Czech Republic Guide
Central Bohemia
Lány
On summer weekends, Škoda-loads of Czech families, pensioners and assorted pilgrims make their way to LÁNY, a plain, grey village on a hill by the edge of the Křivoklát forest, 12km beyond Kladno. They congregate in the town's pristine cemetery to pay their respects to one of the country's most important historical figures, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the founding father and president of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1935.
The Masaryk plot is separated from the rest of the cemetery (hřbitov) by a little wooden fence and flanked by two bushy trees. Tomáš is buried alongside his American wife, Charlotte Garrigue Masaryková, who died some fifteen years earlier, and their son Jan, who became foreign minister in the post-1945 government, only to die in mysterious circumstances shortly after the Communist coup. The Masaryks were joined by their daughter, Alice, who founded the Czechoslovak Red Cross and died in exile in 1966.
After laying their wreaths, the crowds generally wander over to the presidential summer zámek ( 
www.hrad.cz ), with its blue-liveried guards, on the other side of the village. The chateau still serves as the president's out-of-town retreat, and its rooms are strictly out of bounds, but the large English park, orangerie and deer park, which were landscaped by Josip Plečnik, are open to the public (April– Oct Wed & Thurs 2–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm; free). To get to Lány, either change buses at Kladno, or take the slow train to Chomutov from Prague's Masarykovo nádraží, alighting at Stochov – the nearest station to Lány, 3km away to the southwest – which boasts a presidential waiting room.