The Chain Cut Through with a Sword

The street commemorates Břetislav I, called the Bohemian Achilles and the restorer of the Bohemian realm. While his father Oldřich was still living, and he himself was prince of Moravia, he came on a journey into Germany to the town of Schweinfurt, where Judith, the fair daughter of Margrave Henry of Babenberg, was living in a convent. The bold youth would not court her as an ordinary suitor but carried off his bride by force — so as not, it is said, to have to bow to German pride — and in doing so cut through the mighty chain in the gateway with his sword. He escaped safely to Olomouc, where he celebrated his wedding with her in 1029.