After this, national aspiration was crushed, and the country was Germanised by its rulers; the House of Hapsburg was in the ascendant and became the reigning hereditary rulers of Bohemia. It is only since the settlement of 1867 that there has been a revival, and the Czechs have once more been warmed into animation in the desire to keep alive their national tongue within the Empire.
PRAGUE · CARL’S BRIDGE
Prague is a mediæval town and one of the most interesting existing, in spite of some very unsatisfactory buildings dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Though it has been again and again the scene of conflict, there is still enough remaining from the past to afford a rich feast to the lover of antiquities. The castle of Vysehead, built of the stones of a still older fortress, stands high above the city, and is a monumental chapter of history in itself if properly studied. The town is on the river Moldau, and overlooking this is the Hradcany Palace of the ancient kings, dating mainly from the fourth century, but since greatly rebuilt and added to. The fine bridge of Charles IV., fourteenth century, has a high ornamental tower at one end, a very leviathan of its kind, rich in decorative effects, though simple in general style. The Cathedral of St. Vitus is only one of numerous religious buildings well worth seeing. Many of the houses are quaint and irregular, but the modernisation of the town, and the inevitable arrival of trams, has given a certain veneer which sits oddly on the ancient framework.
Bohemia has produced many musicians, and at the present day the leading professor Sevcik attracts pupils from all over the world; while Kubelik, with his melodious violin, was a pupil at the conservatoire and is the son of a Czech. The best-known Bohemian composer is Dvorak, and rather less known, but little inferior in merit, is Smetaud. Many other names might be added. Anton Dvorak was born in 1841 at Nelahozaves and was the son of an innkeeper, and from the first was wild to follow music as a career. He went to Prague, and as a mere boy kept himself by his violin, playing in orchestras. He married, and as a means of adding to his small earnings took pupils. He was very energetic, and turned out a multitude of compositions. At the age of thirty-four he was lucky enough to secure a position which relieved him from the fear of want, and from thenceforth gave himself up to producing larger works, symphonies and operas. He visited England frequently, and for three years lived in America, holding the post of head of a conservatoire in New York. He died in 1904. His best-known works are the Stabat Mater, Symphony in D, and the opera Jacobin.
The political history of Moravia is so bound up with that of Bohemia that it does not need telling separately. Since 1029 the country has been incorporated with that of Bohemia and has shared its fortunes. The people are Slavs, and are generally known as Slovaks or Moravians, but are really very much like the Czechs. There is also a strong German element, and the German and Slav electors choose their deputies separately, voting according to their nationality. The country sends forty-nine deputies to the Austrian Parliament. The Moravians are very industrious, and their commerce and manufactures compare favourably with the rest of the Empire. Linen, cotton, and woollen goods are manufactured in the capital, Brunn; and beet-sugar, leather, and brandy are also reckoned in the output. The name is derived from the river March or Morava, which runs through the country.
The principal idea which has reached the mind of the world at large in connection with Moravia is the use of the word Moravian to distinguish the sect of an extreme evangelical type started in the times of Huss, which has since spread far and wide. The Moravian Church has no formal creed, but believes in simplicity of life and above all in missionary effort.
The country is cut off from Hungary by the North-West Carpathians, which form a high ridge between, and several of the spurs of these mountains run down into Moravia.
CARINTHIA: MARIA-WÖRTH, ON THE WÖRTHERSEE