But of all these palaces the one that deserves fullest notice is the Royal castle on the Hradcany. According to the chronicler Cosmos, there was, in the eleventh century, already a castle (in Bohemian, ‘hrad’) on the spot where the present palace stands. This earliest building was soon destroyed, and that which succeeded it was burnt down in 1303.
When Charles IV. first arrived at Prague he found the Royal castle, as he himself noted, ‘deserted, ruined, almost levelled to the ground.’ He was indeed at first obliged to accept the hospitality of a citizen of the old town. Charles, who delighted in building, and particularly in adorning his favourite city, Prague, immediately decided to rebuild the castle. He is said to have resolved to imitate the Louvres Palace, as he had seen it in Paris. In consequence of the many civil wars, hardly any traces of Charles’s castle, of which the old writers have given a most striking description, can now be found. Charles strongly fortified his castle in the direction of the Malá Strana. The steep access to the Hradcany in that direction is a remnant of these fortifications. During the Hussite Wars the castle was used as a fortress, and it suffered greatly during those wars. The castle was greatly injured during the two sieges (1420 and 1421), when Sigismund’s troops were here besieged by the Praguers, but its fate was far worse after Sigismund’s troops had been forced to capitulate. The citizens rushed into the castle resolved to entirely demolish the stronghold of the hated King Sigismund. The town magistrates and the nobles, allied with the Praguers, succeeded indeed in averting the complete destruction of the time-honoured castle, but it was greatly damaged. After the end of the Hussite War, Sigismund, during his short reign, undertook some repairs, but the castle remained uninhabited.
The Bohemian Kings, since the time of Wenceslas, resided in the old town on the right bank of the Vltava. This continued up to the reign of Vladislav II. That King, who resided in the buildings known as the Kraluv Dvur, near the powder tower, intimidated by the menaces of his turbulent neighbours, the citizens of the old town, resolved to transfer his residence to the left bank of the Vltava. He crossed the river in a boat at night-time, and sought refuge behind the strong walls of the dilapidated Hradcany, and began to build there a new Royal residence. Some of the oldest parts of the existent building date from his time. Large additions were made by Ferdinand I., Matthias and Rudolph.
Rudolph, like Charles IV., chose Prague as his permanent residence, and he is the last King of Bohemia who lived continuously in his capital. His artistic and scientific tastes, to which reference has already been made, caused him to feel a great desire for solitude. He generally lived in the north wing of the castle, where he established an observatory and vast laboratories for chemical research. On the other hand, he appears to have neglected the portion of the castle that had been built by Vladislav II. He even allowed the far-famed hall of Vladislav to be turned into a ‘bazaar where various tradesmen exhibited their wares and met to discuss their business.’ Sadeler’s engraving—reproduced in this volume—gives a good idea of the appearance of Vladislav’s hall at this period.
Rudolph accumulated in the Hradcany Castle vast collections, which have long since been dispersed. Though they were plundered by the Saxons in 1632, and again by the Swedes in 1648, many works of art seem still to have remained, for a sale was held as late as in 1782, when Joseph II. intended to turn the Hradcany Castle into barracks.
Since Rudolph’s time the rulers of Bohemia have but rarely inhabited the Hradcany for any considerable time, though Maria Theresa caused it to be largely rebuilt after the buildings had suffered very much from the Prussian bombardment. Her son Joseph II., as already mentioned, proposed turning the vast agglomeration of buildings on the Hradcany hill into barracks, but the plan was never carried out. From his abdication in 1848 to the year of his death, the Emperor Ferdinand inhabited the Hradcany Palace, and the gifted Crown Prince Rudolph resided here for some time. More recently the reigning Emperor has, in 1891 and 1901, received the nobility of Bohemia in the Hradcany Castle.
The vast and imposing Hradcany Palace has the greatest historical interest, and well deserves the attention of the visitor. We enter the first of the three courtyards from the Hradcany Square, famous as the site of the executions that preceded the meeting of the ‘bloody diet.’ The first courtyard is divided by a railing from the square, and is entered by a gateway embellished by four colossal mythological statues by Platzer. The buildings surrounding this first court are modernised dwelling-rooms, sometimes inhabited by members of the Imperial family. Passing through a portal, built by King Matthias in 1614, we enter the second court. It is considerably larger than the first one. Immediately opposite the portal is the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which dates from the seventeenth century, but has been frequently altered. It was thoroughly restored and modernised (1852-1858) during the time that the late Emperor Ferdinand resided in the castle. In the north wing of this court
