CONTENTS

PAGE
Introduction[xv]
[CHAPTER I]
Prague at the Earliest Period[1]
[CHAPTER II]
From the Reign of Charles IV. to the Executionsat Prague in 1621[23]
[CHAPTER III]
Prague in Modern Times[128]
[CHAPTER IV]
Palaces[140]
[CHAPTER V]
Churches and Monasteries[149]
[CHAPTER VI]
The Bohemian Museum[164]
[CHAPTER VII]
Walks in Prague[167]
[CHAPTER VIII]
Walks and Excursions near Prague[197]
Note[201]
Appendix[203]
Princes of Bohemia[204]
Kings of Bohemia[205]
Index[207]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
The Pulverthurm (photogravure)[Frontispiece]
Tomb of Ottokar I.[6]
The Jewish Cemetery[9]
The Hradcany and Ottokar Towers[13]
Charles IV., from Triforium of St. Vitus[16]
The Gothic Projection, Carolinum[19]
The Bridge Tower of the Malá Strana[27]
Statue of St. John Nepomuk on the Bridge[30]
Medals of Hus[33]
Medals of Hus[39]
The Bridge Tower of the Old Town[45]
The Hradcany[53]
View of Prague and Hradcany Castle[61]
The Town Hall and Market-Place[71]
South Porch of Tyn Church[75]
Clock Tower in Town Hall of Staré Mesto[80]
Chapel of Town Hall[83]
Wenceslas Chapel, St. Vitus’s Cathedral[91]
The East Gate of the Hradcany[97]
Rudolph II.[101]
Tombstone of Tycho Brahe in Tyn Church[104]
The Royal Officials are Thrown from the Windows on May 23, 1618[111]
Battle of the White Mountain, November 8, 1620[115]
The Executions on the Market-Place of the Old Town of Prague on the 21st of June 1621[121]
The Dungeon in the Town Hall[125]
Bethlehem Chapel[127]
The Old Synagogue[129]
Secret Seal of the Malá Strana[133]
The Oldest Great Seal of the Old Town[139]
Gate of the Clam-Gallas Palace[141]
The Hall of Vladislav in the Hradcany Castle[145]
The Most Ancient Shield of the Old Town[148]
View of Strahov[150]
St. Vitus from the ‘Stag’s Ditch’[153]
The Tyn Church[157]
The Library, Strahov[161]
Most Ancient Arms of the Malá Strana[163]
The Powder Tower[169]
Door of Old Synagogue[171]
Jewish Town Hall and Old Synagogue[175]
Chapel of St. Martin[182]
Karlov[186]
From the Bridge Looking Towards the Old Town[188]
View of the Bridge from the Mills of the Old Town[191]
The ‘Star’ Hunting Lodge[199]
The Oldest Great Seal of the Malá Strana, Thirteenth Century[200]
View of Prague in 1606, after Sadeler’s famous Engraving, in Three Sections [facing 206]
Map of Prague[facing 212]

INTRODUCTION

FEW cities in the world have a more striking and feverish historical record than Prague, the ancient capital of Bohemia and of the lands of the Bohemian crown. It is a very ancient saying at Prague that when throwing a stone through a window you throw with it a morsel of history. The story of Prague is to a great extent the history of Bohemia, and all Bohemians have always shown a devoted affection for the ‘hundred-towered, golden Prague,’ as they fondly call it. As Mr. Arthur Symons has well said, Prague is to a Bohemian ‘still the epitome of the history of his country; he sees it, as a man sees the woman he loves, with her first beauty, and he loves it as a man loves a woman, more for what she has suffered.’ Foreigners, however, have not been backward in admiring the beauties of Prague. The words of Humboldt, who declared that Prague was the most beautiful inland town of Europe, have often been quoted, and it is certain that a traveller who looks at the town from the bridge, or the Strahov Monastery or the Belvedere, will share this opinion.

Yet Prague is, I think, very little known to Englishmen, and I received with great pleasure Mr. Dent’s suggestion that I should write a short sketch of the history of the capital of my country. It has, indeed, to me been a labour of love. The geographical situation of Prague is to some extent a clue to its historical importance. Bohemia, the Slavic land that lies furthest west, has always been the battlefield of the Slavic and Teutonic races, and its capital, Prague, has for more than a thousand years been an outlying bastion of the Slav people, which, sometimes captured, has always been recovered. Within the time of men now living Prague had the appearance of a German city, while it has now a thoroughly Slav character. The town has therefore an intense interest for the student of history, and, indeed, of politics. For more than two centuries a religious conflict, interwoven with the racial struggle in a manner that cannot be defined in few words, attracted the attention of Europe to Bohemia, and particularly to Prague; for the battles of the Zizkov and the Vysehrad were fought within the precincts of the present city. But it is not only in the annals of war that Prague plays a pre-eminent part. The foundation of the University for a time made Prague one of the centres of European thought. Thanks to the enthusiasm and eloquence of Hus, the endeavour to reform the Church, which had failed in England, was for a time successful in Bohemia. Though he was not born at Prague, and died in a foreign country, the life of Hus belongs to Prague. The traveller cannot pass the Bethlehem Chapel or the Carolinum without thinking of the great reformer. Though the iconoclastic fury of the extreme Hussites and the rage of incessant civil warfare have deprived Prague of many of its ancient monuments, it is by no means so devoid of architectural beauty as has been stated by those who, perhaps, know the town only by hearsay. The three ancient round chapels, dating from the beginning of the tenth century, still remain as examples of the earliest ecclesiastical architecture of Prague. The Church of St. George, on the Hradcany Hill, which is now being carefully restored, is a very fine specimen of early romanesque architecture. The four towers at the outskirts of the Hradcany, which date from the thirteenth century, are an interesting relic of the ancient fortifications of Prague. The principal churches of the town, St. Vitus’s Cathedral and the Tyn Church, frequently enlarged and altered, recall the vicissitudes of Bohemian history, in which they played such a prominent part. Ferdinand the First’s Belvedere villa is one of the finest Renaissance buildings in Northern Europe.