Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/29

23 narrow Melantrichova ulice, formerly called Sirková, which name was changed into Melantrichova to honour the renowned old printer and publisher of the first Bohemian printed books in the second half of the XVIth. century: Melantrich z Aventina. This entrance is a regular prototype of a mediaeval unconspicious junction of a side-lane with a large square, and like the labyrinth of lanes near Týn a regular European unicum. The adjoining houses, the one of the Minuta, which is a part of the Townhall block and is adorned with a lunetted cornice (from the first half of the XVIth century), then the next building with a turret window, forming the corner of the next free space, as well as the opposite house, „at the Prince“, which also has a jutting-window surmounted by a little spire of a now secularized St. Michal’s church, form a picturesque narrow passage by which the Old town Square is divided from the following Malé náměstí (small market place). This has the shape of a triangle and is surrounded by old narrow and very high houses, some of which have arcades and all are very interesting. In the centre of the place there is a beautiful renaissance fountain a master-piece of smithwork from the XVIth. century. In former times flowers used to be sold in this very lively market-place. At the western corner of it we enter a very winding narrow street leading to Charles’ bridge, which (beside the Celetná in the Old town, the Mostecká and Nerudova in the Smaller town) is very likely the most ancient and interesting street of the old city of Prague. It is the Small and Large Charles’ Street (Malá and Velká Karlova ulice). Also here we pass interesting formerly patrician houses, adorned with fine renaissance and baroque façades. The finest among them is No. 156 at the corner of this and Huss’ street which has beautiful Gothic gables and forms a fine „point de vue“ of this highly picturesque cross-street. Only a few steps further to the right we come to the palace of Count Wenceslaus of Clam a dark but grand-looking building, both as to dimensions and as to sculptural ornaments which were the work of the highly-gifted Bohemian sculptor Braun. The palace is a chef-d'-oeuvre of Fischer of Erlach the designer, a pupil of the Prague baroque-school. It is one of the most remarkable palaces not only in Bohemia but in