Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/17

15 of the Vltava, further on, the heights of Vinohrady and the mount of Žižkov, the slopes of Vysočan and Prosek. Beyond these at a greater distance gleam in the golden sunshine crop-covered ridges of hills, and yet farther again, towards the left, the top of Ladví, the brownish rocks of Bráník with the dark background of the pineforest near Modřan; beyond them the high hills of Zbraslav and Závisť are rising out of the forests on both banks of the river Vltava while in the foreground is seen, the dark green ridge of Petřín, with the line of Charles’s „Hunger-wall“ to the south, while on the opposite side nestles with its spires the monastery of Strahov amidst the green of shady gardens on its slopes.

All this forms a picture of enchanting beauty a fairyscene of marvels the dream of a Bohemian’s soul, „the“ town of all Slavonic towns THE CITY OF PRAGUE.

Urbem conspicio fama quae sidera tanget! (Libuša's prophecy.)

It is no wonder indeed that from time immemorial the most famous travellers considered and declared the „golden“, „the hundredtowered“ city of Prague to be one of the most beautiful cities of the world on account of its picturesque situation on both banks of the river Vltava and on the slopes of seven surrounding hills as well as for her many historic and artistic monuments.

Already at the beginning of the twelfth century the first Bohemian historian Kosmas praises it enthusiastically. He wrote the words of Libuša’s prophecy quoted above. After him, in the XVth. century, Aeneas Silvius (afterwards pope Pius II.) calls Prague the queen of towns. Enthusiastic are all the opinions of the travellers who visited Prague in the last and in the present century. The great German poet Goethe calls Prague „der Mauerkrone der Erde kostbarste Stein“, the famous German traveller Humboldt puts it in the fourth place amongst the most beautiful European towns and the renowned French geographer Elisée Reclus calls it one of the most beautiful towns altogether.

And the Prague of former times was more beautiful still, as it was seen even in the fifties of the XIXth. cen-