Břevnov, the Village Overlooking Hradčany
A stone’s throw from the Castle, close to Bílá Hora, lies one of the most interesting and less frequented by tourists districts of the city. “In Břevnov, in front of my large window, right behind the tiny garden – from autumn until the following summer – it used to be verdant with wheat. Behind the field there were abandoned quarries, which in summer, were full of slender mullein. Behind the quarries, a road went down the valley until it came to other fields and then a small rocky wood. When in March, I opened the window and sat on my armchair staring out, I could hear the larks singing, just as if I were sitting in front of the stage at the National Theatre”. It is with these words, that the Czech poet Jaroslav Seifert, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1984, describes Břevnov at the time of his youth, in the book of 1982 “All the beauties of the world”. The district of Břevnov lies just a few tram stops from the Prague Castle, to the west, in the District of Prague 6. The urban landscape, just outside the historical and tourist centre, summarizes almost suddenly the typical features of...