1000 Korun 1985, Czechoslovakia
| in Krause book | Number: 98 |
| Years of issue: | 01.10.1985 - 07.02.1993 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | no signature |
| Serie: | 1985 - 1989 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 01.10.1985 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 157 х 67 |
| Printer: | STC-Prague. Statni Tiskarna Cenin, Praha |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Linden leaves with seeds and stars.
Avers:
The engraving on banknote is made after this portrait of Bedřich Smetana.
Bedřich Smetana (2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native Bohemia. It contains the famous symphonic poem "Vltava", also known by its English name "The Moldau".
Smetana was naturally gifted as a composer, and gave his first public performance at the age of 6. After conventional schooling, he studied music under Josef Proksch in Prague. His first nationalistic music was written during the 1848 Prague uprising, in which he briefly participated. After failing to establish his career in Prague, he left for Sweden, where he set up as a teacher and choirmaster in Gothenburg, and began to write large-scale orchestral works. During this period of his life Smetana was twice married; of six daughters, three died in infancy.
In the early 1860s, a more liberal political climate in Bohemia encouraged Smetana to return permanently to Prague. He threw himself into the musical life of the city, primarily as a champion of the new genre of Czech opera. In 1866 his first two operas, The Brandenburgers in Bohemia and The Bartered Bride, were premiered at Prague's new Provisional Theatre, the latter achieving great popularity. In that same year, Smetana became the theatre's principal conductor, but the years of his conductorship were marked by controversy. Factions within the city's musical establishment considered his identification with the progressive ideas of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner inimical to the development of a distinctively Czech opera style. This opposition interfered with his creative work, and might have hastened a decline in health that precipitated his resignation from the theatre in 1874.
By the end of 1874, Smetana had become completely deaf but, freed from his theatre duties and the related controversies, he began a period of sustained composition that continued for almost the rest of his life. His contributions to Czech music were increasingly recognised and honoured, but a mental collapse early in 1884 led to his incarceration in an asylum and subsequent death. Smetana's reputation as the founding father of Czech music has endured in his native country, where advocates have raised his status above that of his contemporaries and successors. However, relatively few of Smetana's works are in the international repertory, and most foreign commentators tend to regard Antonín Dvořák as a more significant Czech composer. 
Centered - a bouquet of lilies of the valley.
Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) is a sweetly scented, highly poisonous woodland flowering plant that is native throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere in Asia, and Europe.
Also centered, on the top is an emblem of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
In November 17, 1960 Act No.163 introduced a new national emblem (designed by M.Hegar), which was supposed to represent the so called "completion of the building of socialism" in Czechoslovakia. In fact, the emblem was at variance with the rules of heraldry, though it did at least preserve the lion as a symbol of the land of Bohemia.
The national emblem of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic is represented by a red shield in the shape of a Hussite pavis with a five-pointed star at the top and a white two-tailed lion rampant with a red escutcheon on its chest showing a blue silhouette of Mount Kriváò and a bonfire in gold color.
In bottom left corner are two squares for visually impaired.
Denominations in numerals are on the left side vertically, in top left and bottom right corners. In words centered.
Revers:
Vyšehrad (Czech for "upper castle") is a historic fort located in the city of Prague, Czech Republic, just over 3 km. southeast of Prague Castle, on the East bank of the Vltava River. It was built probably in the X century. Situated within the fort is the Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, as well as the Vyšehrad Cemetery, containing the remains of many famous people from Czech history, among them Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, Karel Čapek, and Alphonse Mucha. It also contains Prague's oldest Rotunda of St. Martin from the XI century.
Local legend holds that Vyšehrad was the location of the first settlement which later became Prague, though thus far this claim remains unsubstantiated.
When the Přemyslid dynasty settled on the current site of Prague Castle, the two castles maintained opposing spheres of influence for approximately two centuries. The zenith of Vyšehrad was during the second half of the XI century, when Vratislav transferred his seat from Prague Castle to Vyšehrad, and the original fort was remodeled as a complex comprising the sovereign's palatial residence, a church, and the seat of the chapter. The period of growth ended around 1140 when Prince Soběslav moved his seat back to Prague Castle.
When Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV began to build the Prague Castle in its current dimensions in the early XIV century, the deteriorating Vyšehrad was abandoned as a royal seat. Later the whole complex was renewed by Charles IV and new fortifications, with two gates and a royal palace were built, while the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul awaited repair. At the beginning of the Hussite Wars, Vyšehrad was conquered and ransacked by the Hussites in 1420 and then again in 1448 by the troops of King George of Poděbrady. The castle was then abandoned and became ruined. It underwent a renovation in the XVII century, when the Habsburg Monarchy took over the Czech lands after the Thirty Years' War and remodeled it in 1654 as a Baroque fortress, turning it into a training center for the Austrian Army, and later incorporating it into the Baroque city walls.
The present form of Vyšehrad as a fortified residence, with powerful brick ramparts, bastions, and the Tábor and Leopold gates, is a result of Baroque remodeling. The Cihelná brána (Brick gate) is an Empire-style structure, dating from 1841. The main part of the Špička Gate, parts of the Romanesque bridge, and the ruined Gothic lookout tower known as Libušina lázeň (Libuše's Bath) are the only fragments that have been preserved from the Middle Ages. The Romanesque rotunda of St. Martin dates from the second half of the XI century. The XI century Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, which dominates Vyšehrad, was remodeled in the second half of the XIV century and again in 1885 and 1887 in neo-Gothic style. Vyšehrad and the area around it became part of the capital city in 1883. The area is one of the cadastral districts of the city.
By the XXI century, Vyšehrad has become a public park that is a popular site for recreation and celebrations. For example, it is a popular place for Czechs to celebrate New Year's Eve.
Denominations in numerals are on the right side vertically, top left and bottom right.
Comments:
Designer: Albin Brunovsky.
Reverse engraver: B. Sneider.
Obverse engraver: M. Ondrachek.
Prefixes: C, U.
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