Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/246

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Leaving Prague by the Emperor Francis Joseph’s station, our route leads to Čerčany (43 km), from which point the train travels eastward through the beautiful valley of the river Sázava.

Near to Čerčany the ruin of Hláska is seen on the leſt,—then we come to the scanty remains of the castle Stará Dubá (14th. century), and we observe the village of Chocerady on the right bank of the river with the castle Komorní Hrádek, on the opposite slope.

Of greater historical interest is the little town of Sázava where in 1302, Prince Oldřich founded an abbey for holding Divine service in the slavonic language. Its first abbot was St. Prokopius. The slavonic lithurgy was continued until the 14th. century. There are only a few gothic arches of the original building standing, but they are sufficient to enable us to form an opinion as to the former magnificence of this grand old abbey.

At Rataje (24 km), a branch leads to Šternberg; a small town with an old castle of the counts Šternberg 1242, and which even now, is in a good state of preservation. The chapel and the isolated dungeon are profoundly interesting. The view of the river and valley is from here,—most charming.

From Šternberg we go on to Kolín (50 km). This is an industrial town with its breweries, distilleries, sugar and succory factories, manufactory for the production of chemical manures, machine and tool-making establishments etc.

The beautiful church of St. Bartholomew founded in the 14th. century, has a fine choir, pictures by Brandl, and contains the tombs of the noble families of Ruthard and Vartenberk. Not far off, there is St. Johns, the former parish church with its ornamentation of fine frescoes.

Kolín is the junction of the State and the Austrian North-Western railway, by which we travel to (11 km) Sedlic-Kutná Hora.

At Sedlec, our attention is first arrested by the old abbey of the Cistercian monks founded in 1143. The church, a splendid gothic building dating from 1320, ranks amongst the largest ecclesiastical structures, it contains several ma-