Date: 23/03/2010
By: Lukáš
Subject: Re: Big Rathus
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your questions. I hope I can answer them.
1) People don´t call the old town hall "big rathus" any more but they used to because by 1945 there were German people living here too and the German word for town hall is "Rathaus". In informal Czech there are some other words that come from German, e.g. the Czech word for "bottle" is "lahev". However, some old Czech people also say "flaška" which comes from the German word "Flasche" but it is not correct.
2) There is no castle in Vysoké Mýto. The town walls (rampart) come from the Middle Ages - then the whole town was surrounded with walls and people could enter the town only through one of the three gates. You can still see two of them - Litomysl and Prague Gate, but there is only the tower left of the third one, the Choceň Gate. The names come from the names of three towns that are situated in that direction. Prague Tower is sometimes open for public and you can climb to the top and have a wonderful view of the surroundings of the town. Only part of the rampart is preserved and you can see it in the town park. There are also some stones with engraved information about some events such as fires, wars or important visitors to the town.