CHAPTER VIII
Walks and Excursions near Prague
TO those visitors to Prague who have acquired some interest in the history of the country no excursion will appeal more than that to the White Mountain, ‘the Chaeronaea of Bohemia,’ as it has been aptly called. Leaving the Malá Strana by the now-demolished Strahov gate (near the monastery of that name), we soon reach the White Mountain. Factories built in modern times have considerably altered the aspect of the ground. The plateau, which the Bohemian army occupied on the evening of November 7, 1620, and where earthworks were hastily thrown up, and the battle-field of the following day can, however, still be clearly distinguished. The Bohemian lines extended from the village of Repy to the ‘Star’ Park and the village of Liboc. The last and fiercest fighting took place immediately outside the park. Dr. Krebs[1] writes: ‘The south-eastern angle of the “Star” Park became the grave of the national independence of Bohemia. Every Bohemian who passes this spot should remember, “It is holy ground on which I tread.”’ The Star Park is now a favourite summer resort of the citizens of Prague, who, perhaps wisely, appear to be intent rather on present pleasure than on gloomy memories of the past.
‘Little they think of those stout limbs
That moulder deep below.’
- ↑ In his Die Schlacht am Weissen Berge.
