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sight of the tower and walls of the castle Okoř now in ruins and from thence an hour’s ride brings us to the Emperor Francis Joseph’s station in Prague.
SECOND EXCURSION TO THE SOUTH VIA TÁBOR AND BUDĚJOVICE.
Two express trains per day run on this route. Leaving Francis Joseph’s station we immediately enter a tunnel 1141 m. in length and on emerging from it we see many pretty villas and gardens covering the slope on our left. Not far (9 km.) from Hostivař on a great bare plain are to be seen two monuments erected in memory of the Prussian general Schwerin killed in the battle of 1757. The country near Říčany (21 km.) grows more interesting, the river Sázava winds its way beneath the railway track, soon we see the ruins of Hláska an out-post of the larger ruined castle Dubá of which we catch a passing glance as it peeps from its rocky height through the fir wood.
We cross the river Sázava and the ruins of the castle Mrač attract our attention and next we find ourselves entering Benešov (52 km.) a thriving industrial town which in the time of the Hussite wars was almost totally destroyed by fire (1420).
In 1448, Carvajal the papal legate fled from Prague taking with him the Compactata, was arrested here and had to deliver up what he had in his possession. It was also the place of meeting selected by the Diet on several occasions as in 1451, when George of Poděbrad and Aeneas Sylvius (afterwards pope Pius II.) were present. And in 1473 a meeting was held in the ruined Minorits Church of which there are now but scanty remains. On this occasion Queen Joanna of Rožmital, widow of George, made a fiery patriotic speech to the representatives of Bohemia.
Of some interest also are the college of the piarists, with the churches of St. Anne and St. Nicolas’; in the latter there is a well executed panel painting of the Holy Virgin. Two miles west of Benešov is the castle Konopiště, the seat of the arch-duke Ferdinand d’Este. It has a rich collection of ancient arms and a noble gallery of paintings.
