Zavist

Lhota-Točná hillfort , generally though incorrectly called Závist fort, [1] was the largest Celtic oppidum in Bohemia . It was located on the hills on both sides of the Břežanský Valley on the right bank of the Vltava River at today's southern edge of Prague. Its remains are protected as a cultural monument of the Czech Republic.[2]

The Závist oppidum was situated on the hill Hradiště above the former confluence of the Vltava and Berounka rivers near Zbraslav . The hill Hradiště is located south of Prague , on the right side of the Vltava river opposite Zbraslav and west of the village Lhota in the village of Dolní Břežany ). With its altitude of 391 meters, the hill is the highest point and a landmark dominated by the Prague Letná. Later, the oppidum spread through the deeply cut Břežanské Valley and the opposite hill Šance (in the cadastral territory of Točnáin Prague). The altitude difference between the river level and the oppida peak is up to 200 meters.

The plateau above Zbraslav was settled since the Bronze Age , then at the turn of the Hallstatt period and the La Tène period in the first half of the 6th century BC , when the first Celts settled in the middle of the hill , and later in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The local conditions were optimal for the selection of a fortified settlement - good geographical location , fertile land, an important trade route, gold deposits . The oldest settlement and subsequent fortifications were surrounded mainly by the top of the hill and had an area of approximately 27 ha. The fortifications consisted mainly of so-called wolf pits , followed by a broken trench and a palisade . The passage was secured at this time by the gate "D", located 12.5 m high above the bottom of a huge ditch broken into the rock. Later, however, came the decline and the fortification was abandoned for a time.

The Acropolis was the center of the oppidum itself and also the last defensive perimeter . Here she grew up at the turn of the 6th and 5th centuries. At that time, an exclusive district, consisting of stone buildings, serving as a cultural, religious and military center. It is a rectangular space bounded on three sides by a huge moat. It was surrounded by a stone wall that was connected to the central fortification. The space was 80 × 90 m, with one gate. The chamber system of buildings, which, with its height and height of up to 6 meters, is a unique ancient technical work, had up to three chamber layers. In the center of the stone acropolis itself was a Celtic shrine measuring 9 × 10 × 11 meters.

The fortifications consisted of wooden palisades placed on the embankment, where together with other defensive elements ('wolf pits' and artificially excavated ditches), they formed the total fortification of the oppidum.

https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oppidum_Závist