Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/256

222 bridge, the higher level being used for the railway and the lower for pedestrians and vehicular traffic, and arrive at the industrial town of Ústí nad Labem (Aussig an der Elbe). The chemical and soap factory of this town is one of the most extensive establishments of the kind in Austria. Ústí is an important commercial centre, it does a very large trade in brown coal, sugar, cereals and fruit; principally for the German market. The embankments for the convenience of the shipping trade are several miles long. The decanal gothic church possesses a Madonna by Raphael Mengs and a bell with a portrait of John Huss (1544). The industrial museum is well worthy of a visit. From Ústí as the border town, we go on to Lobosice (22 km.), noted for its manufacture of sweets and coffee substitutes.

Some six miles distant, standing on the top of a hill is the ruined castle of Košťál.

From Lobosice to Česká Lípa (Böhmisch-Leipa 49 km.), from thence (26 km.) to Bezděz. The castle standing on the highest top of a twin mountain, dates from the 11th. century and from the high tower one fourth of the kingdom can be surveyed, truly a magnificent panorama. Here Kunhuta, widow of the unfortunate Přemysl Otokar II., and her son king Wenceslaus II., were detained as prisoners (1279).

The two chapels of St. Aegidius and the Holy Virgin date from the 13th. century.

From Bezděz to Bakov (28 km.) and on to Mladá Boleslav (Jungbunzlau) with its 10 th. century castle. The decanal church of St. Mary was founded in the 16th. century. There is a column of the Holy Virgin erected in 1680 as a thankoffering after an epidemic.

Mladá Boleslav was one of the principal centres of the Bohemian Brethren. There is a splendid hymn-book or Kancionál to be seen at the town-hall.

The industrial concerns include the products of soap and candle factories, breweries, distilleries and a cloth factory established in 1780.

From Boleslav, continuing to the North along the banks of the Jizera by Bakov (9 km) to Turnov (22 km). This town has an old established renown for its special industry:—stone-cutting and polishing the gems of