New Cellars - Olomouc Castle

Here in front of us we have the very foundations of the city. From the monumentality of the remains of the buildings, we can imagine the important role Olomouc played in the Middle Ages. In the 9th and 10th centuries it was one of the administrative centres of the first state entity in our territory called the Great Moravian Empire, and it was probably also the seat of the bishop. After the collapse of this empire, Olomouc Castle became the seat of the new rulers from the Přemyslid family. Czech King Vratislav II in 1063 renewed the bishopric in Olomouc, whose ecclesiastical authority included all of Moravia.

Olomouc Castle itself was probably a group of wooden buildings until the beginning of the 12th century. Over the following years the wooden structures were gradually replaced by new ones built of stone. Bishop Jindřich Zdík, very influential and educated, built the church of St. Wenceslas in the middle of the 12th century, and then added it to his private residence.

Through the arched gate you can see the residential Romanesque tower that was built at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries to protect the northern entrance to the castle.

-------------------

We move to the back part of the New Cellars where we can at least partially imagine what the Cathedral of St. Wenceslas looked like at the time of its creation before the middle of the 12th century and how it changed after its reconstruction in the following century.