Antonín Dvořák Memorial in Vysoká u Příbramě

One of the greatest geniuses of Czech music, Antonín Dvořák, found his second home for more than twenty years in Vysoká u Příbramě. He visited often as a guest of the Kounic family (Václav Robert Kounic’s wife Josefína was the sister of Dvořák’s wife Anna). At first he stayed in the overseer’s lodge on the edge of the game-preserve. Later, following his great success in England, he bought a plot of land with a granary and sheepfold from his brother-in-law, where he built a cosy country home, later called Villa Rusalka. Here he became an enthusiastic orchardist, gardener, pigeon breeder and composer. The maturity and peak of his career is linked with this very region. He composed or reworked the operas The Devil and Kate, The Jacobin and Rusalka, the cantata The Spectre's Bride, the symphonic poems The Water Goblin, The Noon Witch, The Wild Dove and The Golden Spinning Wheel, the second series of Slavonic Dances, the oratorio Saint Ludmila and much more. In short, Vysoká was an extremely important place for the revival of Dvořák’s creative imagination. In letters to his friends he wrote: “I feel very happy here.”

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