Here also is the Nicholas Church that has already been mentioned, and near here are the palace of the Governor of Bohemia and the palace where the Bohemian Diet assembles, since it no longer meets on the Hradcany. A steep path leads to the summit of the Hradcany Hill. The two most important buildings on this height, the Royal Palace and St. Vitus’s Cathedral, have already been mentioned. Between these buildings stands the very fine equestrian statue of St. George, cast in 1373 by order of Charles IV. This fine statue, a work of the brothers George and Martin of Clussenburk, is excessively interesting as giving a faithful representation of the armour worn by the knights of the fourteenth century.

Behind the cathedral is the Church of St. George, occupying the spot where one of the earliest Christian churches in Bohemia, built by Prince Vratislav I. about the year 915, once stood. Princess Mlada, sister of Boleslav II., in 915 here built a Benedictine convent, of which she became abbess, and which became very famous in Bohemia. Charles IV. granted to the abbess of this convent the right of crowning the Queens of Bohemia. They retained this right up to the suppression of the convent by the Emperor Joseph II. It was then transferred to the superior of the Chapter of Noble Ladies, which the Empress Maria Theresa had founded.

The first Church of St. George was destroyed in 1142, during the troubles that followed the death of Sobeslav.[53] A Romanesque building was then erected, which is the finest building in that style of architecture in Bohemia. Though here also restorations have taken place, the church has, on the whole, retained its ancient character, and it is well worth the attention of the traveller. It contains the graves of several of the most ancient rulers of Bohemia and of their wives. The ancient frescoes in this church and the chapels of St. Ludmilla—where that saint and Princess Mlada, the first abbess of St. George’s convent, are buried—and of St. Anne require particular notice. During the recent restorations the stucco ornaments that concealed the old Romanesque doors and windows have been removed. Of great interest are the four very ancient towers on the Hradcany Hill, which date from the time of Ottokar II. and have already been mentioned. They overlook the Jeleni Prikop (Stag’s Ditch), and are reached by the Jiriska Ulice, passing through buildings that are used as Government offices. These towers were used as prisons, and the White Tower in particular, which has been compared to the Bastille and the Tower of London, was the principal State prison of Prague. The leaders of the Protestant movement against Ferdinand I., Bishop Augusta, the head of the Bohemian brethren, the Bohemian leaders who were decapitated in 1621, the partisans of Charles of Bavaria (1743), and many others were imprisoned here.

The Daliborka Tower is very famous in popular legends. It is said to have received its present name from Dalibor of Kozojed, a knight who was imprisoned here during the reign of Vladislav II. The serfs of a neighbouring knight, Adam of Ploskov, had been driven to revolt by the cruelty of their lord, and Dalibor availed himself of this opportunity for seizing Ploskov’s estates. He was, therefore, imprisoned in the tower to which he has given his name, and afterwards decapitated. This somewhat sordid event became the nucleus of legends created by the imaginative Bohemian people. It was said that Dalibor, after spending some years in foreign lands, had returned to Bohemia, and there witnessed the cruelties from which the Bohemian peasants, formerly free men, suffered; for bondage, entirely alien to the ancient customs of Bohemia, was only established there in 1487. Under the influence of Rozvod, an old man who remembered the days of Zizka, Dalibor incited the peasants to rise against their lords. The revolt was rapidly suppressed, and Dalibor imprisoned in the tower on the Hradcany Hill. It was said that while imprisoned he learnt to play the violin to solace his solitude, and that his music attracted crowds to the tower. The great Bohemian musician Smetana has given the name of ‘Dalibor’ to one of his operas, and Dalibor is also the hero of one of the books of the talented Bohemian novelist Wenceslas Vlcek. Among the later prisoners in the Daliborka were several alchemists whom Rudolph II. called to his court, but who failed to fulfil the promises they had made. The astronomer Francis Tennagel, an assistant of Tycho Brahe, was also a prisoner in the Daliborka during Rudolph’s reign.

We obtain the best view of the four towers, and indeed of the Hradcany generally, if we cross the Stag’s Ditch and proceed to the Royal gardens, in which is the Belvedere villa. Ferdinand I. caused it to be built for his wife Anna. It is a fine specimen of the Italian Renaissance, Ferdinand’s favourite form of architecture, and was built by the Italian, John de Spatio. In the interior of the building there are some frescoes of the earlier part of the nineteenth century representing scenes from Bohemian history. It is characteristic of the period that the Hussite Wars, the period of Bohemia’s greatness, are entirely excluded. As a proof that the present Emperor of Austria from his earliest youth possessed the sagacity and clearness of mind which is now recognised by the whole world, it may be mentioned that when, as a young Archduke, he visited these frescoes, he is reported to have said: ‘It is impossible even to conceive a history of Bohemia from which the Hussite Wars are excluded.’

Close to the Belvedere is a fountain, which has rightly been called ‘one of the finest Renaissance fountains north of the Alps.’ The design is by Tertio of Bergamo, and the work was carried out by Jarus, an artist of Prague.

From the Belvedere we descend the Hradcany Hill, and passing through the Chotek Park reach the Bruska Street and the suspension bridge. Crossing this bridge, we reach the old town and the Rudolphinum, and soon find our way back to the powder tower.

CHAPTER VIII
Walks and Excursions near Prague

TO those visitors to Prague who have acquired some interest in the history of the country no excursion will appeal more than that to the White Mountain, ‘the Chacronaea of Bohemia,’ as it has been aptly called. Leaving the Malá Strana by the now-demolished Strahov gate (near the monastery of that name), we soon reach the White Mountain. Factories built in modern times have considerably altered the aspect of the ground. The plateau, which the Bohemian army occupied on the evening of November 7, 1620, and where earthworks were hastily thrown up, and the battle-field of the following day can, however, still be clearly distinguished. The Bohemian lines extended from the village of Repy to the ‘Star’ Park and the village of Liboc. The last and fiercest lighting took place immediately outside the park. Dr. Krebs[54] writes: ‘The south-eastern angle of the “Star” Park became the grave of the national independence of Bohemia. Every Bohemian who passes this spot should remember, “It is holy ground on which I tread.” ’ The Star Park is now a favourite summer resort of the citizens of Prague, who, perhaps wisely, appear to be intent rather on present pleasure than on gloomy memories of the past.

‘Little they think of those stout limbs
That moulder deep below.’