Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/23

19 entrance to the central and oldest part of Prague the Old town (Staré město). The most prominent feature of this part of the square and its most splendid ornament is one of the most remarkable monuments of Prague,—the famous Powder gate (Prašná brána), dating from the end of the XVth. century, it is a master-piece in the Wladislaus Style of the renowned Bohemian Architects (Master Václav and Rejsek z Prostějova) the latter was the first B. A. and subsequently rector of the school „na Týně“ and master builder. Here in the vicinity of the former temporary residence of the kings of Bohemia, the two masters erected one of the most renowned Gothic towers in central Europe, majestic in general outline and marvellously attractive in the details of its ornamentation. The outside of this building shows that the gate which was begun in 1475 and finished only after the death of master Rejsek z Prostějova in 1506, used to serve defensive purposes as part of the once powerful and strong fortification-walls of the old town, it also boasts of a beautiful vault with a richly decorated fireplace and was at the same time the most ornamental part of the kings residence with which it was connected by a wooden bridge.

It is to be regretted, that of this once splendid royal residence, the place of which in after years was taken up by the archbishop’s palace and seminaries, and later still by a military school for Cadets, not one stone is now left upon another. In this square of monuments of past years, only one other remarkable edifice is left which will interest especially visitors from Great-Britain.

It is a church of the Virgin Mary secularized in emperor Joseph II.’s time, formerly belonging to a monastery of Hibernians, in which one of the chief altars was devoted to the patron-saint of Ireland St. Patrick. Only the facade of this church remains as of old and forms, in spite of a certain soberness of outline and decoration, or perhaps in virtue thereof a very affective feature at the entrance to the finest street of Prague, the Moat (Přikop).

At the corner of this street the stream of communication between the old and new town is divided into two chief channels, one of which leads by the Příkop to the spacious square of St. Wenceslaus (Václavské náměstí)— *