Střešovický Vojenský Hřbitov

Old military cemetery, tombstones from the 18th and 19th centuries.

In 1786, an order was issued by Emperor Joseph II that fallen soldiers must be buried outside the city gates. On the left bank of the Vltava, a military cemetery was established - or rather restored - on the border of Hradčany and Střešovice, just below the walls of the Baroque fortifications at the tenth bastion of St. František Borgia. He served mainly for the crew of the Prague Artillery Regiment. It was abolished, similarly to the Karlín military cemetery, around 1905. Tombstones have been preserved at the foot of the bastion. The slabs are set into the masonry of bastion No. XI and the connecting wall between bastions No. X and XI. The most magnificent tombstone belonged to General Wenzel Schilke, knight of Blumenfeld. His coat of arms was carved upside down to indicate that the general was the last of his family. Also buried here is an artilleryman, mathematician Major General Josef Jüttner, who, on the basis of a trigonometric network, created in 1816 the first very accurate plan of Prague at a scale of 1: 4320. Due to vandals, there are only a few tombstones left. The Stone Star is a common grave of 28 Prussian grenadiers killed in an accidental explosion of ammunition on August 25, 1866, during the occupation of Prague after the lost battle of Hradec Králové. The entrances to the walls are visible in the walls, they are walled anti-aircraft shelters from World War II. The Brusnice stream (springing in the Břevnov Monastery) flows through the walls, on which there were building blocks during the active defense system of the Marian Walls. It regulated the moat at the Písek Gate, when in times of danger it opened and flooded the defensive moat. The former cemetery now flows smoothly into Max van der Stoel Park. In its northern part is a remarkable sculpture, a monument to Max van der Stoel (1924 in Voorschoten in the Netherlands - 2011 in The Hague). Its authors are sculptor Dominik Lang and architect Jakub Červenka. The monument is made of concrete and has the form of a horizontal shade of one of the trees in the park. It is to symbolize "the impact of one meeting on the history of the Czech Republic." On March 1, 1977, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands Max van der Stoel met with the spokesman of Charter 77 Jan Patočka (1907 in Turnov - 1977 in Prague). He thus became the first Western politician to openly support Czech dissidents. The meeting took place at the Intercontinental Hotel in Prague.