mělník was bombarded by the 2nd Soviet Air Force with the aim of preventing German units retreating to be taken captive by the Americans. Twenty-seven Mělnik citizens died, and these now

stand at the end of a row of war victims – next to members of the second revolt of domestic and foreign and Jewish fellow citizens.

Whereas the Mělník of the First Republic was able to combine the historic with the modern, the Mělník of the second half of the twentieth century was less considerate. The central historic part of the Prague suburb was liquidated and replaced by a new construction, which damaged the town irreversibly. In the surroundings buildings were erected to cater for the chemical and ener-gy industry.

Despite this the town, unique for its position on the peak, which gives a feel-ing of freedom and liberty, has retained its magic and within it still bear witness to more than a thousand years of its history.

History

Birds-eye view of Mělník, 1771; Chronicle by J.J.Albrecht

Veduta of the town of Mělník, 1771; Chronicle by J.J.Albrecht


PersonalitiesEvery town has its stone buildings, natural monu-

ments, points of interest and beauty, memorable trees, whose description – either brief or in more detail – is the content of information materials. Less attention is devot-ed to the people who created the relevant town, helped it to develop, breathed life into it and were indispensable for its development. Did they always have to be famous? Many of them, who were known in their own times, have today fallen (unjustifiably) into neglect, some are general-ly known. Who should we pick out? The Bohemian prin-cesses and queens who owned Mělník and many of whom lived here? Mayors or councillors, elected by representa-tives of the municipality and in whom the trust was placed to administer the town? Should we talk about those who, although they came from here, spent their life course out-side the town, such as the bell-founder Jakub Mělnický or the illuminator Pavel Mělnický? Or should we mention those who were invited here and left their indelible mark on the town, people, such as the builders Johann Spiess of

Frankfurt, Benedikt Ried, G. B. Maderna, architects Jindřich Freiwald and Ja-roslav Böhm, Bohumil Hübschmann, Jaroslav Fragner, painters Karel Škréta (who also owned a vineyard here) or Josef Stern, Luděk Marold or Otakar Nejedlý? A spe-cial chapter could be written on honorary burghers and later citi-zens of Mělníka or bear-ers of the town’s Order.

The possibilities are endless. Let’s recall those who are commemorated in memorial tablets

Jindřich Matiegka (1862–1941)náměstí Míru 29, Church of St. Peter and Paul

Prof. MUDr. et RNDr. h. c. Jindřich Matiegka, founder of Czech anthropology, Rector of Charles University, is inextricably linked with the town of Mělník. His wife Marie Stránská came from Mělník and Jindřich Matieg-ka also liked the town and often stayed here, actively entering into its daily proceedings. In the years 1915-1919 he organised the Mělnik ossuary in the crypt of the Church of St. Peter and Paul. In 1932 he became an honourable citizen of Mělník. A number of Matiegka’s professional work is devoted to Mělník and its sur-roundings. He died in Mělník in 1941 and is also buried here in the graveyard of the Church of the Holy Trinity

in Chloumek. The town of Mělník acknowledges J. Matiegka’s legacy and is the joint organiser of the J. Matiegka Memorial (from 2005 the “J. Matiegka and J. Malý Memorial”) together with Hrdlička´s Muse-um of Mankind of Charles University.

Jiří Malý (1899-1950)náměstí Míru 29

Prof. MUDr. Jiří Malý was born in 1899 in Mělník in house no. 29, which belonged to the Matiegka, or Stránský family. This is the very point where both personalities, the representatives of Czech anthropolo-gy, come together – the teacher Jindřich Matiegka and his pupil Jiří Malý. Their first “professional cooperation”comes from the time when Jiří Malý still studied at grammar school and he helped Jindřich Matiegka in his work organising the Mělnik ossuary. After graduating

Personalities

Luděk Marold: Mělník from Sidonka; picture in the Masaryk House of Culture

The illuminator Pavel Mělnický in the Louny Gradual liturgical book, 1530


from the medical faculty Jiří Malý became assistant to Jindřich Matiegka, gained experience from him and then later assisted in publishing Matiegka’s major works, some of these being published jointly. In 2002, Jiří Malý became an honorary citizen of Mělník, and in the same year he was honoured by President Václav Havel with the Medal For Merit First Class.

In 2003, a memorial plaque, the work of Miroslav Kroupa, was placed on house no. 29, where the life des-tinies of Mateigka and Malý were joined.

Jaroslav Krombholc (1918–1985)Krombholcova 329

One of the most striking personalities associated with the town of Mělník is in the field of music JaroslavKrombholc, for many years the director of the National Theatre and Symphony Orchestra of Czechoslovak Radio. For almost five decades he lived in a house in to-day’s Krombholcova street, but this isn’t his only con-nection with the town. For example, Jaroslav Krombholc worked with the Vojan theatre group, including with his wife Marie Tauberová (1911-2003), an opera singer. Both are buried in the cemetery in Pražská street.

Josef Straka (1904–1976)ulice 5. května 140

A leading Czechoslovak rower, competed at two Ol-ympic Games, nine European Championships, winner of a raft of the most prestigious European competitions and seventeen times the champion of the Republic in all types of boat. Member of the Mělník Club of Rowers, for whom in the building’s historic cellar’s he built a pool with training machine for winter training.

A memorial plaque, the work of MgA. Jan Brabec, was unveiled on Josef Straka’s family home 10 July 2004.

Viktor Dyk (1848–1904)Bezručova 779; bust on the observation point

Viktor Dyk, a writer belonging to a generation of anti-social rebels around the turn of the century, a First Republic politician, both Member of Parliament and a Senator of the National Democratic Party, was born on 31 December 1877 in then Pšovka by Mělník as the son of an economic administrator.

His native countryside appears in a host of works by Viktor Dyk: “My first dreams were inspired by the Mělnikcountryside. My first longings arose on its soil. I felt my first

Personalities

Jiří Jílek: Viktor Dyk, 1934

Memorial plaque to Jindřich Matiegka and Jiří Malý, 2003,náměstí Míru 29


sorrows there. Why shouldn’t my memories also live in my literary work.”

On 13 May 1934 a memorial plaque to Viktor Dyk was unveiled in Mělník on his family home, and on the then Štefánik observation point a monument – his bust by the sculptor Jiří Jílek.

Otakar Jaroš (1912-1943)Nerudova 464, memorial in U Sadů street

Otakar Jaroš was not a native of Mělnik but spent his childhood and student years in Mělník; the house where he lived now bears a memorial plaque. He was a member of the TJ Sokol training corps in Mělník. He was an officer by profession. In 1939 he crossedthe border into Poland and from there made his way to

the Soviet Union. He became the leader of the First Czechoslovak Infantry Company in the Soviet Union. He fell during the defence of Sokolov. In memoriam he was given the rank of captain. He was the first for-eigner to be decorated with the medal the Golden Star and the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

The monument to Captain Otakar Jaroš by Otakar Kozák was unveiled in the gardens of the Masaryk House of Culture on 9 May 1958.

Personalities

Otakar Nejedlý: Before the Storm, around 1940; painting in the ceremonial rooms of the Mělník Town Hall

Oskar Kozák: Memorial to Captain Otakar Jaroš, 1958


Náměstí Míru (Peace Square)The centre of every town was the square. This was where

markets were held, important moments in the life of the town took place, demonstrations, celebrations, gatherings, welcomes for important visitors such as presidents, as was the case in 1922, when Mělník welcomed T. G. Masaryk, in 1945 Edvard Beneš, in 1998 Václav Havel and finallyin 2005 Václav Klaus.

The square has an irregular shape caused by the town’s following the borders of the original fortifications. The best-preserved stretch of houses is in the eastern part, with the preserved covered walkway and the town hall building. These are generally houses of Gothic origin, subsequently adapted and extended. Each one represents a valuable ar-chitectural work and together they form a unity of town planning. The also hold within them their preserved Gothic cellars on two to three levels.

The public fountain on the square, created in 1938, is the work of the architect Jaroslav Fragner, while the aca-demic sculptor was responsible for the sculptural group

Vinobraní (Vintage). This is a relatively young work; the foun-tain, which was on the square previously, offers a pleasantway to relax in the town hall’s courtyard.

Náměstí Míru (Peace Square)

A night view of Peace Square

Mělník arcade

East front of the houses

Town Hall courtyard


Town HallThe building which houses the town hall today is set on

the site of what formerly were four Gothic plots. The oldest phase of development can be seen in the Gothic oriel of the Chapel of Saint Barbora from the end of the 14th century. The most impressive and dignified area of the town hall iswithout doubt the Renaissance hall on the first floor, wherethe space is vaulted with six cross vaults with crests. If we

look at the hall’s columns more closely we might be sur-prised by the “decoration” – the many inscriptions in reddish brown chalk, which are 400 years old.

Modern refurbishments of the town hall came at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries. The first gave the townhall a Baroque tower, altered the direction of the roof and added to the facade medallions of important figures fromCzech history (Saint Ludmila and Saint Wenceslaus). The last major restructuring took place 1939–1941 according to a plan by the architect Dr. J. Šebek. New wings were built, giving the town hall the form of the letter U, in the middle of which was created the representative space of the town hall courtyard. This has been open to the public since its recon-struction in 2002.

Houses before the introduction of land registry reference numbers (1771-1775) were indicated with the names of their owners, stating the position by means of the names of the owners of the houses standing to the left and to the right, or by the name of the square or street, or according to insignia of the house. House numbering was introduced under the reign of Maria Theresa.

Town Hall

Town Hall moulding Oriel of the Chapel of St. Barbora

Town Hall

Golden Star – Baroque house insignia on housewith land registry ref. no. 11

Original numbering of town hall – No. 12


On the right of the town hall’s main portal two iron rods with the length known as an ell are set in brick A Czech ell is simpler and shorter (59.14 cm) and also the older of the two. The Viennese ell is longer (77.66 cm) and more ornamental, its circular ending bearing in the upper oval the inscription Rakavski 1765, which is the year when it became generally binding. And why was it placed here. Sample measures and weights were introduced in town halls so that buyers could check that they hadn’t been deceived.

Capuchin Monastery with the Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers – Regional Museum Mělník

The Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers together with the building of the former Capuchin monastery (now no. 54, the home of the Regional Museum Mělník) make up the end of the block of houses on the eastern side of náměstí Míru.

This house no. 54, originally belonging to a private citi-

zen, was given 31 July 1749 to the Capuchins by Terezie Bar-bora Čebišová. Four orders of the brothers were installed in Mělník on 20 September 1750 by P. Serafín, who during his life was three times the Provincial and between 1754 and 1756 the General Capuchin in Rome. At the end of 1751, however, it was demonstrated that the building would not be sufficient for the community’s work and the creation ofa church. And so the neighbouring house was acquired, on whose site the Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers was built 1752 to 1753.

The church has the traditional Capuchin disposition, with three sets of naves, to which is linked a deep, right-an-gled presbytery divided by “walls”. A peculiarity, explained by the late period of its creation and the restricted space of the “building plot”, is the replacement of the traditional side chapel of the Virgin Mary with a mere shallow alcove on the left side of the church.

The face of the church of the Four-teen Holy Helpers is furnished with a cir-cular window with a sun motif and the letters IHS (Iesus Hominum Salvator – Je-sus, saviour of mankind) and the title “St. Francis, intercede for us”. Between the pair of rectangular windows there is a stucco frame with a painting of St. Francis of Assisi (according to the painting by B. Murill “St. Francis of Assisi embracing cru-cified Christ” for the Capuchin church inSeville).

Town Hall • Capuchin Monastery with the Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Face of church of Fourteen Holy Helpers

Former Capuchin Monastery with the Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers(today Regional Museum)

Capitals in the Chapel of St. Barbora Czech and Viennese ell atthe entrance to the Town Hall


P. Serafin, who died inMělník 24 October 1763, is buried in the Order’s church. Also laid to rest here is Terezie Čebišová, who made the con-struction of the church possi-ble and also presented it with a picture of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus and sepa-rately the Infant Jesus of Prague, which the Mělnik Capuchins chose for their pal-ladium (holy object venerated as a symbol of protection).

In 1785 (during the reign of Josef II) it was decided to

dissolve the Capuchin monastery in Mělník. But the town – burgomaster (mayor) and town council – supported them and sent a request directly to the Emperor. The efforts of theMělnik population were successful and the Capuchin mon-astery wasn’t dissolved until November 1950 in conjunction with the suppression of church life by the Communist re-gime in Czechoslovakia. Its premises were later used by the graphic department of the People’s School of Art in Mělník. Between 1998 and 1999 the building was completely recon-structed and the former monastery became the seat of the Regional Museum Mělník.

The Regional Museum Mělníkwas established in 1888, making it one of the oldest in

the Czech lands. The Museum’s specialisation is the docu-mentation of viticulture in the Czech lands, which forms the basis of part of the exhibition, which is also housed in the accessible medieval cellars, which are preserved on three

levels. Other parts of the exhibition bear the titles: A view of the medieval town, Children’s world, a Burgher´s home from the turn of the 19th and 20th century, a Rustic interior of the second half of the 19th century, an Ordinary day in the lives of country people, Folk architecture, Mělnik countryside. The most recent addition is the exhibition of prams in the neighbouring building (no. 59 in Ostruhová ulice, about 100 m from the Museum). Two floors offer a slice of history ofthe production and development of prams in the Czech lands, from the middle of the 19th century to the 1970s.

In the Museum it’s possible not only to learn things but also to sample wine, sit in the café and in the moat, which formed part of the town’s medieval fortifications andis linked to the town hall courtyard.

The U Koruny passage – this was the name of a roadside inn in the first half ofthe 19th century where all sorts of enter-tainments and balls used to be held.

Capuchin Monastery with the Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers – Regional Museum Mělník

Weather-cock on the church turret

Palladium of the Czech country (copy of an old palladium from Stará Boleslav) in the Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Houses in the centre of the town conceal charming quiet corners – the courtyard of house No. 30 in the U Koruny passage offers an interesting view of the Mělník castle


Town houses

House no. 3, U Černého koníčka(At the Black Horse)

The house U Černého koníčka has its house sign in a new form under the arcade. It is one of the few houses on the Mělnik square which has retained its shield; the facade has been reconstructed in the neo-Renaissance style. The strip with ornamental graffiti under windows on the firstfloor is just a fragment of the original house decoration.A passageway to house no. 3 joins it with the town hall. Its early Renaissance portal belonged originally to the origi-nal house entrance; a passageway beyond the town’s fortifi-cations obviously didn’t exist here. The town’s population was able to leave only through the two gates and one small gate. When the fortifications ceased to serve a purpose and

the town wanted to extri-cate itself from their clutch they were demolished and the passageway was creat-ed for easier access between the various parts of the town. The Mělnik Savings Bank had it built in 1908.

House no. 9, formerlyknown as U Zelené lípy(At the Green Lime Tree)

In 1911, Mrs. Anna Tuscherová had the original two-storey house with the sign of a lime tree recon-

structed in the style of the Secession according to plans by the architect Václav Klatovský from Prague. Whereas the front part of the house was changed beyond recognition in the space of a year, in the rear section it was as if time had stood still. In it is preserved the last watch-tower of the former fortification. It is said that from here Ferdinand II“had a special view of the exit„ when he stayed in Mělník a few days after the Battle of the White Mountain (1620). In 1965 the watch-tower was given a cupola with a crescent moon.

House no. 10, U Zlatého beránka(At the Golden Lamb)

The house U Zlatého beránka is already mentioned as an inn as far back as 1592.

It was probably at this house that the stage-coach carry-ing Karel Hynek Mácha to Mělník stopped, as he himself writes in his Doslov ke Křivokladu (1834). The house U Zlatého beránka underwent a radical conversion in 1894 under its owners Karel and Emílie Stádník. “U Stádníků” (At the Stádník House) was the centre of social life, balls were held here, meetings, and for many years at the turn of the 19th and 20th century ladies from Mělnik would meet here every Thursday for afternoon coffee. This ladies’ socialcircle was known as the Klepárna (Scandal-mongery). They would speak about children, dresses, new recipes, but also of patriotic issues, song, reading and even politics; the la-dies also organised trips (Roudnice, Litoměřice, and some even went to the world exhibition in Paris).

The picturesque additions to the row of burgher houses include also statutes of saints – defenders against dangers threatening the town. The main fears were fire and the black death (plague),which repeatedly visited the town. For this reason the saints Florian, Roch and Rosalie can be found on the houses and church altars. In Mělník however we can also find St. John of Nepomuk in Svatová-clavská street and the baroque Our Lady Immaculate in Palackého street.

Town houses

St. Florian

Watch-tower of the former fortificationbehind house No. 9


House no. 11, U Zlaté hvězdy(At the Golden Star)

Of the many owners of this house we recall the pitcher-maker and bell-founder Bartoš, who bought the house in 1570. If we enter the arcade, the entry to today’s TIS Mělník is decorated with a polychrome Renaissance portal. This in-cludes shields with a bell and tin pot, signs referring to Bartoš as owner of the house. His products were certainly very popular not only on the tables of his customers but al-so with the producer himself, as in the house beer was pro-duced and served (not only wine, as you might suppose in Mělník).

At the beginning of the 17th century the house was pur-chased by Martin Vyžral and it was from the time of this family that the early Baroque gold star originated on the house corner. But the Vyžral family were Protestants who had to leave the country following the defeat of the Estates Uprising (1618-1620). Not only did they leave their country

they also obviously left their house, which in 1632 came in-to the ownership of the under-chamberlain Filip Fabricio of Rosenfeld and Hohenfall. We shall skip part of the house’s history to get to the next important stages. In 1832 Josef Valenta, the first Mělník postmaster, lover and composer ofmusic, lover and cultivator of wine, married into the Pachner family, which owned the house. His son Antonín continued in his fa-ther’s musical footsteps – and here we move on to house no. 12, known as U Zlatého hroznu, to the Vykysal family.

The well localised on the square in paved lettering is an object of unprec-edented value in the historic town centre, representing a unique mining work. It was probably excavated at the time of the es-tablishment of the town. The most recent measurements (year 2000) show a depth of 54 m, in which the height of the water column is 7.2 m and its diameter 4 – 5 m.

Between the years of 1749-1893 a “chapel” stood above the well, bearing on the crest of its roof a statue of the Mother of God, and on its flanks statues ofSt. Florian, St. Prokop, St. Wenceslas, St. Ludmila, St. John of Nepomuk, and St. Lawrence. Due to its structural weak-ness it was removed at the end of the 19th century, the well was closed off witha brick cupola and the area was paved.

Town houses

Renaissance polychromed portal in the arcade to the house U Zlaté hvězdy

Bell and kettle on the portal – recalling the owner, who was a bell-founder

House U Zlaté hvězdy (At the Golden Star)

“Chapel” above well – historical photograph


House no. 12, U Zlatého hroznu(At the Golden Grape)

The south side of the square is taken up by a neo-Ren-aissance house with a covered walkway in the main facade. It was given its current form by a conversion in 1903

But let’s look at its past, which has its share of ups and downs. Let’s begin with the better periods: the first knownowner is Hron Divický and his wife Ludmila, maiden name Metelicová. In the history of Mělník she is known for having given her courtyard in the Prague suburb to build a “dwell-ing for the poor”. Although this ultimately went unrealised in 1585 the Church of St. Ludmila was built on the same site. During the Thirty Years War the house declined to the ex-tent that its then owner Anna Koracínka was called on to “ei-ther improve the condition of the house or sell it”. In 1653 she chose the second option and so the house changed hands.

And now let’s move once again to the brighter sides of the house’s history. In 1856 our house passed into the ownership of Václav Vykysal, who changed it into a hotel. The hotel’s hall was used by the amateur actors of Mělnik and on 4 April 1875 they presented here Smetana’s The Bar-tered Bride – the first amateur production in the country.As part of their preparations, those taking part even went to Prague to see The Bartered Bride under Smetana’s direc-tion, and Smetana himself gave written permission to go ahead.

As you will already have understood, we have now found ourselves in the centre of cultural, social and political happenings of the then Mělník.

Town houses

The sundial represents an ancient method of measuring time, documents of which are preserved also in Mělník – on the chateau and in the former Augus-tine monastery. The sundial dates from the year 1554, and is accompanied with the inscription: “The shadow shows the time. The hour can be seen from the shad-ow. What you yourself are, you shall see when the shadow of death arrives”.

Karel Vik: Mělník (House no. 12 and Svatováclavská street), 1950

Renaissance sundial on chateau stair-case tower (1554)

Late Baroque sundial on northern court face of former convent of monas-tery of the Calced Augustinians in Pšovka (1740s)


The ChateauThe chateau’s current

appearance is the result of the thousand-year develop-ment from the Romanesque and Gothic castle of Bohe-mian princesses and queens through the Renaissance and Baroque chateau of the aristocracy. Today, we can follow all the styles in the building. The oldest part is concealed in the south west section of today’s chateau. The culmination of the me-

dieval age is evident, for example, in the late Gothic en-trance gates. Immediately next to the gate into the courtyard there are the re-mains of the Gothic brick-work, probably of the watch-tower (possible builder: Johann Spiess of Frankfurt). The tour of the chateau’s in-terior, or during mass, in-cludes access to the Gothic chapel of St. Ludmila of Lux-embourg.

The north wing of the chateau is an important work of the Czech Renais-sance, which began the conversion of the original castle into the new and more comfortable chateau.

Its construction is associated with the name Zdislav Berka of Dubá, to whom Mělník was mortgaged in 1542 by Ferdi-nand I. The wings with open arcades and graffiti decorationdate within a span of three years – above the doors to the first floor is the date 1552, above the central pillar on thefirst floor the year 1553, and above the sun dial on the towerstairway the year 1554.

In the loggia on the first floor we find four coats-of-arms.Two belong to the Černín family, and have both Czech and German inscriptions, dedicated to Jan Humprecht Černín. They are dated 1677. The other two belong to the Lobkow-icz family. The first recalls Jiří Kristián of Lobkowicz (1931),the second Otakar Lobkowicz, owner of the chateau be-tween 1932 and 1941, from 1945 to 1948 and in 1992. The current owner Jiří Jan Lobkowicz (2003) had his portrait painted.

Both the aforementioned families were the chief aristo-cratic owners of the chateau. The Černíns of Chudenice firstacquired it in 1646 in pledge and ultimately bought the cha-

The Chateau

Sources from the end of the 15th cen-tury speak of a mechanical clock, al-though we do not know precisely where it was installed. We have certainty from 1536, which is the date stated on the walling around the clock on the Prague Gate in the direction towards the town. There are clocks on the Prague Gate, the town hall tower, the tower of the local Protestant church and the church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Their regular run-ning is accompanied by dulcimers, on the town hall and on the church of St. Pe-ter and St. Paul.

Lobkowicz family coat-of-arms above the castle entrance gate

F. M. Schieffer: The baptism ofSt. Ludmila (detail of the altar picture in the castle chapel)

Remains of the Gothic castle – torso of the watch tower in the castle court-yard

South-western corner of the castle (old-est – Romanesque – stage of its devel-opment)

Prague Gate clock with imprint date of 1536

Prague Gate dulcimers


teau in 1687. Not long after they set in motion, according to a project by G. B. Maderna, the early Baroque building stage of the chateau (1690-1694) in the form of the south wing and brick additions above the entrance gate. This effectivelycompleted the construction work on the chateau.

Subsequent work, realised by the Lobkowicz family, which owned the chateau from 1753 onwards, has only had the character of alterations and refurbishing as the chateau was used for wine-making operations (until 1986).

In 1992 the chateau was returned after 44 years to the Lobkowicz family in restitution. The family first set about re-constructing the interiors (a new chateau exhibition was built, and the chateau restaurant was given a new appear-ance) and later the exteriors. The work began with the resto-ration of the graffiti on the stairway tower (2002), followedby restoration of the courtyard facades, reconstruction of the residential tower above the entrance gate and the grad-ual repair of the outer face accompanied by the demanding

task of ensuring that the entire building’s statics were in or-der. Work should be completed in 2007.

The chateau is open not only for visitors to the exhibi-tions, which include works by leading exponents of the Czech Baroque and part of a collection of maps and vedu-tas, but also offers concerts, balls, social events, conference,wedding receptions and banquets. In addition the

A popular part of the visiting the Mělnik chateau is the tour of the wine cellars and the possibility of tasting the wines produced from the Lobkowicz vineyards. The cellars cover an area of 1,500 m2, and they have a constant tem-perature of between 8 and 12 °C. In the chateau cellars you can find casks of maturing wine, testifying to the wine-mak-ing present, as well as casks (the largest holding 12 500 l) which evidence the long tradition of Lobkowicz wine-mak-ing, which in 2003 celebrated its 250th anniversary.

The west facade of the chateau is bordered by an obser-vation point which is one of the most popular tourist sites in the town and whose view extends to the Elbe lowlands, showing two main points: the hill Říp and the confluence of the Elbe andthe Moldau.

The net-like vaulting of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul may remind some of the story of the apostle Peter, who Christ chose to be a “fisher of men” – the net is woven into the vaulting of the presbytery and the main nave. The fields betweenthe beams on the ceiling of the presby-tery depict the apostles accompanied by Christ as the Good Shepherd, and St. John the Baptist. The fields at the end ofthe presbytery depict the stories of the evangelists Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. These figures of Christian heavenare accompanied by figures of angelsholding, for example, the instruments of Christ´s torture, or a chalice and holy wa-fer. The face of Christ is painted on the apex above the altar, whilst others fea-ture an eight-point star and rosette.

The vaulting also contains the Habs- burg, Czech and city emblems.

The Chateau

Late Gothic vaulting of church of St. Peter and St. Paul

Castle Renaissance chimneys

The Castle courtyard is enlivened by dif-ferent events, such as the European Heritage Days


Church of Sts. Peter and PaulThe Church of Sts. Peter and Paul has undergone many

structural changes during its existence. At its inception it was probably a Romanesque basilica with a triple nave. The Gothic influence was felt gradually, with the oldest examplebeing the sacristy. The Church’s triple nave together with the tower arrived in the 1480s (builder Johann Spiess of Frankfurt), the raising of the main nave and construction of the voluminous presbytery date to around 1520 (builder Benedikt Ried). The presbytery’s reticulated vault brings to life a Christian heaven, while the face of Christ looks down upon us from the bolt above the altar.

Further structural alterations were brought about by the fires in 1555 (Renaissance shields) and 1681 (Baroque cupo-la of the Gothic tower). The Church’s existing appearance is largely influenced by Kamil Hilbert’s extensive restorationsof 1910 and 1913-1915.

The interior is noteworthy not only for the paintings on the presbytery vault. For example, the cross-vault bolts

come in different forms, the tombstones situated mainly inthe church aisles offer a history of life in Mělník, and the lateGothic stone sanctuary in the presbytery is of very high quality. However, the Church’s most precious spaces are not usually accessible to the public. They are, on the ground floor, the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, and on the first floor(treasury) the large tower, or the interior of the Romanesque tower, with the former chapel of St. John of Nepomuk.

The treasury of the Gothic tower was used to store, in less than perfect conditions, the carved casing of the Church’s Baroque organs (1712). This is now being gradually restored with the aim of saving this unique work of wood-carving and giving the Church an instrument of correspond-ing dignity, both aurally and visually.

The contents of the Church are Baroque, and are domi-nated by the main altar with a picture by Karel Škréta and statues of the saints (St. Wenceslaus, St. Ludmila, St. Rosalie, St. Florian) from the workshop of the Jelíneks from Kosmon-osy. From several side altars we look upon the altar of the

The significance of the cathedral ofSt. Peter and St. Paul and the chapter at-tached to it is documented also by the ar-tefacts produced for the needs and deco-ration thereof. From the culture of books we can mention the Mělník gospel-book from the 1st half of the 12th century from visual arts the panel painting of the Crucifixion (beginning of 16th century; orFerdinand Maxmilián Brokof’s Descent from the Cross (after 1724; southern nave of church). The peak of artistic craftsman-ship is represented by Gothic monstranc-es of which the smaller (height 71 cm, width 24 cm) probably represents the

Church of Sts. Peter and Paul

View of the church and castle

The provost’s church of Sts. Peter and Paul

Crucifixion


Descent from the Cross by F. M. Brokof (after 1724, south nave of the Church) in the south nave and at the head of the north nave the altar of St. Ludmila with a picture depicting her teaching the grandson of Wenceslaus (Filip Massanec, 1679), whose cult was always powerful in Mělník. One of the Church’s most valuable works – the Crucifixion, created af-ter a work by A. Dürer, is currently loaned to the National Gallery exhibition on Medieval Art in Bohemia and Central Europe in the St. Agnes Convent in Prague.

The building’s exterior also offers much of interest. Thegaze of passers-by is certainly chiefly drawn by the largeChurch windows of the presbytery, but the more perceptive will also spot a number of details: the angel – shield-bearer with the coat-of-arms of Mělník and the Kingdom of Bohe-mia, Sts. Peter and Paul above the plaque telling us of Hilbert’s restoration of the church, a frowning mascaron, gryphons…

Since 2004, the Church is accessible to the public not only by the traditional entrance through the north hallway but also from the west from the observation point. You can enter the Church through the neo-Gothic doors from the time of Hilbert’s restoration.

oldest preserved monstrance in the Czech lands (approximately 1380), evi-dently from Petr Parléř´s goldsmith works. For this reason it represented the Czech Republic in the exhibition “Prague – the Crown of Bohemia /1347 – 1437/” in New York and was one of the exhibits in the exhibition “Charles IV, emperor by the Grace of God at Prague castle.

Church of Sts. Peter and Paul

Bolt in the “treasury” of the Gothictower

Interior of the church

Most Holy Trinity – main church altar

A combination of styles – testament to the church’s architectural develop-ment

The vault of the Chapel of the Holy Sep-ulchre

Gothic monstrance, approx. 1380


OssuaryUnder the presbytery of the Church of Sts. Peter and

Paul lies a crypt which has served as an ossuary since the 1530s. Its creation is connected with the graveyard, which has surrounded the whole Church since time immemorial but which could not be enlarged. This eventually led to problems of space, especially at time of plague. As a solu-tion remains were dug up and placed in the ossuary.

The Mělník ossuary served its purpose until 1775, when burials at the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul were discontin-ued and transferred to the graveyard at the Church of St. Ludmila. The ossuary, too, was to have been liquidated but the inhabitants of Mělník answered this order by sealing it. As a result it was later to become study material for Pro-fessor Jindřich Matiegka, the founder of Czech anthropolo-gy. He was responsible for the ossuary’s organization in 1915-1919, as the memorial plaque at the entrance tells us. If we descend the steps into the crypt we see the re-mains of 10,000 to 15,000 people. The wall on the west side constructed from these remains bears the name Calvary, and the skull and long bones in other parts were arranged to create images of an anchor and a heart, symbolising hope and love, or the inscription Ecce mors (Behold Death). On a plaque is written: “What you are, we once were, what we are, you will be.” There’s no better place to appreciate the transitory nature of human life and the reality of death.

Church of Sts. Peter and Paul – Ossuary

„Huic loco aderat Slaup de Žluticz. Anno Dom. 1535“. - On this site was Sloup of Žlutice. The date here is the oldest that is preserved on the walls of the ossuary, even if there are older inscriptions but without the date.

Late Gothic Mělník monstrance

Calvary


The Gothic tower of the Churchof Sts. Peter and Paul

For more than half a millennium the countryside around the confluence of the Elbe and Moldau rivers has been dom-inated by the late Gothic tower of Sts. Peter and Paul. There were predecessors, firstly Romanesque and then later Goth-ic, whose presence we can still discern in the marl paving at the entrance to the tower in front of the church’s west face.

The tower’s construction got under way at the begin-ning of the 1480s. At the time the church was being con-verted due to a legacy from Queen Johanna of Rožmitál, who died in Mělník in 1475 and according to contemporary sources was buried in the local church.

The tower on the Mělník crest was erected over several years, a process recorded by the builders in several places. The year 1486 is found on the vault to the tower’s ground floor and the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, which togetherwith the chamber on the first floor are among the church’smost valuable spaces. We find the year 1487 on the corniceunder the great Gothic window on the east side, and finallythe cornice above it bears the year 1488. This forms part of a cryptogram (inscription with a hidden meaning) divulging the name of the builder Johann Spiess of Frankfurt.

Originally the tower was completed by a Gothic pyrami-dal roof, as is evident in the picture by Filip Massanec show-

ing St. Ludmila teaching St. Wenceslaus (1679) on the side altar in the north nave. The background of the central scene reveals a silhouette of Mělník as it looked before it was rav-aged by the fire of 1681.The resulting repairs gave the tower an early Ba-roque onion-shaped cu-pola supplemented with little onions above the corner turrets on the gal-lery.

The tower served as a watchtower as well as a belfry. The fire of 1681caused the original bells to melt; they were subse-quently replaced by three new bells from the work-shop of Jan Pricquey. Two of them, “Sts. Peter and Paul” and “Sts. Wenceslaus and Ludmila”, still hang in the bell-tower today. The third cracked in 1767, and was re-cast, although dur-ing the First World War it was requisitioned. Its suc-cessor fared no better from the ravages of the following war conflict, anda long time was to pass

The Gothic tower of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul

In the range of significant monu-ments documenting the distinguished history of the town, the foremost posi-tion is occupied by the “Mělník treasure” which is deposited in the town hall. This is formed by a late Gothic monstrance (sacral artefact made of refined metalserving for the exposition of the Holy Sacrament) from the end of the 15th cen-tury and the pyx (case containing holy wafers) – both made of gilded silver. Its third part is a Renaissance chalice carved from wood.

The great late Gothic Mělník mon-strance from the end of the 15th century is preserved in the town hall, with a height of 112 cm, width of 32 cm and weight of 6.61 kg. In its form it is reminis-cent of part of a Gothic cathedral. The most honoured position in the very heart of the monstrance belongs to the glass cylinder with a golden half-moon (lu-nette), which holds the Host upright when placed in a monstrance. The larger figures on the sides of the cylinder be-long to St. Peter and St. Paul, the smaller are St. Vitus and St. Wenceslas. The cen-tral tower above the cylinder contains the figure of Christ crucified, and a pair ofangels bear symbols of the passion of Christ. The “cathedral” is finished off witha crowned Madonna with child.

The Gothic tower of the Church of Sts. Pe-ter and Paul

The moulding below the great window on the east side bears a date 1487

Moulding with cryptogram (J.Spiess, 1488) The bell of St. Peter and Paul (1690)


before a replacement arrived in 1993, when a bell was hung consecrated in honour of St. Agnes and Zdislava, patroness of the Litoměřice diocese.

In 2006 demanding repairs to the tower got under way with the aim of making it accessible to the public. And what view can visitors expect as their reward after making the de-manding climb?

What we see from the tower depends on whether we look from the gallery directly below or into the distance.

We enter the tower’s gallery (37 m high) on its west side. Di-rectly below us is the Old School, the chateau observation point with the bust of Viktor Dyk and the chateau. Beneath the Lobkowicz vineyard St. Ludmila glisten the waters of the Elbe and Moldau rivers and the lateral canal with a lock. To its right, concealed behind the English park, is the village of Hořín with its impressive Baroque chateau (not open to the public). When visibility is good, you can see as far as the towns Kralupy nad Vltavou and Kladno, and further north to the peaks of the Czech Central Mountains, before which “sits” the cone of the Říp hill. On towards the Central Moun-tains meanders the Elbe, to which many communities are attached – Vliněvěs with the dazzling white tower of the pseudo-Romanesque church The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, Dolní Beřkovice, Liběchov with its church of the Ho-ly Spirit dominating the surrounding countryside, and Horní Počaply with its chimneys and the cooling tower of the Mělník power station. Below the tower to its north side stretches the chateau and beyond that the former Elbe sub-urb and the town of Pšovka with the former Augustinian monastery and the church of St. Lawrence and Mlazice. From here, the north side of the gallery, just as from the east side, we have as if in the palm of our hand the town’s histor-ic core with the square with the town hall and Capuchin Church of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The peak “opposite” is

The Gothic tower of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul

The late Gothic pyx is a cylindrical vessel with a diameter of 12 cm and weight of 0.595 kg. Its most valuable part is the lid with the scene of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

We also counter themes from both the New and Old Testaments in the rare carved chalice dating from 1582, with a height of 44 cm and diameter of 10.5 cm. In the band coiling around its surface an unknown master carved “32”, and to study the work in detail it is neces-sary to use a magnifying glass.

View of Mělník from the Gothic tower of the church

The west and north view from the tower is dominated by the Říp mountain

Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane (lid of the pyx)

Crucifixion (wooden chalice, 1582)


dominated by the Church of St. John of Nepomuk. This building’s base “stands at the same height as the peak of the church tower in Mělník”. Nevertheless, this height can’t ob-scure other important points on the horizon – in addition to the peaks of the Czech Central Mountains (on the left) we can see Ještěd with the sparkling sleeping peak, the peaks of Bezdězy or closer at hand the Vrátenská hill with a look-out tower. Other good viewing points are the Prague Gate (or the water-tower), which leads us to the Prague suburbs and opens the view, through the Na Polabí park, towards Prague, which is obviously preceded by the chimneys of the Spolana Neratovice chemical factory. And we now come back to the rivers and their confluence – to the startingpoint of our tour of places near and far, which from the church tower can look as if you can grasp them.

The new provost’s residence no. 18In 1895 the restoration was carried out of the provost’s

residence, which, although one of the oldest in Bohemia,

had become defunct as a result of the Hussite Wars. Its even-tual restoration was celebrated on the day of St. Wenceslaus in 1896. This included the consecration of the new provost’s building, the costs of whose construction had been mostly met by the town of Mělník. That’s why in the entrance corri-dor of the new provost’s residence we find not only its coat-of-arms but also that of the town of Mělník. Which is also why the then burgomaster Václav Haupt handed over the keys from the new building to the newly-appointed provost Josef Bernat (1835-1925), who was from Mělník. During his provostship Kamil Hilbert oversaw the reconstruction of the church of Sts. Peter and Paul and the repair of the church of St. Ludmila.

Although the neo-Gothic provost’s residence was built according to the drawings of the Mělník architect Antonín Kamarád, this used as its example the New Provost’s Build-ing at the Prague Castle. The original design therefore comes from the architect Josef Mocker.

The Gothic tower of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul • provost’s residence

Late Gothic sanctuary in St. Peter and St. Paul cathedral was made from sand-stone, with a polychrome finish. The ped-estal, decorated with acanthus leaves, re-fers to the Renaissance, the peak on the edges decorated with crabs and finishedwith a wallflower with a fleuron and budbelongs to the Gothic period. The main part, the stone case, is furnished below with a stonemason’s marking, which now never appears in the church.

The confluence of the Elbe and Moldau below the Mělník hill The neo-Gothic building of the provost’s residence

Late Gothic sanctuary in St. Peter and St. Paul cathedral

Stonemason’s marking on sanctuary


Villa Karola, house nos. 41 and 40The pseudo-Gothic Villa Karola is one of Mělník’s lesser

dominating features. Number 41 is its older part (1876), while no. 40 is the extension from 1886. This also has the name “Karola”, which perhaps is a derivation of Karolina, who was the wife of František Vinkler, the man who built it.

From 1865 František Vinkler (1839-1899) was the district secretary, and shortly thereafter he became a member of the town council. He was instrumental in the creation of the Mělník Sokol movement, of which he was the first chairman,and with his wife was active among the Mělník amateur ac-tors. From 1871 he managed the Mělničan and Pšovan news-papers. In 1897, however, the Economic Savings Society, of which he was the chief official, went bankrupt, which meantVinkler’s fall. He died at the end of the century poor and abandoned; the villa later came to be known as Kradlovka.

Since 1981 the Karola villa has been the home of the Mělník Town Library.

The Old School no. 159The building of the former school in the park by the

church of Sts. Peter and Paul used to be the Mělník chapter. It was a capitular chapter, in other words a group of priests at an important church headed by a provost. The date that the chapter was established is not known, but its dissolu-tion is connected with the Hussite Wars. Afterwards the building became the seat of a particular Latin school whose leading teachers were, as the memorial plaque tells us, Matouš Hosius Vysokomýtský (1576-1577), who was a friend of the publisher Daniel Adam of Veleslavín, as was another Mělník teacher Jan Civilius. The school remained in the same place for centu-ries until in 1787 it moved to today’s Hus-ová ulice.

The old school used to form part of the town’s fortifica-tions. It was connect-ed with the chateau by the fortificationwall (which no longer exists), and on its left corner there is a trans-verse wall with four embrasures. The wall ended with a moat which circled the town to the Elbe gate.

The Mělník gospel-book, an artefact discovered in 1894 and today preserved in the State District Archive in Mělník, originates from the 1st half of the 12th century. It is a book containing 167 parch-ment pages with a height of 29.5 cm and width of 20.5 cm, and the wooden plates are bound in white leather. The Latin text is neatly written in minuscule, the titles and initial letters of the paragraphs are written in red majuscule. Originally this contained a full-page illustration of all the evangelists, namely Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. The page with Matthew was later cut out, and only Luke is entirely completed. The depiction with the rele-vant attribute informs of the author of the gospel, which begins on the opposite page with the initial.

Villa Karola • The Old School

The west facade of the Old School

The transverse moat wall with embrasures, link-ing with the corner of the Old School

Evangelist Luke in Mělník gospel-book

The Old School from the park by the church


Mělník town fortificationsOne of the attributes of medieval towns was their fortifi-

cations. Mělník was just such a town, founded on the site of an older Slav settlement. Judging by the remains of the for-tification there was a wall with battlements, secured byeight towers – fortifications, two gates and a smaller gatefor people on foot (gate-houses). This section of the fortifi-cation dates back to the 13th century; later, moat walls were built and the space created between the two bulwarks turned into a moat turned into a foot-way known as a moat. The moat wall, also known as a breast-level wall, emerged from the moat (dry in Mělník’s case), to which the access from the outer side was protected by a trench. The town’s position on the hill decided the fortifications necessary.While the sharp slope of the Mělník hill in the direction of the Elbe on the west and south-west secured the town with-out any need for further protection (apart from the walls, to

which was connected the castle and canon house, later the first Mělník school), the easier access to the town from theeast and south required the use of the aforementioned for-tification elements.

The town enclosed by the fortification wall was accessi-ble by the Prague and Elbe gates, which lay on the main road passing through the town. From these two gates only the Prague gate remains, as it was at the beginning of the 16th century. On the site of the gate for foot-walkers – gate-house, stand two empire-period columns from 1837. Of the eight bastions in the main wall only one has survived, in a Classical version, behind house no. 9. Certainly of note is one of the moat bulwarks dating most probably from the 15th century. It can be seen in the Jungmann Gardens, where those interested in medieval fortifications can alsosee the fortification mound, the moat wall (newly repaired),a fragment of the main wall, obviously without battlements, and the wide moat. Another type of wall with embrasures,

Vineyards previously surrounded the entire town of Mělník, today’s historic centre. As the town grew, the construc-tion absorbed the vineyards. Today amongst the most significant is the vine-yard of St. Ludmila on the slope beneath the chateau, established in 1895.

Constructed amongst the vineyards were wine presses, watchtowers, chapels, and the slopes were divided by walls of marl.

Mělník town fortifications

The moat wall and torso of the main fortification wall in the Jungmann gardens The last preserved moat fortification Columns with Empire vases now stand on the site of the former gate-house in Česká ulička alley

View of vineyard of St. Ludmila

Detail of the decoration on a house gable


which closes the moat on the south-west side of the town, is preserved by the building of the aforementioned Old School in the public garden behind the church of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Another possible element of the town’s defence system was the Water Tower above the Podolská úžlabina valley. The water tower, which forms a lesser dominant feature in the town’s panorama, can be dated back to the 16th century together with the medieval water supply system. The four-angled, 20 m high building, lacking in any typical historical styles, contained on the upper floor a water tank with an in-

flow (pressure), outflow and overflow pipe. The water waspumped from the Pšovka stream.

Although we can only speculate about the precise date of the construction of such an important constituent of the town, which had only a single well inside the water-supply walls (due to indirect records such as references in the town books and comparisons with Prague water-supply systems), we know exactly when the tower ceased operations. This was in 1882, when the water-tank was moved to the Prague Gate situated at a higher level.

The building material for the Mělník fortifications andtheir towers – marl – easily disintegrates (pulverises), which is one of the reasons for the rapid deterioration, and in many places the complete collapse of the local fortifica-tions. What is left today of the town fortifications is rightlymaintained and cared for.

Prague GateThe Prague Gate accesses the town from the south-east

and is the best-preserved part of the Mělník medieval forti-fications. Its current appearance dates from the 1530s, as isevident from the clock dial pointing towards the town, which is dated 1536. All the gate’s original architectonic de-tails also date from this period – the key embrasures, the window flanning (partly) and in particular the thoroughfarevaulted over at both ends with a pointed arch. The gate was entered by a spiral staircase built inside the north wall from the neighbouring house (today no. 110), on which an ease-ment was attached. The stairway also led to the second floor of the gate. Today, unfortunately, access is bricked up.The present staircase leading from the gate’s access is from the 19th century, as is the extension through which it runs.

The statue of Charles IV by Josef Max, a gift from the knight John of Neuberg to the municipality of Mělník, has had its place on the watchtower above the vine-yard of Ludmila, since 1925. The sculp-tural group Vintage (1938) is also con-nected with this theme, the work of Vincenc Makovský.

Mělník town fortifications • Prague Gate

The Water Tower

Josef Max: Charles IV.

Vincenc Makovský: Vintage (1938)


The Prague Gate exited from the front of the main forti-fication wall into the moat. As it bears no traces of a draw-bridge, which can be seen on the gate to today’s chateau, the former castle, which is from the same era, it is almost certain that access to it was covered by another gate (barbi-can) which had this arrangement. In the gate tower en-trance to the town was guarded by an armed man, whose responsibility it was to open the gate in the morning and to close it again in the evening. He also supervised the prison-ers, who served their sentence here in the prison.

Like the town houses, over the ages the gate has also been subject to various catastrophes, chiefly fires. Follow-ing the fire of 1562 the original arrangement of the floorswas changed and after the next fire in 1653 the tower, which

ad originally been covered by a sheer hipped roof, received a high Baroque shield and the roof was completed with a lit-tle tower with onion-shaped dome. Further alterations were made to the roof, and thereby to the building’s appearance, following the fire of 1799. The gate’s roof was severely dam-aged by the gale that struck the town 7 December 1868. The Baroque additions were subsequently torn down and re-placed by a low, slate-covered hipped end. This form of the gate is captured in the photograph.

The Prague Gate lost its chief function with the sale of its gates by auction on 17 October 1836. Afterwards a new role awaited it – it became the water-tank for the old town wa-ter-supply system. This was transferred here from the water tower located below. Between 1916 and 1920 the Prague Gate was restored by the architect Kamil Hilbert. Its mason-ry, built from quarry stone, was rendered in lime mortar, the stone window flanning was added to or exchanged,an aperture was newly obtained for the clock dial facing

KH is the initials of the architect Kamil Hilbert, who directed the reconstruction of the cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in the years 1913 – 1915, giving the church its present form. The initials are at the be-ginning of a text on the plate above the gable of the sacristy, which is reminiscent of an envelope, into which the patrons of the church, saints Peter and Paul, are “stuffed”. They were sculpted by VojtěchSucharda.

Prague Gate

The Prague Gate

The Prague Gate at the end of the 19th century

The Prague Gate today

Plate on gable of sacristy of church of St. Peter and St. Paul

Plate on walling of new Romanesque floor of towerof church of St. Peter and St. Paul was constructed by Kamil Hilbert, bearing year inscription 1914


the Prague Suburb, and a new, more pointed hipped roof was erected with skew fillets and an oriel for the clockgongs. After the water-tank was taken out of service in 1930 the gate lost this task as well and remained merely a striking lesser dominant feature in the town’s panorama.

The painter Vladimír Veselý devised and prepared its current role. It is now an original gallery called the Gallery in the Tower. Here, visitors can combine the pleasure of viewing the exhibited works, the remarkable view of the town streets and beyond to the east, and relax with refreshments.

UndergroundBelow the town’s historic core lies another town, one

created from a network of corridors and spaces of various sizes. The Mělník underground, for many a veil of mystery, has since the 1970s become a subject for research, not only as a result of natural human curiosity but also due to certain dangers that it contains within it.

The underground probably began life at the end of the 13th century at the same time as the construction of the town. The corridor system, mostly hewn from sandstone at a depth of 8 to 10 metres below today’s surface, was, and in most cases still is, part of almost every building in the town’s historic core. Previously, its individual buildings were linked; today, however, this is no longer possible due to the fre-quent brickwork additions, fillings in and cave-ins, as a re-sult of which many sections of the underground are now in-accessible and it is not possible to even gain a proper idea of its size. And because Mělník is situated on a hill whose rock is disintegrating there have been several instances of roadways or pavements collapsing (e.g. in 1875 in Husova ulice a brewer’s van fell in), and of defects in buildings’ stat-ics. These are some of the reasons for the town deciding to go ahead with systematic research into the underground. Its first phase was led by Dr. Vladimír Havelka from 2000 to2003.

Why did the underground come into existence in the first place? Such spaces are not unique to Mělník. We findthem in many historic towns, such as Jihlava, Plzeň, Tábor, Kutná Hora or Slavonice. Underground spaces have been used for storage, for example as wine or beer cellars, and have provided refuge at times of danger, whether from ar-mies or fires. In our town the cellars are on two to three lev-els; the upper floors are reinforced with brick while belowthat they are surrounded merely by rock (marl, sandstone). They weren’t only excavated under individual houses but

Mělník is relatively poor in terms of exterior sculptural decoration. To find theoldest statues it is necessary to go out-side the historic centre, either to Pšovka, to the park by the church of St. Lawrence, or to climb the old pilgrimage route in the direction of Chloumek.

Prague Gate • Underground

Above the roofs of the town

St John of Nepomuk in Chloumecká street (1720)

St. John of Nepomuk in park by church of St. Lawrence,transferred from Pšovka stream


often extend beyond their ground plan under public squares and today form a damaged system of corridors, evi-dence of which can be found in a corridor opening beyond the fortification walls or a corridor leading to a well. The rockhewn from the underground spaces was used by our ances-tors to construct buildings, houses or fortifications.

A circle with inscription in the paving of Peace Square (náměstí Míru) shows the spot on which a well was hewn out of the rock, a unique work of mining. This was probably hewn at the time of the town’s beginnings and for a long time was its only source of water. Previously, the well’s depth was given as 60 metres, which would make it equal to the height of the tower of the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul; the latest measurements (2000), however, give a depth of 54 metres, where the height of the water column is 7.2 metres. Its diameter is much larger than that stated on the circle in the pavement, i.e. 4-5 metres. The current, although not original, access to the well is the underground corridor from the house no. 51.

The corridor is hewn in andstone at a depth of 8 metres. At the corridor’s end an aperture has been punched through into the brick casing of the well (0.5 x 0.5 m); this has been recently reconstructed (the brickwork reaches down 11 m into the well, below that is sheer rock).

The underground spac-es are not yet accessible to the public (with the excep-tion of the chateau cellars, the cellars in the museum and spaces that form part of the operations of the Modrá hvězda, Sv. Václav and Rytíř wine bars), although the town of Mělník would like to open at least part of them for visitors.

St. Ludmila and MělníkThe princess Ludmila, who in the year

874 was married to Bořivoj, the first his-torically documented Czech prince, came originally from Mělník, formerly known as Pšov. Their names are connected with the most significant event of the oldestCzech history: the introduction of Christi-anity into the Czech lands.

St. Ludmila was always honoured in Mělník. This is documented not only by

Underground

St. Ludmila from the altar of church of St. Peter and St. Paul (1749)

St. Ludmila in recess of large tower of church of St. Peter and St. Paul (Jaromír Čermák, 1915)


the church of St. Ludmila and the chateau chapel of the same dedication, but also numerous depictions in Mělník churches and in secular constructions. An example may be the face of the town hall and Kroup’s triptych on its ground floor, fea-turing a scene in which St. Ludmila in-structs St. Wenceslas, a theme also ap-pearing on the side altar in the church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Ludmila’s baptism is also a frequent theme in Mělník.

Church of St. Ludmilawith bell-tower

The church of St. Ludmila is situated in Prague Street (Pražská ulice) just below Charles IV Square (náměstí Kar-la IV). Previously, this part of the town was called the Prague Suburb and it was from here that people would leave the town via the Prague Gate to make their way to Prague, the capital city of the kingdom of Bohemia. According to legend, the church was built on the site where Princess Lud-mila slept soon after accepting Christianity, when the Mělník populace, in those days still pagan, did not want to let her enter the town (in Ludmila’s time, however, the town did not actually exist, just like the name Mělník).

The church of St. Ludmila was built at the bequest of a native of Mělník, Ludmila Hronová, née Metelicová, the widow of the first imperial magistrate. It was onlythe third church in Bohemia dedicated to this Czech patron saint; today it is the oldest surviving church of St. Ludmila.

Following its consecration in 1585 it was not long before the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, which consumed Europe in the years 1618-1648. Mělník was not spared its devastation when in the Swedish incursion of 1639 the church was burnt down and partly demolished, which was also the fate of the entire suburb. The people of Mělník had to wait until 1685 for the consecration of the church re-stored by the builder Francesco Cerasolla. In the founda-tions this building still exists today, even though it and its surroundings have undergone many changes and repairs.

In 1828, during the expansion of the graveyard (first theone adjacent and then between 1775 and 1880 the main one) the bell-tower and ossuary were removed. The bells were put in the extension (probably from 1789) on the south side of the nave, which survived until the major repairs to the church of St. Ludmila performed 1906–1907.

They were then placed in the newly-built bell-tower de-signed by the architect Antonín Wiehle (the main force be-

Church of St. Ludmila

Shrine containing hand bone of St. Ludmila, gift of nunsfrom convent of St. George, centre of honour

of St. Ludmila, to Mělník (donated before 1669)

Church of St. Ludmila with bell-tower

Vases on the pillars of the entrance gate – the skulls recall the former graveyard

Renaissance tomb of the Sixtus Dvor-ský family (1599)


Old vedutas of the town are dominat-ed by the tower of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, the tower of the town hall, the Prague Gate, the sanctus spire of the Capuchin church and the church of St. Lud-mila, and the water-tower. Over the course of the years, however, further features have been added, and often attentive pedestri-ans have their gaze drawn to heights, to admire a range of various details of towers, spires and turrets which accompanied con-structions and houses in historical styles or Art Noveau-style buildings.

hind the Czech neo-Renaissance) who led the construction work.

Among other objects of interest inside this snug little church the visitor will certainly wish to see the marble tomb of the five children of Sixtus Dvorský, a citizen of Mělník(1599). The main altar with a picture showing the baptism of St. Ludmila dates from 1746 and is the work of the sculptor Jan Pursch of Pšovka. The pulpit dating from 1699 has boards depicting the four holy fathers (St. Jerome, St. Am-brose, St. Gregory, St. Augustine), while the staircase para-pet shows St. Andrew and the boy Jesus speaking in the temple.

At the beginning of the 1990s the church of St. Ludmila and the adjoining public gardens were renovated and the bell-tower repaired. Most recently in 2006, replicas of vases in the form of urns were placed on the pillars of the entrance gates to the park, a former cemetery. They are decorated with festoons, hung in this case on skull. Memento mori.

Protestant ChurchWhere now stands the church of the Evangelical Church

of Czech Brethren with its 23 m tall tower there used to be a vineyard (as throughout the whole area) called Damiánka. The construction of the church of our Lord in Mělník was undertaken by the “presbyterium of the Evangelical Reformed Church” in Vysoká in keeping with the last will of Mrs. Rosalie Titěrová. The application for its building after a design by the architect František Červenka was submitted on 7 June 1896 and the final stone was laid in the same yearon 13 September. The consecration of the new “Evangelical Church of our Lord” was celebrated within a year on 18 Au-gust 1897, thereby laying the foundations for the develop-ing protestant life in the region. This was reflected in the set-

ting up of a protestant congregation in Mělník in 1901. Its first priest was Dr. František Žilka, a figure of wide renown(from 1920 the professor of New Testament scholarship at the Master Hus Czechoslovak Protestant Theological Facul-ty, the author of many theological works and the translator of the New Testament – first edition in 1933). Soon after-wards the area around the church was transformed. To its south a single-storey vicarage was built in 1903; this was lat-er rebuilt in 1937 and the Hus House added.

As fits the character and methods of worship in the re-formed churches, the church building is very simply equipped. The main symbol of the church, the chalice, is lo-cated in several places in a dominant position.

Church of St. Ludmila • Protestant Church

Protestant Church

Sanctus spire of church of St. Ludmila and roof of belfry


Mělník cemeteriesThe oldest Mělník cemetery spread

out around the church of St. Peter and St. Paul until 1775, when burial here was halted and transferred to the cemetery by the church of St. Ludmila, which became the main cemetery until 1880. Then the cemetery of St. Wenceslas was estab-lished in Pražská street, divided into the Catholic and Protestant sections. An older cemetery is also the cemetery by the church of the Holy Trinity in Mělník – Chloumek, mentioned by written sources from the end of the 16th century on-wards. This cemetery contains a part of the history of the town of Mělník, since it was the last resting place of a range of ex-ceptional personages from the town. Also amongst the Mělník cemeteries is the small but enchanting Na Ráji cemetery under trees.

The Czechoslovak Evangelical Church derives from the Czech Reformation and acknowledges the works of the Ref-ormation theologians, of whom two of the most prominent are Jan Hus and Ja¬n Amos Komenský. The Mělník Protes-tant church building has a commemorative plaque to Jan Hus on the east façade and also inscriptions on the two bells in the tower. The third bell was requisitioned during the Second World War.

Behind the left side doors can be found stones which in former times were probably located in the Damiánka vineyard. They recalled the vineyard’s founder Charles IV and its owner in the 1840s Josef Neumann.

Mělník town parksThe modest size of the historic core of Mělník, a medie-

val walled town, did not offer possibilities to build gardensand parks. The town itself was surrounded by vineyards, and

a small garden adjoined the north wing of the chateau. The first (and last) park with-in the walls was created on the site of the former graveyard of the church of Sts. Peter and Paul, which was removed at the time of the Josephine reforms. The space transformed into a green area was called the Church Square, and later the Bernat Gardens (after the provost Josef Bernat).

The oldest actual Mělník park is the Jungmann Gar-

dens, which were created in the mid-1860s at the instiga-tion of the then burgomas-ter Josef Valenta on the site of the filled-in fortificationtrench along the moat wall. Compared with the original space its area was reduced by the built-up part of the Prague Suburb. The latest chapter in its history oc-curred on 5 May 2000, when a memorial by Miroslav Kroupa was unveiled here to the victims of the Second World War.

The Na Polabí Park was built under the auspices of the Mělník Savings Bank, the town and the generous help of the wine and fruit-growing school – at the suggestion of its teacher Arnošt Peths. It was intended to be an embellishment to the town and at the same time to serve the school’s purposes. It was actually a botanical garden, with 300 timber species. A plaque to the park’s founder Arnošt Peths was unveiled on 20 April 1999.

The youngest Mělník park is the Na Podolí Park, which spreads across the left bank of the river Pšovka. It is being built in stages and its final area will take up a total of 4 hec-tares. The first part, opened on 18 June 1998 in the vicinityof the bus station, preserves the character of a valley mead-ow with wetlands and a water area including native timber species characteristic for this region. It is the last locality in the town where rare species of amphibians live. In other parts the park is conceived as a town park with various tim-ber species, including exotic, and with two children’s play-grounds. On the eightieth anniversary of the creation of

Protestant Church • Mělník town parks

Winter park by the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

In spring magnolias blossom near the Jungmann gardens

Haupt family tomb at Chloumek cemetery


The Mělník Jewish cemetery is a his-torical feature which serves as a reminder that before World War II our neighbours here were also Jewish citizens, who never returned home. The cemetery was found-ed in 1878 and belonged to the Jewish community in Mělník. It was used until the war, and also contains a symbolic tomb of four members of the Kantor fam-ily, who died in a concentration camp. In their form most of the tombs are similar

to Christian graves, made of granite or marble, with Czech or German lettering and Jewish symbols (star of David, Kohen hands, Levite´s cup etc.)

an independent Czechoslovakia a lime tree was planted here – the Tree of the Republic. On 8 February 2001, the day of the Jewish celebration of the New Year for Trees, other trees were planted in memory of the murdered Jewish fel-low citizens during the Holocaust.

In the Mělník land registry there is also an English park. This was created in the 1860s by Jan Eduard, Knight of Neu-berg, at the summer chateau of Neuberg (beginning of the 18th century).

Mělník town parks

Na Podolí Park - stops in the country

Route beside the river Pšovka

Tombs of Jewish cemetery


Lateral navigable canal with a lockFrom the chateau there is a view of

the magnificent Hořínské lock, part of the waterworks – canal locks on the Hořínsko-vraňanský canal, which was built in 1902-1905 as a result of the poor navigability of the lower Moldau flow.The lock, an Art Nouveau building from stone, brick and metal is one of the most important works by the Prague architect František Sander (1871-1932), who de-signed many waterworks. It is preserved in perfect condition and is a major archi-tectonic and technical monument, which includes a residential building for people servicing the lock. The point at which the canal flows into the river Elbe is oftenmistaken for a confluence.

Modern architectureThe corner two-floor house with turret (no. 26) on Peace

Square, today the home of the Komerční banka bank, was built between 1907 and 1908 by the Mělník Savings Bank on the site of a single-floor house with a sculpture of Christon the corner. The designer of its Art Nouveau style was the Prague architect F. Buldra, although the actual realisation was left to the Mělník builder Karel Novák. In 1933, when the savings bank celebrated its 70th anniversary, the build-ing underwent refurbishment. The design for the conver-sion of the cellars, ground-floor and first floor was the workof two pairs of architects – Prague engineers with the sono-rous names of Jindřich Freiwald and Jaroslav Böhm, and the Mělník inhabitants Josef Širc and Bedřich Zeman. It was then that the savings bank acquired its current appearance – the facade to the ground-floor was faced with marbleslabs.

The building at the corner of Pražská and Fibich streets (no. 220), today the seat of Česká spořitelna, dates from

1936–1937. It was built by the District Economic Savings Bank after a design by Jindřich Freiwald and Jaroslav Böhm, who gave the corner a concave incline in which they placed a cylindrical section. The whole ground-floor is harmonisedby cream ceramic tiling, including the cylindrical centre, in which the right-angled portal of the entry, finished withglazed granite tiles, is located. The plastered floors of thewings are jutting out. The sculptor Oskar Kozák was respon-sible for the sculptural decoration. This large building was the home not only of the savings bank but also of a coffeehouse and wine bar, although these are now gone.

Žilkova villa (no. 204) in Nová ulice, now the home of the Employment Office, was built in 1906–1907 by MarieNeumannová according to a design by Quido Bělský. The villa’s current name comes from the marriage of Marie Neu-mannová’s daughter to ThDr. František Žilka. The storeyed villa in geometric Art Nouveau style has largely been pre-served in its original state. Its smooth white facade is divid-ed into stripes of coarse ochre plaster which alternate with

Modern architecture

Art Nouveau mascaron on house No. 26

Corner house No. 220

Lateral navigable canal with a lock from the castle observation point


One of the most important works created for the Augustinian monastery in Pšovka is the votive painting of Master IW from the period of late Gothic/early Renaissance. It is a double-sided painted wooden board showing on one side a picture of the Most Holy Trinity with a gloriole of cherubs and on the other the victorious Christ, at whose feet kneels a petitioner with hands clasped in prayer, from the right enters Death – a skeleton with scythe and hour-glass measuring time.

illustrations of glazed tiles and supplemented by carved coloured wooden shield and the balcony balustrade. The asymmetrical street front with pillared entrance is dominated by a combined window with a coloured pane with the motif of a peacock. Quido Bělský followed a similar spir-it in designing villa no. 2 in Radniční ulice, which bears the name of the Surrealist poet Oldřich Wenzl (1921–1969). Also of interest is villa no. 210, which was created in close con-nection with the Water Tower according to a design by the Prague architect Bohumil Hübschmann, Wagner’s pupil from the Vienna art academy. The villa, which is today the seat of the District State Attorney´s Office, bearsthe name of the man who built it JUDr. František Valina,

lawyer, chairman of the Mělník Savings Bank and also the town’s mayor (1908-1919, 1923-1925).

The Masaryk House of Culture (no. 323) is the result of the Mělník people’s long and tireless campaign for the town to have a cultural centre. It was built in 1935–1936 from a design by the Mělník architects Josef Širc Jnr. and Bedřich Zeman, with whom Dr. Jan Bo-huslav Zelený later worked closely.

The purist building is an articulated, right-angled space in the south-west with a semi-circular end. Many ma-terials were used to make up its facade: scarred plaster, cut brickwork masonry from glazed red bricks; the additional elements are from copper, stone and wood. Someone arriv-ing will be surprised by the grand scale of the entry, which matches the grandiose external entrance area. This is where 28 October street (which heads straight to the building’s centre) ends, and this axis culminates in the statue of T. G. Masaryk (the work of Vincenc Makovský) raised on the landing of the equally grand staircase.

Modern architecture

Art Nouveau villa No. 204, known as Žilkova

Stained-glass window – peacock

Valinova villa below the Water Tower

Masaryk House of Culture

Tyršova street with the neo-Renaissance building of the Sokol hall and school buildings – Art Nouveau and Cubist

Master IW: votive picture with Christ,Death and Petitioner (153?)


Church of St. LawrenceThe Church of St. Lawrence (Mělník – Pšovka) was creat-

ed as part of the Calced Augustinian Monastery, which was established in Pšovka near Mělník in the 1260s by Smil of Cí-tov a Pavel of Luštěnice. It was originally a church with an elongated vaulted presbytery with an adjoining basilica double-nave. The north side nave was destroyed after the Hussite wars, which meant the monastery’s temporary clo-sure.

Today, the church’s appearance is dominated by the Ba-roque alterations which were made after the devastation wrought on it by Mělník conscripts in 1611 and after the Thirty Years War. The contents of the church are also pre-dominantly Baroque. The interior is currently incomplete as the church was flooded by the rising Elbe in 2002, whichdamaged the building and its contents. Restoration was carried out of those parts which are essential for the church’s operations, i.e. the main altar, including pictures and the richly carved church pews. Sources confirm that Karel Škréta

painted the picture “St. Lawrence healing the blind Roman soldier”. Also restored was the picture of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Good Counsel (above the tabernacle), which to-gether with the Virgin Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help (on the side altar in the presbytery) is especially venerated in the Augustinian Order.

The total restoration of the church led to a number of discoveries testifying to the centuries of building work that stand behind it. In 1996 the restoration of the church facade revealed a large pointed window in the east façade. Its exist-ence was expected due to the engraving which records the ransacking of the monastery in 1611, but the work per-formed after the flood of 2002 gave up more surprising dis-coveries in the church interior. In the presbytery this in-volved an early Gothic sedilia with early Baroque stucco decorations and a Renaissance sanctuary, while in the nave the wooden side Baroque altar concealed an older Baroque illusive altar with scenes from the Crucifixion and St. John ofNepomuk by J. E. Vodňanský.

Until 1789 the Church of St. Lawrence served as the monastery church before becoming a parish church follow-ing the monastry’s dissolution under Joseph II. The convent was used for the administration of the Lobkowicz estate and later served as the premises for a vocational school. The building is now awaiting a new purpose.

The Church of St. Lawrence was flooded in August 2002up to a height of 80 cm. That might not seem a lot, but the water, which entered the church at the lower level, was ex-tremely destructive. This resulted in the entire restoration of the church, which was reopened to the public on 15 August 2004. Not only divine services are held here but also cultural events.

Church of St. Lawrence

Master IW: The Most Holy Trinity

Church of St. Lawrence


Angels – messengers of God, protec-tors of people, their assistants, inspiration for human activity, particularly in the field of art – could be your guides throughyour tour of the town, or at least certain parts thereof. And if you haven’t yet no-ticed them, look upon their benign faces at least now.

The Church of the Most Holy Trinity (Mělník – Chloumek)

The pilgrimage Church of the Most Holy Trinity is Gothic in origin (probably the second half of the 15th century). Its earliest history is attested to not only by written sources but also materially (specifically the stained glass from the southwindow, now in a museum) commemorating the names of those who were probably responsible for administering the church assets. In addition to praising God a text dated 1585 also mentions the name of St. Ludmila. Paintings on the presbytery vault are evidence of alterations at the begin-ning of the 17th century. The cloister which on three sides closes off the area around the church was probably builtin connection with repairs carried out in the second half of the 17th century. The entrance gate to the area leads its centre and the cloister concludes with two chapels – the north chapel consecrated to St. Gotthard and the south to the Virgin Mary. Today it contains a mortuary and the sec-ond serves as a “waiting room” for mourners, which is con-nected with the change in the church’s function when, in spite of the protests of the church, conservationists and the public a funeral hall was built in it. Despite this, the Church of the Most Holy Trinity is a place with an un-repeatable genius loci.

From the 16th century pilgrimages were held here on the festival of the Most Holy Trinity. This persisted for centuries until the 1950s. The Holy Trinity pilgrimage was restarted in 2005 due to the joint efforts of the

Mělník cultural and residents’ association and the Mělník Provostship.

The Church of St. Johnof Nepomuk (Mělník – Chloumek)

The Baroque Church of St. John of Pomuk stands just to the north-east of Mělník. It was built in 1708 thanks to Eufrosina Schmiedová, née Jaroměřská of Štromberk, who lived in Mělník. It served its purpose until the Josephine re-forms, and after its restoration in the middle of the 19th cen-tury for another 120 years. In 1971 it was leased and remains so today.

Its position, which offers a view of the country far andwide, has attracted many pilgrims. K. H. Mácha stopped at the church on his pilgrimage to Krkonoše in 1832, Svato-pluk Čech made his way here from Obříství (1896) and in 1920 T. G. Masaryk also stopped here. Their visits were commemorated by the unveiling of a bronze memorial plaque in 1933. And because Viktor Dyk also used to come here from Pšovka, the observation point, now no longer accessible, was named after him.

Chateau NeuberkThe Neuberk summer chateau was built in the Baroque

style at the end of the 18th century by Jan Fridrich Neu-mann, Knight of Neuberg. The English park which surrounds the chateau was created much later during the time of by Jan Eduard, Knight of Neuberg, in the 1860s.

The chateau remained in the hands of the Neubergs un-til the First Republic land reforms. In 1921 the district au-thority gave the building with adjoining lands to the wine and fruit-growers’ school. Today the building has a hall of residence for the Mělník Central Horticultural School, while the lands form the basis of the school estate.

Other sights

Church of the Most Holy Trinity

Angel with coats of arms bearing city and estate emblems, Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

Head of angel from panel of Baroque pew in church of St. Lawrence

town guide mělník

Documents

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town shelters

town unique

town guide mlnklooking

royal dowry town

medieval walled town

excellent mlnk wine

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