Žuráň, Memorial site at Zuran hill in South Moravia, Czech Republic
Žuráň is a 286-metre hill in Podolí, Brno-Country District, topped by a memorial with a bronze relief map of the Battle of Austerlitz and flags of the nations that fought there. The hill itself is an artificial tumulus of earth and stone, 65 metres across and about 10 metres high, built over two Germanic burial chambers.
The hilltop is an artificial mound over two chamber graves of Germanic aristocracy: grave I from the second half of the 5th century, grave II from the first half of the 6th, excavated by Josef Poulík in 1948–1950. On 2 December 1805 Napoleon directed the Battle of Austerlitz from the summit, which France calls the Emperor's Hill.
The name Žuráň may derive from a dialect word for "crooked", and the hill appears as Šorajn in the Josephine cadastre, recalling German Schorain for a boundary hill. French sources on the battle call it the Emperor's Hill or Napoleon's Table. The finds from the tombs are kept in the Moravian Museum in Brno.
Žuráň lies on the right side of road II/430, the former imperial road toward Olomouc, in the cadastre of Podolí. The summit is a short climb off the road; the memorial with the battlefield map and the flags of the nations that fought stands at the top.
The summit is not a natural feature but an artificial mound of earth and stone, about 65 m across and 10 m high, raised over two burial chambers. Its builders hauled soil from roughly 1 km away and Litava limestone from about 4 km away.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,145 contributors worldwide.