The Twelfth Century Still Looking Back

Finish beside the cathedral with the quieter survival that changes the scale of the whole route. Parts of the Romanesque episcopal palace associated with Bishop Jindřich Zdík survive on Wenceslas Hill, including remarkable grouped windows. They belong to a residential and administrative world from before the Gothic and Baroque city that dominates most postcards. Those windows are the detail to hunt for: small architectural evidence that high ecclesiastical government was physically established here in the twelfth century. After prisons, Jesuit schools, an imperial succession and a cathedral repeatedly rebuilt, this is a good place to end because it does not need theatrical scale. Power leaves traces in plans, corridors and windows as well as monuments. Olomouc’s layers are most convincing when you can point to the masonry and say exactly which layer you mean.