Levý Hradec is an early medieval Bohemian gord situated 3 km northwest of

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

borders near Roztoky, in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. This fortified settlement served as the original seat of Bořivoj I, the first known Přemyslid ruler. It was built on a

promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the ...

on the left bank of the

Vltava River Vltava ( , ; german: Moldau ) is the longest river in the Czech Republic, running southeast along the Bohemian Forest and then north across Bohemia, through Český Krumlov, České Budějovice and Prague, and finally merging with the Labe at M ...

approximately in mid-9th century. The first Christian church was built here shortly after Bořivoj I converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

. This church was consecrated to St. Clement. The first historical evidence concerning Levý Hradec comes from

Kristián Kristian is a name in several languages, and is a form of Christian. Meaning in different languages The name is used in several languages, among them Albanian, Slovak, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Bosnian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and ...

who wrote about the St. Clement church and its first priest Kaich.

also mentions Saint Adalbert of Slavník's dynasty to be elected here into his bishopric office on 19 February 982.

Přemyslid dynasty The Přemyslid dynasty or House of Přemyslid ( cs, Přemyslovci, german: Premysliden, pl, Przemyślidzi) was a Bohemian royal dynasty that reigned in the Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia and Margraviate of Moravia (9th century–1 ...

left Levý Hradec at the beginning of the 10th century but it seems that settlement persevered as dense as in the 9th century. New building were constructed and fortifications regularly repaired. The site was abandoned at the end of the 11th century as there is no further evidence of fortifications being repaired. Nevertheless, the reason why it happened so is still unknown. The site was excavated as soon as the 19th century by archeologists Čeněk Rýzner and Josef Ladislav Píč. The main excavations took place in the 1930s and 1950s when Ivan Borkovský excavated the foundations of the original St. Clement church. Near to Levý Hradec another early medieval fort has been first described by Josef Ladislav Píč. The excavations started there in 2000 discovered remains of much larger settlement than expected until then, comparable with Levý Hradec. The involved archeologists now assume this settlement is the ''Pravý Hradec'' (''levý hradec'' means ''fort on the left side'', ''pravý'' means ''on the right side''), the fort mentioned in contemporary records but never identified.

External links

Website of Levý Hradec
(in Czech)
Detailed information about excavation in the locality
(in Czech)
Levý Hradec in historical context
(overview article in Czech) {{DEFAULTSORT:Levy Hradec Archaeological sites in the Czech Republic Castles in the Central Bohemian Region National Cultural Monuments of the Czech Republic 9th century in Bohemia Prague-West District