Panenská Homestead

Welcome to one of the quiet and mysterious corners of Prague six, part Střešovice. Stop for a moment, take a breath and look ahead. You're standing in front of a place that looks like a silent testimony from a long time ago. What you see before you are the ruins of the Virgin. At first glance, you may only be interested in the silence and remnants of walls that slowly give up time, but in these stones, a story is encoded for over a thousand years. Feel the atmosphere of this place, where the peace of Rošovice today meets the echoes of ancient work, prayers and human destinies.

Let's go back in time together so that these ruins begin to tell us their story. Imagine we're going back to nine hundred and sixty-seven. It's the early Middle Ages when this landscape was completely different. It is this year that the first mention of the Virgin vineyard appears in the records. This land was not the property of a rich nobleman at the time, but belonged to the benedictines of St. George's monastery in Prague Castle. Introduce yourself in the role of one of these nurses, as you walk among the rows of wines, as you take care of the grapes, and as you perceive the smell of the earth in the morning dew. For over 800 years, this vineyard has been closely linked to spiritual life and monastery discipline. It was a place of peace, work and devotion, where wine was grown for the needs of the monastery and for the glory of God.

This situation lasted until a thousand seven hundred and eighty-two, when the ownership of the benedicts finally ended. With the end of the monastery era, the face of this place began to change. In the seventeenth century, before the end of the ownership of the sisters, there began to be a settlement that supplemented the vineyard. Panenská was thus transformed from purely agricultural space to a residential place where the life of the economy mixed with the rhythm of nature.

Now pay attention to what you see right in front of you. Take a look at the rest of the building that carries the number one hundred and twenty-three. This building is today the only tangible remnant of the entire original complex. In some records and in folk language, this ruin is referred to as Malovanka. Look at her masonry, see the texture of the old walls, and think about how many layers of history hide within themselves. Do not look here today for any windows or roofs, rather observe empty spaces and how nature broke into the architecture. It is in this raw ruin that you feel the truth about the permeability of all human beings. This building was once the centre of economic activity, a place where work was planned in fields and buildings, and today it is a silent monument that makes us think.

But when we move to the nineteenth century, we find that silence has disappeared here for a long time. Panenská has become a place of intensive work and industrial expansion. In the year one thousand eight hundred twenty-nine a man named Abundius Bachofen came into play. He was an ambitious man who in Virgin saw tremendous potential thanks to the strategic position in Prague six. He bought the estate and decided to turn it into something much bigger than just a place to grow wine. He set up a brick here. Imagine the noise, the dust, and the heat of the ovens that made building materials for a growing city day and night. Bricks from the Virgin probably helped build houses that you may see around Rostovice.

But Abundius Bachofen didn't stop at the bricks. Panenská became a place of experimentation and entrepreneurship, because there was also a factory for the production of starch syrup. The place where the Benedict sisters had once quietly harvested grapes became a noisy industrial area. It was a period of great change when the agricultural tradition gave way to modern business. It was here that two worlds met: the old world of monastery peace and the new world of capitalism and production. Abundius Bachofen spent a significant part of his life here, and in the year a thousand and eight hundred and fifty in this estate he also died. His name remained in the history of this place as a symbol of the change of Virgin into industrial coal.

However, this site attracted not only entrepreneurs but also personalities from other areas. In connection with the Virgin Islands, names are emerging that we know from our books and history. There was Clemens Bachofen von Echt, for example, which followed the family tradition. But it is also fascinating to connect with poet František Ladislav Čelakovský or Bohuslav Rajská. Imagine these people going through the same paths you're going through. Maybe they were here looking for inspiration, maybe just peace in the vicinity of the city, or spending time in the presence of their friends. It's fascinating to think that one and the same building could also be home to a hard brick man and a refuge for a sensitive poet.

And now I'm going to lead you to one interesting thing that makes Virgin a real historical puzzle. Think about what an incredible cycle this is. It started in nine hundred and sixty-seven with prayer and wine bush. Then came the era of the estate, followed by the era of fire and clay in the brick and finally sweet, sticky syrup from the factory. Each of these layers completely erased the previous one, and yet they all kept one thing: the strategic value of this land. Panenská was not just a building, it was a chessboard on which different generations played their game of prosperity and survival. Today, only a ruin with the number 120 is standing as the last witness to this constant transformation. It's a place where time has stopped and where we can reconstruct images from different millennia in silence today.

Now, when you look around you, think of Virgin not as a pile of old stones, but as an open book. Every crack in the wall could be a trace of Bachofen's brick, every piece of grass could grow in a place where a thousand years ago the wine castle of the benedicts stood. This place teaches us that nothing is eternal, but that the tracks we leave behind can survive for a thousand years if someone is willing to look for them and listen to them.

Now I'm leaving you to explore this place at your own pace. Take a walk around the remains of the building Malovanka, feel the silence of Rošovice and try to imagine the contrast between the monastery room and the industrial noise. Let the secret of the Virgin capture you and its ability to survive in oblivion. Thank you for your journey through time and I wish you a pleasant continuation in discovering the beauty and secrets of our city. Goodbye.