Bohemian Section at the Austrian Exhibition, Earl's Court London 1906/A Historical Sketch of Prague
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PRAGUE.
Ancient Prague, the great; at one time the glorious metropolis of the kingdom of Bohemia, originated without an arbitrary plan, it grew through successive periods, receiving the distinctive impress of each age, and thus we can read much of the city's history in its walls public buildings, castles and palaces. The architectural features are very characteristic, in one part aristocratic; in another showing the less pretentious style of the dwellings inhabited by the burgher or citizen class; but whether it be palace, or abode of the humblest resident, they each and all are of such striking and attractive appearance, that they never fail to arrest the interested attention of visitors.
In the time of the Přemysl dynasty the ROMAN style of building prevailed, the exceptions being the monastery of St. Agnes, and the renowned old synagogue. But soon after, the Luxembourgs coming from the west, led to the introduction of the GOTHIC style of architecture which other countries had already been adopted and generally favoured.
The short epoch of the two kings of the Jagailo famly, left us the fine forms of the specifically BOHEMIAN GOTHIC OF WLADISLAUS in a series of remarkable architectural monuments. The change from this style, which in the natural course was superseded by the EARLY RENAISSANCE introduced from Italy, soon showed itself by the ready and general adoption of the new form. The sumptuous pavilion of Queen Anne is the finest example of the renaissance order to be found on this side of the Alps. It cannot be denied that the influence of this new style was great, and quickly showed itself in the architectural features of buildings erected at this time, particularly in the city of Prague. But as time went on a change in style manifested itself,
PAVILION OF QUEEN ANNE.
gradually there was a departure from the original italian, until at the end of the century it was evident that Bohemian architecte had evolved a characteristic style of renaissance quite their own.
Prague and other towns throughout the country can show many fine buildings of this distinctive Bohemian style.
After the time of Rudolph II. (d. 1612) there followed a period often referred to as „The silver epoch“ on account of the favourable and generally prosperious condition of the country, and during this time great progress was made; industry flourished, and the fine arts encouraged. Then came the devastating Thirty Years war which destroyed almost every trace of the preceding time of prosperity. But as soon as the clouds of war had passed away and the country was once more in the enjoyment of the blessings of peace there was a rapid recovery from the ills of the terrible thirty years. Architecture shared in the benefits of the quieter times, and at this period was introduced the later renaissance and baroque style which very soon through the genius of the two Dienzenhoffers developed into the well-known and famous characteristic type of Prague which certain critics at one time most injustly nicknamed the „Italian pig-tail“.
At this time a great number of foreigners were engaged to the exclusion of native labour, in the building of new palaces for the nobility. It is easy to understand that the employment of alien workers was not welcomed by the people of the town who naturally thought that the interest of the native workmen ought to have been a first consideration. The history of art in Prague is consistent with its political history, change in the one was reflected in the other. The condition of the once Royal Palace as it is to be seen to-day exhibits all the varied excellencies of the dissimilar styles which at different periods have prevailed.
Although the city authorities have for about ten years past been pulling down a considerable part of the old town and the whole of the ghetto for the purpose of effecting modern sanitary, housing and general improvements, still much remains to interest visitors who will find a particular charm in such buildings as the Malá Strana and Hradčany on the left bank of the river.
The „Križovnické náměstí“ (Place of the Red Cross Order) is a catholic church representative of the later renaissance style, and well repays the trouble of a visit.
The „Zelený Trh“ (Vegetable market) with its arcades of the fourteenth century, is a witness to the growing might of the burghers before the election of Ferdinand I. The house of an enterprising man of the time, stands almost unchanged. So are the quaint streets „Celetná“ and „Karlova“ in the old town, and the „Nerudova“ in the „Malá Strana“, they are excellent to the palaces of the nobility and old time residence of the kings who in the past made their pompous processions to the Cathedral of St. Vitus.
There is also in the Old Town, the great market place and the Týn church, at one time the cathedral of the Bohemian Utraquists, this too, is a monumental leaf in the history of the burghers.
The Malá Strana and the Hradčany with the cathedral on the other hand are more intimately connected with the history of the dynasty. But where in the past there were brilliant throngs of Courtiers, there now reigns a silent loneliness. The grounds of Hradčany and Malá Strana are now laid out as parks, the most beautiful and picturesque gardens of Prague.
If Malá Strana does not enjoy the royal and courtly patronage as of old, it can still glory, in the unique character of its architecture. The busy life of the ancient town beneath the Castle has passed away-so far as courtly life is concerned, and Prague which has been the scene of many events in the history of Europe, has become a commercial city and at the same time the centre of Bohemian art life. This has led to the great extension of the modern town, but the historic part of the city with its ancient buildings and monuments is well preserved. In the neighbourhood of its Museum rich in objects of great interest, has grown up a new manufacturing town with all the signs of a vigourous commercial, and industrial life. A great metropolis has arisen in the course of about thirty years, with a community prosperous, a centre of every grade of education, providing the rising generation with mental equipment to enable them to take their part in the battle of life with a fair chance of coming out victors!
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ST. NICOLAUS CHURCH.
THE FAMOUS WORK OF THE TWO DIENZENHOFFERS.
The growth of the commercial importance and in consequence the great expansion of the city and its population gave to the Prague towns already in the times of Přemysl Otokar I. and Wenceslaus I. a great political predominance. In 1253 Přemysl Otokar II., Rudolph’s of Habsburg rival (killed in 1278 in battle on the plain of the river Morava), began to enlarge the castle on the left bank—the present Royal Castle—and to make it a stronghold with the adjoining Malá Strana, as he expanded his monarchy from the Baltic to the Adriatic.[1] At the liberal and splendid court of the Přemysl dynasty the Minnesinger and German knights were in great favour, especially during the reign of Wenceslaus II. (1278—1305), who was favoured with great revenues from the silver mines of Kutná Hora and the gold mines of Jílové, and attracted by the general prosperity of the land, a great number of foreigners crowded into Prague, among them, besides many embassies, also numerous adventurers. The king employed a great part of his income to repair the immense ravages caused by his “tutor” Otto Braniborský during the years 1278—1283 and to promote science, art and industry, and he was the first to propose the foundation of a high school or university in Prague which had as yet only schools of a lower degree.
The great disorders which followed after the violent death of his son Wenceslaus III. (1305—6), the last male ruler of the Přemysl dynasty, and the first years of the reign of the Luxemburgs ruined the prosperity of the kingdom, Prague suffering most of all. King John of Luxemburg (1310—46), consort of Elisabeth, daughter of Wenceslaus II., was in his disposition a knight always ready for tournaments and wars; he resided in Bohemia only when he was not called abroad to take part in the battles of some of his neighbours, and when he was in need of money, neglecting, as he did, any sort of sound administration. His heroic death in the battle of Crecy (1346), where he fought, a blind man, as an ally of the French against the English, is the only redeeming feature in all the misery he caused to Bohemia. But his son Wenceslaus, who spent many of his early years at the court of France, where his name was changed into Charles, inaugurated a new period of unprecedented prosperity and glory for the kingdom of Bohemia, which he governed from 1333 during the continual absence of his adventurous father. His universal genius, his indomitable energy and his eminent ability in administration and diplomacy enabled him to raise the land from its ruin; he succeeded 1344 in having the bishopric of Prague promoted to an archbishopric, whereby Bohemia became independent of the archbishop of Mainz in Germany; he realized in 1348 Wenceslaus’ II. idea to found a university in Prague for the benefit of the kingdom, „in order that its inhabitants, yearning after the fruits of art and science may not be compelled to beg for alms in foreign countries, but that they may find at home their table well supplied“. The university, whose members were divided into four „nations“ the Bohemian, Polish, Bavarian and Saxon, grew so rapidly that a contemporaneous historian, Beneš z Weitmile could report, that never was there a similar institution in the lands of Germany, and that students from all countries, from England, France, Lombardy, Poland and Hungary came to enter the university, some among them being of high standing, even prelates of the Church.
As also order and justice prevailed through Charles’ efforts in the kingdom and wars with foreign countries were avoided, the land was prosperous and Charles was able to found new churches, as the cathedral, and new monasteries, which he filled with treasures of every possible kind. In 1348 he founded also the New town of Prague with such excellent judgement and foresight, that the new community, supplied with superb churches, as St. Mary’s on the Karlov, renowned for the great vault, St. Apolinar’s, St. Mary’s de Nive, St. Henry’s and the famous Abbey Emaus whose monks used the Slavonic liturgy, became with her sisters one of the largest cities, conspicuous on account of the prosperity and wealth afforded by her high degree of civilization, and was able to develop within her own borders for about five centuries.
Prague gained also great importance on the election of king Charles to the royal crown of Germany, whereby Prague became also the capital of the Roman Empire, and therefore the centre of diplomatic negotiations and the abode of many foreign legations. The concentration of such a great mass of foreigners caused of course a considerable rise of prices but at the same time it gave a great impulse to art and trade. The court was a liberal patron of eminent artists, employing many of them in its services, and a distinct school of painters arose, whose works are excellent, their correctness rendering true reproductions of lively colours and soft tones. The most renowned architects were called to Prague to build the new cathedral planned of splendid dimensions, to construct the castle of Karlův Týn as an impregnable stronghold for keeping the state archives and treasures, to span the river by a new bridge instead of Judith’s, destroyed in 1342 by a flood. This new bridge is, although it has up to the present time suffered much by various vicissitudes, a unique and worldfamed monument and ornament of Prague. Prague was fortified according to the best methods of that time and, helped by good administration, claimed a foremost position among other seats of culture and civilization in Europe.
During the reign of Wenceslaus IV., Charles’ son, many of the buildings, begun by Charles, were finished; also the townhall of the old town, for which a house was bought in 1338, was completed in that part which forms the south-east corner of the present building and contains the interesting chapel, consecrated in 1381. It was also under Wenceslaus IV. that religious and national questions began to agitate the minds of the people and during his reign the great strife originated culminating in the long remarkable Hussite wars. In these, many ideas brought from England in Wicliffe’s Works and defended by Hus gave rise to the ferment which took place in some thinking minds, discontented with the spiritual teaching and authority in their own country.
All these years of „religious“ warfare (1420—1434) were a serious check to an advancement of the cities drawing every mind away from the cultivation of science and art; on the other hand, in consequence of some new ideas regarding divine worship and the liturgy many artistic monuments were destroyed principally in the churches, monasteries and the seats of the nobility, which clung to Rome. So the royal castle of Vyšehrad, then garrisoned by the hated emperor Sigismund, was destroyed, became in a short time a mass of ruins and ceased for ever to be the residence of the king; the Malá Strana had a similar fate but even what the catholic royal party possessed in castles and churches was lost, as Sigismund had to spend for his wars whatever he found of gold, silver and other precious articles. Prague gained in consequence of the victories of the Calixtines the highest political power in the kingdom, and was the centre where all decisions of important affairs originated, but many years elapsed before the city and the land could recover from the disastrous effects of the war and the uncertainty of the political situation. It was reserved to George of Poděbrad elected in the townhall of the Old town of Prague to the royal crown (1457), to restore order in the kingdom, to finish some buildings, as the Týn church, the town hall of the New Town, the bridge towers on the left bank, and to raise the prosperity and wealth of Prague and the land, which continued also under his successor, Wladislaus II. son of Casimir King of Poland, elected in Kutná Hora 1471. His reign is marked by some prominent edifices in Prague as, the Prašná brána (Powder gate), the south front of the Old Townhall and the magnificent hall in the royal castle on the Hradčany, bearing to our time the name of its founder. It is also to be mentioned that under Wladislaus the first waterworks were constructed in Prague.
After the death of Wladislaus’ son Louis in the battle near Mohacs the representatives of Bohemia elected Ferdinand, archduke of Austria, brother of the emperor Charles V., in the chapel of St. Wenceslaus in the cathedral (1526) as king of Bohemia, and since that time the crown of Bohemia is connected with the Habsburg dynasty. Ferdinand I. (1526—64)) took the greatest care, to have the royal castle as splendid as possible, especially in reconstructing those parts which were destroyed or damaged by the great fire in 1541; he founded the beautiful royal park in which a pavilion of unsurpassed Italian renaissance architecture was constructed in honour of his wife Anna, daughter of Wladislaus. Also an interesting hunting seat near Prague „Hvězda“ („Star“, so called because the ground plan forms a six-rayed star) dates from this time, which introduced into Bohemia the Italian instead of the Gothic style. But Ferdinand being a fervent Catholic, succeeded in breaking the power of the towns after defeating in Germany the protestant party, against whom the Bohemians refused to help the king. To promote the catholic church he introduced the order of the Jesuits into Bohemia, a very influential element in the later political events of the country and in the development of architecture and music. He employed many painters and architects especially from Italy and during his reign some of the most beautiful palaces of the nobility (e. g. that of the Rosenbergs now Schwarzenbergs) were founded near the royal castle.
The building of palaces near the castle continued under Rudolph II. (1576—1611) who made his residence a glorious seat and centre of art, science and refined culture. The halls of the castle in Prague contained very rich collections of the rarest and choicest objects, statues, paintings, and antiquities; the court was the meeting place of the most renowned artists and scientists, as Tycho de Brahe, Keppler, Burgi, the English poetesss Elisabeth Weston, the painters and etchers Spranger, Sadeler, G. Hoefnagel, Hans v. Aachen, Roelant Savery; the sculptor Adr. de Vries, the goldsmith Paulus van Vianen etc. But what had been accomplished by the care of these monarchs at an enormous cost and during many years, was lost almost entirely during the Thirty years war 1618—1648. The Defenestration of the catholic governors, reckless in their dealing with the protestants, the election of Frederick the Palatine son-in-law of James I. of England in opposition to Ferdinand II. were the first important events in this long struggle between the protestant party of the kingdom and the dynasty. By the battle on the White mountain near Prague 1620 the protestants were entirely defeated, any further resistance became impossible; the leaders were executed 1621 on the market place in front of the Old townhall, the lands and other property of the protestants were confiscated, and a no protestants were allowed to live in the country, many thousands of the best families went into exile. Prague lost more than the half of its inhabitants, in the course of the war it was several times captured in turn by the armies of both parties and almost everything of any worth was taken partly by the Saxons in 1631 to Dresden and partly by the Swedes in 1648 to Sweden, and the former treasures of Bohemia are now the most conspicuous articles in foreign museums. The seats of the exiled nobility were taken by foreigners, especially by generals who were most successful in crushing the population, and therefore their fiercest enemies. On the ruins of the devastated land of which three quarters were confiscated, and of whose population of three millions there remained only about eight hundred thousand there gradually arose some new palaces of the victorious nobility, among them the grand palace of Waldstein duke of Friedland, some churches and monasteries in the now barok style. But Prague ceased in 1614 to be the residence of the kings of Bohemia, who lived after that year in Vienna; the depopulated borders of the land, where staunch Bohemian adherents of the protestants religion had lived, were occupied by Germans from the neighbouring country; Prague, although fortified during the reign of Ferdinand III. and Leopold I. could not escape great damages during the French wars and Frederic II. of Prussia caused immense suffering and wreck by bombarding the city during the Seven years war (1757). With the end of this war a longer period of peace began in Bohemia, and Prague as well as the country began to recover from its baneful effects, although Joseph’s II secularisation of a great number of churches and monasteries and his disregard of historical rights and monuments spoilt many precious buildings and products of art and industry. The churches and cloisters were either given to other new public humanitarian institutions, as asylums for incurables and lunatics, or hospitals (1790) or sold for private purposes; the most prominent among them were the colleges and other edifices of the Jesuits in which there are now classes of the university with a splendid library, a priest’s seminary, a military hospital and law courts. Prague retained on the whole its expressive baroque and rococo character in many sumptuous palaces and parks of the nobility as the original Roman and Gothic churches with only few exceptions were either destroyed or remodelled after the later victorious fashions.—The Napoleonic wars were fought almost entirely in the surrounding countries, so that Bohemia was not directly devastated as in former wars, nevertheless it felt heavily their consequences through state failures, ruinous to the welfare of millions of people. To the energy of many public spirited men of this time we owe the founding of scientific (1784) and agricultural societies (1788), of an Academy of arts (1796), a Conservatory of music (1810) a Technical College (1802) and the reawakening of the national feeling of the inhabitants, repressed since the Thirty years war. Industry and wealth began again to grow and with the first steam railway (in Prague 1845) a mighty impulse to the expansion of the city was given which was nor stopped even by the occupation of Prague in 1866 by the Prussians; the fortifications were pulled down and either converted into public parks or sold for building purposes and Prague has risen again to be the centre of the intellectual activity of the nation which had founded the kingdom of Bohemia and survived the most disastrous vicissitudes. Prague is a progressive city, providing a new main drainage-system and a good water supply for the sanitary benefit of its inhabitants; the schools and public libraries afford all possible instruction and the theatres offer highly classical entertainments in drama and music, and therefore it is considered also by the other Slavonic nations of the monarchy as their metropolis.
- ↑ It is probable that some knowledge of this induced Shakespeare to put a part of his „Winter tale“ into a desert country near the sea in Bohemia (III., 3).