Vítkov Hill rises along the northern edge of Žižkov, and it was here in 1420 that the one-eyed Hussite general Jan Žižka — the man the neighbourhood is named after — won a famous battle against a far larger crusader army. The colossal bronze equestrian statue of Žižka that now tops the hill, unveiled in 1950, is one of the largest of its kind in the world, and the view back over the city from the terrace is superb.
Behind it stands the austere granite National Monument, built between the wars as a memorial to the Czechoslovak legions and later hijacked by the Communist regime — for a time it held the embalmed body of the first Communist president. Today it houses an excellent, unflinching museum on 20th-century Czech history, from the First Republic through Nazi occupation and the Communist years. The walk up through the park is steep but quiet, and the whole site sees a fraction of the Old Town crowds.