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                   _The Story of Prague_

                 _The Mediaeval Town Series_


                  =VERONA.=(A)
                    By ALETHEA WIEL.

                  =CHARTRES.=(B)
                    By CECIL HEADLAM.

                  =CAIRO.=(B)
                    By STANLEY LANE-POOLE.

                  =BRUGES.=(B)
                    By ERNEST GILLIAT-SMITH.

                  =ROME.=(B)      [_2nd Edition._
                    By NORWOOD YOUNG.

                  =FLORENCE.=(B)      [_3rd Edition._
                    By EDMUND G. GARDNER.

                  =ASSISI.=(A)      [_2nd Edition._
                    By LINA DUFF GORDON.

                  =CONSTANTINOPLE.=(A)
                    By WILLIAM H. HUTTON.

                  =MOSCOW.=(A)
                    By WIRT GERRARE.

                  =ROUEN.=(B)      [_2nd Edition._
                    By THEODORE A. COOK.

                  =NUREMBERG.=(A)      [_3rd Edition._
                    By CECIL HEADLAM.

                  =PERUGIA.=(A)      [_4th Edition._
                    By MARGARET SYMONDS and LINA DUFF GORDON.

                  =TOLEDO.=(A)
                    By HANNAH LYNCH.

   _The volumes marked_ (A) _are_ 3_s._ 6_d._ _net in cloth_, 4_s._
   6_d._ _net in leather_; _those marked_ (B) _are_ 4_s._ 6_d._ _net
               in cloth_, 5_s._ 6_d._ _net in leather_.

[Illustration: The Pulverthurm Prague]




                        _The Story of_ =PRAGUE=

                           _by Count Luetzow_

                    _Illustrated by Nelly Erichsen_

                       [Illustration: colophon]

                      _London: J. M. Dent & Co._

               _Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street_

                         _Covent Garden, W.C._

                            [Illustration]

                                 1902

                         _All rights reserved_


                                  To

                        PROFESSOR MORFILL, M.A.

         _Corresponding Member of the Royal Scientific Society
              of Bohemia, who has so largely contributed
                  to making Bohemia known to England_




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE

_Introduction_                                                        xv

CHAPTER I

_Prague at the Earliest Period_                                        1

CHAPTER II

_From the Reign of Charles IV. to the Executions
at 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 Mala 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 Stare 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 Mala 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 Mala 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 Mala Strana,
Thirteenth Century_                                                  200

_View of Prague in 1606, after Sadeler's famous
Engraving, in Three Sections_                               _facing_ 206

_Map of Prague_      "                                               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