I haven’t been out of town for a couple of months, not since my January trip to the Butter Museum at Máslovice. So I pulled out my little guidebook and started paging through the section on day trips, where I ran across a description of Mělník. So I hopped on the bus to have a look.
The castle (of course there’s a castle: this is a Czech town) is beautifully situated, on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Vltava and Labe rivers:
This view is said to be the inspiration for Smetana’s Ma Vlast ("My Country"). The castle was confiscated from the Lobkowicz family by the communists, but has since been returned to them.
From the castle courtyard; in the lower left is the entrance to the restaurant:
And the opposite side of the courtyard:
That’s the spire of the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in the background.
The castle has been well-restored and the tour was interesting. As an aside, I’ll point out that, by and large, it’s the castles that have been returned to private hands that have been better restored and that have better tours. The ones operated by the government have largely been gracelessly restored and the tours are more boring.
The Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul has an ossuary that a Czech professor designed with a group of his students back in 1914. Once you’ve seen the ossuary at Sedlec, though, this one is a snoozer!
There’s really not much else to see in Mělník. The City Hall on the main square is attractive, but not worth a trip:
On my way back to the bus stop, I happened to pass by a cemetery, and decided to take a peek:
I was really surprised, and touched, that it seemed that all of the graves were decorated with potted flowers. It was only when I noticed the pomlázka decorating one of the arrangements that I realized that this must be an Easter-specific tradition. Even so, it was impressive that each grave apparently had someone still caring for it.
Leave a Reply