Petrovice: How did the city part of Prague come to its sign?
And why is it one of the younger parts of the city? Well, to this day, there is quite a problem for them real age. In the places where it lies today, in the Middle Ages there used to be dense forests interwoven with an important trade route. However, when the first inhabitants decide to settle here and name the village after their leader, owner or the oldest members of the family – Peter, it is a question.
Younger sibling
“According to the name of the founder, it is possible to determine at least approximately the time of the fortification and thus the settlement,” I believe Petr Říha in the book Petrovice – 770 years: History, present and future of the Prague – Petrovice district. “It began to be used in Bohemia only after the year 1000. Other bearers of this name came to Bohemia during the founding of colonization towns and settlements at the beginning of the 13th century.” the oldest preserved building in Petrovice – Church of St. James the Elder, which was built in 1250. And it was built for logical reasons, someone who lived here demanded it, so settlement here must have been at least in the first half of the 13th century.
However, it was already relatively lively and economical around Petrovice at that time. It must be documented existence of nearby Chodov or Záběhlice as early as 1185, Dubče even 1130, while the first written mention of Petrovice can be seen as late as 1352. However, it was not a charter, so the village, the historical core is located next to the church, is undoubtedly older. Allegedly, Petrovice could also have been preceded by an earlier village called Bosákovice, which has not survived to this day.
Character: Remains of the first owners
However, it is only in a document of the Register of Papal Tithes that we read about the existence of Petrovice for the first time in historical sources. It states that “Petrovice took 12 tithe groschen that year,” says Říha. From the document only 3 years younger, we will also learn the name of the first known Petrovic. He was him Mikuláš Klementer, a burgher of the Greater City of Prague. “It was undoubtedly a wealthy patrician family, and its members regularly appeared as councilors on the council of the Greater City of Prague.”
Mikuláš seems to have owned several houses in Prague and even that homestead in Horní (then Malé) Měcholupy. What is even more interesting, however, is that the Clementer family probably owned a vineyard. The coat of arms of the family would suggest this – the vine leaves.
“The coat of arms of the Klementer family became the symbol of the Prague – Petrovice district almost unchanged, ”Explains Říha. Was wine grown in Petrovice as well? Not only is this not out of the question – it is also a very elimination, because the historical and now unused name of the local hill was Na Vinicích.
On the verge of destruction
Petrovice remained in the possession of the Clementers until 1399, when it came into possession through marriage. Kbelský of Kbel. They were literally unlucky that the village, no doubt prosperous, came into their possession during the Hussite wars. In the autumn of 1415, Petrovice was mainly razed to the ground as a result of the fighting. Historical records state that even “ponds empty and torn down.”
because he stood in Petrovice church, says Říha o. that it could be o retribution of Angry Hus’s followers at the Catholic tabernacle. The second possibility is the exact opposite, meaning that Petrovice was devastated by Catholics, because Johánek of Kbel, the then head of the family, supported the Hussite movement. Which was fatal for him, because as a moderate Hussite councilor to kill the radical priest Jan Želivský, for which he was beheaded a few days later. Before his death, however, he still managed to improve the church of St. Jakub Senior, in which he is still immortalized in painting.
However, Petrovice did not disappear completely – they succeeded restore, even by causing the first owner, who mentioned the nickname “from Petrovice” after his name. It was a certain Václav Card, one of the Hussite military governors, who acquired considerable property during the 15th century – among others, the town of Úštěk or Okoř Castle. However, the recovery was slow and cautious. Until 199, the Petrovice4m articles were always only about an abandoned yard “, where” only 4 cottages “in the plow yard,” Říha. Petrovice, which had a fortress that was reborn into a chateau in the modern era, probably served as its seat, probably to the Thirty Years’ War.
Almost over again
It was she who made another somersault in the development of Petrovice. He owned them at the beginning of the war Homut family from Harsov, which ensures the Czech estate uprising. Emperor Ferdinand II. After his suppression, of course, he took revenge on those who raised their weapons against him and the Homuts did not escape any damage. Petrovice did not confiscate them, but as a result of numerous sanctions and fines they are forced to sell. At that time, it was mainly the Catholic emperors who could afford them, so Petrovice became the property of the Lažanskýs of Buková, and later other prominent Czech families.
In 1648 they were the Berks of Dubá, one of the oldest Czech families. They experienced another decline of Petrovice, caused by the looting of the Swedish army at the end of the Thirty Years’ War. After the Swedish rampage in Petrovice “the state of the population less than 50%. The gentleman’s shepherd Bála survived with his little boy – but without sheep. A functional mill remained – but without a miller. At that time, only the family of the middle peasant Jan Zeman farmed in the whole of Petrovice, “Říha calculates.
Like the Phoenix
Even from this disaster, however, Petrovice faltered, and like the legendary Phoenix almost they rose from the ashes. In the 18th century, it recalls the existence of a large farm, hop garden, even two taverns, a mill and a brewery. The former pride of Petrovice, which today is unfortunately a shame in the wine of its unhappy state, originated at that time under the ownership of the Meissen Bissingen family. This is about Petrovice Castlewhich was rebuilt from a medieval fortress by Count Jan Jindřich of Bissingen, who later lived to see his last minutes right in Petrovice.
“A small, simple building with a rectangular floor plan and two above-ground floors is still in the immediate vicinity of the farmyard,” says Říha about the Baroque cultural monument with a remarkable neo-Gothic gate, which is already entering the castle grounds. At the same time, the church of St. Jakub Staršího, the oldest monument in Petrovice, received its current one baroque appearance.
And to make matters worse, they were part of the Josefín Cadastre from the end of the 18th century connected Petrovice with Horní Měcholupy, which is a problem that caused a number of problems for the 20th century, when a housing estate was established in these places. This led to a curiosity, “when half of the panel house stood in Petrovice and the other in Měcholupy,” says Říha, adding that this condition was not corrected until after the late 1980s. But we are already ahead of it.
“Cracking” owner
“In 1844, Petrovice is listed in the Statistical Survey of Bohemia as a village in the western part of the then Kouřim region 2 and ½ hours from Prague,” reads Petrovice – 770 years: History, present and future of the Prague – Petrovice district. 230 people already had a home here, the smallest children could even go to school here. In such a “form” Petrovice was bought by another important owner. He was none other than Jean Maria Nicolas Bellot, a French chemist and businessman specializing in the manufacture of firearms and other explosives.
Bellot only planned to start a business in Prague with his colleague Louis Sellier, “but as usual, he changed his decision when he met the beautiful Czech Alžběta Vacková. He married her and settled permanently in Prague. ”In the 1960s, he also bought the Petrov estate, and set up his own laboratory in the chateau – despite the fact that he was blind at the time as a result of the unfortunate explosion.
The last owner with blue blood
In 1908, the years after Bellot’s death, Petrovice was bought by Countess Marie Antonie Silva-Taroucová. She was a member of another important aristocratic family – her husband Arnošt Emanuel was an Austrian and above all a wealthy Austro-Hungarian politician. It belonged to him, for example Průhonice castlek, whose magnificent castle garden he had rebuilt into a magnificent park of world importance.
The Silva-Taroucs were the last aristocratic lords of Petrovice. As is known, after the First World War and the independence of Czechoslovakia took place abolition of noble titles. At the same time, as a result of the land reform, the Silva-Taroucs lost numerous property and lands, including those from Petrovice, which were distributed among the applicants from Petrovice and Měcholup. What was not confiscated from the family was sold by the Silva Taroucs in 1925 to their former economic administrator.
On the threshold of change
The 20th century meant rapid development for Petrovice. In 1930, 758 people lived in Petrovice, a few years later “there was a relatively massive construction, when not only residential buildings were built, but also craft workshops and shopsAnd the population became thousands. Petrovice, like every Czech village, survived World War II with difficulty. But with grace. “We can say about the actual time of the occupation that not a single citizen lent himself to the reporting,” Říha quotes the chronicler from Petrovice.
And after the war? The current character of Petrovice was influenced by two circumstances. On January 1, 1968, they fell to Prague on the basis of the Capital City Act. Since then, they have been planned for the future development of the metropolis as part of the massive construction of housing estates. They were born in the 1970s in the nearby Jižní Město, the largest housing estate in the Czech Republic, where tens of thousands of people soon moved. Petrovice’s similar fate awaited in the 1980s and 1990s, to be on such a scale.
Although Petrovice, with an area of 1.79 km², is the smallest part of the capital, today there are over 6,000 inhabitants, which produces remarkable statistics. “It simply came to our notice then more than 3 000 inhabitants per km²,“Says Říha. “The capital city of Prague has an average population per km2 of 2,360 and the Czech Republic only 130 inhabitants per square kilometer.”
Aerial view of the Prague-Petrovice district, which is located in the east of the capital.
Author: ÚMČ Praha – Petrovice