His Excellency staying this day at Prague, I took that opportunity of viewing every thing I could of that noble city, which is thought to be the largest in Germany. It is inclosed with one intire wall, two third parts of which are regularly divided into curtains and bastions; but the remaining third is old and defenceless. Tho indeed the whole town is commanded by ascending ground, that no fortification can make it long defensible. The Muldaw, a large and rapid river, divides it into two parts, which are again joined by a fair and stately bridge of stone, seventeen hundred feet long and thirty five broad, supported by twenty four arches. Both parts of the city are adorned with great variety of magnificent buildings, the most remarkable of which I visited in this order.
Adjoining to the Star inn, where his Excellency lodged, is the new convent of Irish Cordeliers; and in the same neighbourhood are two seminaries, one called that of the Archbishop, and the other that of St. Norbert, patron of this kingdom; both which profess academical learning, but in societies distinct from the university of the place.
Hence the way leads us to the townhouse, a large and stately building, which at one corner has a piece of clock work, giving the motions of the seven planets. On one side of this opens a fair piazza, with two curious pieces of workmanship. The first of these is a statue of the B. Virgin trampling on the Dragon, erected on a stone pillar, on the pedestal of which are four Angels defeating the like venomous monsters. This implies a triumphant declaration of her immaculate conception, and imitates that work before observed at Vienna. The second curiosity is a fountain of carved marble, with a basin of twelve sides, on which are cut very beautifully the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
From hence we pass to a college of Jesuits, a noble and spatious building. The church is a fine fabric, and prodigiously rich; the cloister large, and adorned with agreable pictures; among the rest are large tables divided into little squares, containing the short history and pourtraiture of the eminent persons of their order for preaching, missions, and conversions, among whom are a great number of English.
The same way leads us to the bridge above mentioned, and thence to another college of the Jesuits; but the third, and most splendid of this order, is in that part of Prague called the new city, which we had not an opportunity of seeing.
We now turn to the right hand, and in an eminent part of the city are brought to the Emperor’s palace, old and irregular in outward appearance, but within its precincts is the old cathedral church, an handsome Gothic building of the year 923, as appears by an inscription on the chief altar. The stateliness of the old architecture, with the richness as well as beauty of the modern ornaments, make it a venerable pile. They have here a picture of the Virgin, which is pretended to be of St. Luke’s hand. At the gate entering into this palace there is another in sight, which is the residence of the Archbishop.
From the cathedral we are carried to the Capuchin cloister, which consists of a small but most beautiful quadrangle. Round the four sides, under a fair portico, are painted thirty different copies of so many of the most eminent and miraculous images of the Virgin, each in the proper garb, posture, and colours of the originals; and the remaining space of the wall beneath is filled with votive tables, in acknowledgement of favours received from each picture. I thought this collection observable, in that it is an apparent instance of the different representations of the B. Virgin, who is not invoked under the same character in all places, and on all occasions; but according to the fancy of the first painters, and the superstition of the late devotees, is split into so many distinct objects of worship; as the Lady de Victoria, de Litera, de Consilio, Crysostomiana, Cyrilliana, Bernardina, Lauretana, Eremitana, Cellensis, Passaviensis, Wranoviensis, Hallensis. As this shews how polytheism crept in among the heathen, who first of all worshiped God under so many distinct attributes, and afterwards as so many distinct beings; so it argues greater superstition in the church of Rome: for instead of the several characters of Venus, as Cypria, Cytherea, Victrix, and others; or of Diana, as Aricinia, Leucophryne, Taurica[139]; we have many more of Sta. Maria. In the middle of this quadrangle is an handsome imitation of the chapel of Loretto with the Virgin and our Savior above the altar in the complection of Moors; and on the outside walls are various religious stories elegantly represented.
From hence we proceed to the celebrated cloister of Premonstratensians, called the Shawhoff in which above an hundred persons are maintained in a princely manner. I was here shewn a rich chapel, wherein before the incursion of the Swedes were many large and curious statues of solid brass, particularly those of the twelve Apostles; which by Count Koningsmarck were converted into canon, when he took this part of the city, tho he was soon again repulsed. In the middle of the church, in a stately open monument, is preserved the body of St. Norbert, the founder of this order. Over the tomb is suspended a gilt crown of a prodigious size, the diameter of the rimb being at least three ells. After the chapel I saw their library, which is neat and well filled, but with books in the taste of the last age. They have here a monkish contrivance of a wheeling desk with six sides, on each of which may lie several books, so as to be turned round in their order, without falling off in the motion. From the library we passed to their private chapel, wherein is a crucifix, which the monk, who shewed it us, attested to have seen illuminated in the night, while no candle was in the room. In an adjoining gallery is a large statue of our Savior, which they affirm to have once sweat blood about the neck, and shew the marks thereof still remaining. From hence we are carried to their winter refectory, a large and regular stove room, well contrived for warmth and beauty at the same time. But their summer refectory is a pattern of beauty, proportion, and magnificence, being paved with black and white marble, with three large windows on one side, and round the walls about twelve large pictures of eminent persons of their order; and the whole is exceedingly well contrived, both for the entertainment of the mind, and repose of the body. They shewed us likewise another large room, with a numerous collection of their most meritorious members in little squares; and last of all the chambers of the monks, with two adjoining gardens, one for the fathers, the other for the brethren of the society, which completed the pleasure of the sight.
Next to this convent we went to see a Jewish synagogue, of which there are eight in this place, the number of that nation amounting to above ten thousand, who for distinction sake are all obliged to wear a blue ruff.
On the stately bridge over the Muldaw are to be observed several curious statues of the Virgin; of our Savior; and of the new Saint lately set up in all parts of this kingdom, as well as on all the bridges of Vienna, being a curious piece of cast brass with this inscription: