Písek Gate

About

Písek Gate (Czech: Písecká brána), also called Bruska Gate (Czech: Bruská brána) is a former city gate of Baroque fortification of Prague, Czech Republic. Once belonging to the fortification section called Marian Walls (Czech: Mariánské hradby) it is located in K Brusce Street in the Hradčany neighbourhood, not far from Hradčanská metro station. Other sights in the vicinity include Royal Summer Palace or Villa Bílek.

Nowadays Písek Gate is the only preserved gate of the city proper and one of four remaining of the whole fortification system (Tábor, Leopold and Chotek (Brick) gates are part of Vyšehrad Fortress). The name has nothing in common with town of Písek in Southern Bohemia but it derives from a previous medieval gate which used to stand several hundred steps away, at Písek, a defunct suburb of Lesser Quarter (located approximately where Valdštejnská Street is today). This suburb together with the old gate was demolished in the 1620s in order to make space for then newly built Wallenstein Palace.

The alternative name derives from the Brusnice (Bruska) stream, a tiny tributary of the Vltava River running along northern side of Prague Castle. The gate was situated between bastions...