On Prague Lore Books

Description

On the City of a Hundred Spires.

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On Prague
a city of hundred towers

The seat of the kings of Bohemia, a city of grandness, whose glory reaches to the heavens. Amongst the great cities of the world, it is the greatest, rich in commerce and strong in arms, and endowed with beauty, the towers of which rise above other towns. Founded by Princes Libusse and Premysl, her husband and the father of the Premyslid Dynasty, with a castle of stone at a place called Hradčany, to which later quarters were adjoined and during the reign of Emporer Charles the whole of the New Town was built on the opposite bank of the Vltava River, with the largest stone bridge the world had ever seen connecting it to the Old Town, made of much stone and mortar, to which, according to legend, thousands of eggs were added for greater strength.

The population is of a diverse nature. The Czechs dominate, but many a German can be found amongst merchants and tradesmen, who live in their own quarter, and even the Jews have been granted their own “town” within Prague, into which no Christian dare step foot. To celebrate the glory of God, the One and Only, monasteries were founded at Emmaus, Strahov, and Klarov, and churches of stone are so numerous that you could not count them on two hands. The greatest and most renowned of all, consecrated to Saints Vitus and Aldabert, shall soon stand, for it has been being constructed for nearly fifty years and soon shall be completed. Under Emperor Charles a University was founded as well, which provides learning in four arts, and from many distant lands do foreigners come to study. If one was to visit only one city in life, may one make haste to Prague, for there is no more beautiful city in the world.