Svatá Hora

From 1902 onwards, the Příbram Landscaping Society began gradually transforming the slopes of Svatá Hora into a nature park, based on a design by the teacher Jan Vašta. The society’s chronicle records: ‘The founder was not daunted by obstacles. He avoided healthy trees when laying out paths and removed the unsuitable ones. Where it was impossible to avoid them, he transplanted the young saplings elsewhere. He used the excavated stone to lay the foundations for winding paths, even in places where no one would have expected it.”

Jan Vašta also noted here: “The founder’s vision was to create, whilst preserving the existing old vegetation, a nature park in which an ornamental garden, a meadow and woodland, in the style of an English landscape garden, arranged in such a way as to preserve unobstructed views, pleasant vistas and, from suitable vantage points, the necessary outlook.” The landscaping work then continued in the following years.

On the way from the car park, everyone passes the guardian of Svatá Hora – the historic St Wenceslas Oak, estimated to be over 400 years old.

Avenues of ancient lime trees were planted along the access paths to the basilica around 1840 on the initiative of Baron Wolfgang Julius von Schönau, and they continue to provide shade for pilgrims to this day. In 2013, the Svatá Hora lime tree avenue underwent specialist treatment.

The woodland opposite St Wenceslas’s Oak was planted and named Svatopluk Čech’s Gardens, and a small stone monument from that era remains hidden amongst the tall trees to this day. Above Čech’s Orchards, the hilltop was transformed into a Calvary, dominated by a stone Baroque sculpture depicting Christ on the cross.

Part of the woodland towards Sázky was known as Hrabák’s Orchards, named after Josef Hrabák, a professor at the Mining University; a cairn with a commemorative plaque, set amongst the spruce trees, serves as a reminder of the original park layout.

Map here...