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The Library, Strahov

Most Ancient Arms of the Malá Strana

The Powder Tower

Door of Old Synagogue

Jewish Town Hall and Old Synagogue

Chapel of St. Martin

Karlov

From the Bridge Looking Towards the Old Town

View of the Bridge from the Mills of the Old Town

The ‘Star’ Hunting Lodge

The Oldest Great Seal of the Malá Strana, Thirteenth Century

View of Prague in 1606, after Sadeler’s famous Engraving, in Three Sections

Map of Prague

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.

I have found no lack of materials while writing this short note on the story of Prague. I have of course mainly relied on the old chronicles, most of which are written in the national language. These almost unknown chroniclers are little inferior to those of Italy. Their fierce religious and racial animosities sometimes inspire them, and even carry