Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/52

38 Caratti, erected in 1668—1704. It looms high above the surrounding low buildings, overpowering everything by its great dimensions. The near walls of the former fortifications, and the roofs of even higher buildings in the neighbourhood hardly reach to the upper cornice of its rich rustica. How small, in comparison appears the little church of the Virgin Mary, that belongs to the idyllic and peaceful Capuchin monastery, the oldest seat of these friars in Bohemia. Above its walls rises the neatly shaped Loretto, beautifully adorned by a slender spire which surmounts the sea of pantile roofs, chapels, and cloisters of the great mass of buildings, erected in the latest renaissance and baroque style, at the cest of Catherine of Lobkovic during 1626 and the following years. In the midst of these buildings is the Loretto-chapel of the Nativity which dates from 1661. The monastery boasts of the greatest church-treasure in the kingdom, the value of which is estimated at millions of florins. One single monstrance of high artistic value contains 6200 diamonds, and is worth 4 millions crowns. But there is a number of other sacred vessels especially of gothic and baroque monstrances of immense artistic and material value, a downright marvel to the visitor; and all this immense treasure is hidden in a corner of a quiet idyllic courtyard, planted with shady lime-trees and surrounded by dark cloisters, the peace of which is only interrupted by the melancholy Ave of the Loretto-chimes, or by the noisy signals and prolonged calls of the military, behind the neighbouring fortification-walls and from the barracks. And again the deep silence occupies the sacred half-forgotten corner as if it were miles away from the tumult of a large town. Quietly and silently the visitor returns to the square and to the arcades which take up all its southern side which gives it the aspect of some remote Italian borough. We proceed now to the left into the Loretto-street, which is narrowed here by a row of interesting old houses with arcades; opposite to these, we see in the wall of the spacious garden of the house of correction, a small chapel on the spot where according to the legend, St. Wenceslaus’ mother, the heathen Drahomíra was swallowed up by the earth. A few steps bring us to the former Trautmansdorf palace which is now used