In today’s excerpt from Prague Unbound , we visit the lovely Petřín Hill…

Petřín is a sprawling hillside park rising from the left bank of the Vltava River. Attractions include winding paths, a rose garden, an Eiffel-inspired observatory and a mirror maze housed in a small replica castle. It is also the home of the Hunger Wall, a medieval defensive barrier constructed at the behest of Charles IV. It gained its name as its construction provided employment during a 1361 famine that wiped out many of Prague’s less fortunate inhabitants (the term ‘Hunger Wall’ is still used by Praguers to refer to public works that serve no legitimate purpose – which we’re guessing wouldn’t sit so well with all those on the brink of starvation in the 14th century).

Petřín is also one of the few Prague landmarks that Franz Kafka directly referred to in his work, setting a passage of Description of a Struggle on the hill – a passage in which the narrator witnesses his young acquaintance casually plunge a knife into his own arm and begin bleeding profusely, prompting the narrator to run to a dilapidated and abandoned Gardener’s House (still standing at present, still abandoned) in hopes of finding help.

The hill is more strongly associated with the poet Karel Mácha (there’s a statue of him here) and his tragic love poem May, making it a favorite meeting place for lovers. It’s also associated with ‘The Burning of the Witches’, a yearly festival when Czechs gather around bonfires and burn their old brooms in effigy. Indeed, Petřín served as a burial place for several hundred women burned to death in witch-hunts during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Ah, nothing says love like the smell of burning witches.

(Photo via Petr Novák, Wikimedia Commons)