Vyšehrad Cemetery

For Czechs, the Vyšehrad Cemetery is Vyšehrad hill’s main attraction. In the late 19th century the parish graveyard was made into a memorial cemetery for famous figures of Czech culture, with a graceful, neo-Renaissance arcade running along the northern and western sides. For the real heroes, an elaborate pantheon called the Slavín (loosely, ‘Hall of Fame’), designed by Antonín Wiehl, was added at the eastern end in 1894; its 50-odd occupants include painter Alfons Mucha, sculptor Josef Myslbek and architect Josef Gočár. The motto reads Ač Zemeřeli Ještě Mluví (Though dead, they still speak). The 600 or so graves in the rest of the cemetery include those of composers Smetana and Dvořák and writers Karel Čapek, Jan Neruda and Božena Němcová; there’s a directory of famous names at the entrance. One word that you will see all over the place is rodina – it means ‘family’. Many of the tombs and headstones are themselves works of art – Dvořák’s is a sculpture by Ladislav Šaloun, the Art Nouveau sculptor who created the Jan Hus monument in Old Town Square. To find it from the gate beside the church, head straight across to the colonnade on the far side, and turn left; it’s the fifth tomb on your right. To find Smetana’s grave, go to the Slavín and stand facing the monument; it’s the pale-grey obelisk to your right. The annual Prague Spring music festival kicks off on 12 May, the anniversary of Smetana’s death, with a procession from his grave at Vyšehrad to the Municipal House.