Petřín () is a hill in the centre 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 ...

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. Th ...

. It rises 327 m above sea level and some 130 m above the left bank of the Vltava River. The hill, almost entirely covered with parks, is a favorite recreational area for the inhabitants of Prague. The hill (in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

known as ''Laurenziberg'') is featured prominently in

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ty ...

's early short story "

Description of a Struggle "Description of a Struggle" (german: "Beschreibung eines Kampfes") is a short story by Franz Kafka. It contains the dialogues "Conversation with the Supplicant" ("Gespräch mit dem Beter") and "Conversation with the Drunk" ("Gespräch mit dem Bet ...

" and briefly in Milan Kundera's novel ''

The Unbearable Lightness of Being ''The Unbearable Lightness of Being'' ( cs, Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí) is a 1984 novel by Milan Kundera, about two women, two men, a dog and their lives in the 1968 Prague Spring period of Czechoslovak history. Although written in 1982, the n ...

''. The chronicler Cosmas describes Petřín as a very rocky place, the hill is allegedly called Petřín because of the large number of rocks (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

: petra). Since ancient times,

stones In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's ...

were dug and were used to construct buildings in Prague. Medieval defence wall, the Hunger Wall was built on Petřín Hill during 1360 - 1362, by the order of

king of Bohemia The Duchy of Bohemia was established in 870 and raised to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198. Several Bohemian monarchs ruled as non-hereditary kings beforehand, first gaining the title in 1085. From 1004 to 1806, Bohemia was part of the Holy Roman ...

Charles IV. The Petřín Lookout Tower, which strongly resembles the Eiffel Tower, was built atop a hill in 1891. Other sights include the Rose Garden, Mirror Maze, Cathedral of Saint Lawrence, and St Michael Church. The summit of the hill is linked to Prague's

Malá Strana Malá Strana (Czech language, Czech for "Little Side (of the River)", ) or more formally Menší Město pražské () is a districts of Prague, district of the city of Prague, Czech Republic, and one of its most historic neighbourhoods. In the Mi ...

district by the Petřín funicular, a

funicular railway A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite e ...

that first operated in 1891.

Main sights

* Petřín lookout tower * Petřín funicular * Hunger Wall * Mirror Maze * Rose Garden *

Štefánik's Observatory Štefánik's Observatory ( cs, Štefánikova hvězdárna, obs. code: 541) is an astronomical observatory on Petřín hill in the center of Prague founded 1928 and named after Slovak astronomer Milan Rastislav Štefánik. Nowadays the observa ...

* Strahov Stadium * St Lawrence Cathedral * St. Michael the Archangel Church (wooden church from the second half of the 17th century in

Boyko The Boykos ( uk, Бойки, Boiky; pl, Bojkowie; sk, Pujďáci), or simply Highlanders (верховинці, ''verkhovyntsi''), are an ethnolinguistic sub-group of Ukrainians located in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, ...

style, transferred from Subcarpathian Ruthenia in 1929) *

Memorial to the Victims of Communism The Memorial to the victims of Communism ( cs, Pomník obětem komunismu) is a series of statues in Prague commemorating the victims of the communist era between 1948 and 1989. It is located at the base of Petřín hill, Újezd street in the M ...

References

Mountains and hills of Prague {{Prague-geo-stub