Budeč (Kladno District)


Budeč is an early medieval settlement within the modern Czech Republic. It is located 17 kilometers northwest from today's center of Prague in the community
Zákolany in Kladno District in Central Bohemia. Eleven centuries old church of St.Peter and Paul on this place is at the core the oldest standing building in the country. According to archaeological findings, the hill was inhabited already in prehistoric times. The oldest evidence of the settlement comes from the period dating from the Middle Bronze Age and Knovíz culture of the Late Bronze Age. The first wall in the Slavic period was built right on the remains of prehistoric walls in the 9th century AD, perhaps by the Prince Bořivoj I. The written sources show that in the end of 9th and at the beginning of 10th century Budeč belonged to the main bases of Přemyslid dynasty. The church of St.Peter and Paul was built at the turn of the 9th and 10th century by the Prince Spytihněv I. "St. Wenceslas legends" mention that Budeč was the place, where St. Wenceslas lived in his youth learning the Psalter.