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

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

borders near

Roztoky Roztoky (; ) is a town in Prague-West District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 9,100 inhabitants. Etymology The name is derived from , i.e. 'divided stream'. It is a common Czech geographical name for places fo ...

, in the

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. 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 s ...

on the left bank of the Vltava River 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, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. This church was consecrated to St. Clement. The first historical evidence concerning Levý Hradec comes from Kristián who wrote about the St. Clement church and its first priest Kaich. Kristián 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 Přemysl (, , ) was a Bohemian royal dynasty that reigned in the Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia and Margraviate of Moravia (9th century–1306), as well as in parts of Poland (including Silesia ...

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