Vyšehrad: Graveyard of the Great

The cemetery, hugging the left flank of the church, is the final resting place of some 600 notable personalities, as well as members of several religious orders. The funerary sculpture here is strikingly distinctive, some of it by leading Czech sculptors. Above a modest ivy-covered grave, a slender woman stands on tiptoe, arms back, leaning forward, like a wingless angel about to take flight – the work of Olbram Zoubek. A František Bílek scupture, called “Sorrow”, keeps watch by another grave. Weeping angels, busts and figures in stone and bronze, tombstones both simple and elaborate, all add to the fascination of this beautiful graveyard. Here you can pay your respects to Czech composers, writers, artists and musicians: Dvořak and Smetana; Neruda, Němcová and Čapek; Mucha, Myslbek and Švabinský, to name a few. Dominating the cemetery is the Slavín, or Pantheon, a mausoleum where some 54 of the most significant figures of Czech cultural and political life are buried. The inscription on the monument reads: “Ač zemřeli, ještě mluví.” Though they are dead, they still speak.

One can spend hours wandering the cemetery, always discovering something new. A grave I visit is that of Milada Horáková, a survior of Terezín and a member of Parliament until the communist coup of 1948, when she was accused of conspiracy and high treason. She was executed in 1950. Her tomb of gray granite is also a memorial to all victims of the totalitarian regimes, 1939 – 1945 and 1948 – 1989. My husband’s favorite grave is that of Lt. Ivan Španiel, who was killed in action fighting in the French armored forces in 1944. The actual wooden cross from the temporary French field cemetery is attached to the family tombstone, a moving reminder of the many Czechs who fell in foreign fields in two wars for the freedom of their country.