Zbraslav Castle (Prague)

 palace, museum

Zbraslav (IPA: [ˈzbraslaf]) is a municipal district and cadastral area of Prague. The southernmost district of Prague, it lies on the Vltava River in the national administrative district (správní obvod) of Prague 16.

The former independent municipality of Zbraslav is now one of two cadastral areas in the Prague-Zbraslav Municipal District (Městská část Praha-Zbraslav). The other is Lahovice.

Zbraslav was founded in 1118. In 13th century, the Bohemian king Wenceslas II founded here a cloister of monks of the Cistercian Order. The Zbraslav cloister was called Aula regia and was ordered to be the burial place of Bohemian kings.

In 1935, V. F. Bulgakov founded an important Russian museum here with collections dedicated to Russian emigrants, but the museum was closed and confiscated by the Communists before 1948.

Zbraslav was merged into Prague in 1974. Today, it is a residential community and the home of the Chinese and Japanese collections of the Czech National Gallery.

Zbraslav was also the residence of songwriter Jaromír Vejvoda (1902-1988), best known internationally for "The Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrel)." Vejvoda's home is now a restaurant called Škoda Lásky with paraphernalia relating to the songwriter.


CISTOPEDIA - Encyclopaedia Cisterciensis: www.ocist.de/index.php?id=7191