The Story of Prague
had been known as ‘Hus’ and ‘Hieronymus’ to be removed and recast; but when they had been refounded and the Jesuits had again placed them in their former position, it was found, to the great delight of those who still secretly sympathised with the ancient faith, that the sound was unaltered.[1]
The interior of the church contains some paintings by Skreta, a handsome—though renovated—pulpit from which Rokycan is said to have preached, and the tomb of Tycho Brahe. One of the finest churches in Prague is that of St. Nicholas, on the Malostranské Námesti, built in the seventeenth century in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
Of the many monasteries of Prague, I shall first mention the premonstratension Monastery of Mount Sion or Strahov. It is situated at the extremity of the Malá Strana, and the name of Strahov is derived from the Bohemian word ‘straz,’ guard, as a guard was formerly established here to secure the safety of travellers arriving at Prague by the Strahov gate.
The monastery was founded in 1142 by Bishop Zdik of Olmütz, during the reign of King Vladislav I. The first building was of very modest dimensions, and both the monastery and the church that belongs to it were rebuilt several times before the present structure was erected by Italian architects at the end of the seventeeth century. Considerable changes have also recently been made in the monastery. The church belonging to the monastery contains the tomb of Pappenheim, the great general of the Thirty Years’ War, and other monuments. A very handsome railing divides the choir from the rest of the church.
In the small picture gallery is the much-repainted
- ↑ This legend forms the subject of a very fine poem by the gifted Bohemian poet, Svatopluk Cech. It has been admirably translated into German by the late Professor Albrecht.
