Horní městská hradba, parkánová hradba, dolní městská hradba, A cultural monument of the Czech Republic in the municipality of Hradec Králové
The medieval fortification of Hradec Králové consists of three wall lines: the main brick wall with square towers, the parkán wall with half-round bastions added under Wenceslas II, and the lower wall at the foot of the hill from the Hussite Wars. Fragments survive behind houses at čp. 45–52, including a wall 120 cm thick, a Gothic cross bond of bricks, and an opuka section behind čp. 52.
Hradec Králové was founded in 1225 by Přemysl Otakar I on a hill above the confluence of the Labe and Orlice. Its fortification was a brick wall with square towers; under Wenceslas II at the end of the 13th century a lower parkán wall with half-round bastions was added in front. During the Hussite Wars a third wall was built at the foot of the hill. The Swedes, holding the city in 1639–1640, added eight earth bastions and two star-shaped forts. Demolition began on 4 October 1884.
The gates gave the walls their everyday names: the Prague Gate, the first built, was called the Old Gate once the Silesian Gate arose; the Silesian Gate, later Mýtská, was also called the New Gate and, because toll was collected there, the Toll Gate. The Goat Fort, also called Soukenická, stood by the brewery on Soukenická Street.
Most surviving fragments are embedded in house walls along Komenského and Mýtská streets, so look at the masonry rather than expecting free-standing walls. Behind houses no. 51 and 52 a continuous stretch of the parkánová hradba remains, with a passage built of opuka stone and Gothic cross-bonded brick. A brick prismatic bastion with sandstone-quoined corners survives about 5 m up to the left of the Bono publico staircase entrance.
Archaeological excavations regularly uncover fragments of brick, stone, and pottery that reveal how the fortifications developed over time. These finds help historians understand how early defenses evolved from simple wooden palisades into more complex stone structures.
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