161823 May 1618–8 November 1620 · Prague

Defenestration of Prague and the Battle of White Mountain

Seventeenth-century engraving of Protestant nobles throwing the royal governors from a Prague Castle window — Archival image: Johann Philipp Abelinus (Theatrum Europaeum). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Protestant nobles angered by Habsburg curbs on religious freedom threw two royal governors and their secretary from a window of Prague Castle in 1618; all three survived. Their revolt opened the Thirty Years' War. In 1620 the Bohemian army was routed at White Mountain, 27 leaders of the revolt were executed on Old Town Square, and Bohemia was forcibly made Catholic again.

Sites

Site 1: Old Royal Palace, Prague CastleThe Bohemian Chancellery and the window from which the governors were thrown.Map ↗
Site 2: White Mountain battlefieldLow hilltop on the city's western edge with a memorial mound.Map ↗
Site 3: Old Town SquareTwenty-seven crosses in the paving by the town hall mark the 1621 executions.Map ↗

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