Page:Guide to the Bohemian section and to the Kingdom of Bohemia - 1906.djvu/84

64 of Bohemia is connected with the Habsburg dynasty. Ferdinand I. (1526—64)) took the greatest care, to have the royal castle as splendid as possible, especially in reconstructing those parts which were destroyed or damaged by the great fire in 1541; he founded the beautiful royal park in which a pavilion of unsurpassed Italian renaissance architecture was constructed in honour of his wife Anna, daughter of Wladislaus. Also an interesting hunting seat near Prague „Hvězda“ („Star“, so called because the ground plan forms a six-rayed star) dates from this time, which introduced into Bohemia the Italian instead of the Gothic style. But Ferdinand being a fervent Catholic, succeeded in breaking the power of the towns after defeating in Germany the protestant party, against whom the Bohemians refused to help the king. To promote the catholic church he introduced the order of the Jesuits into Bohemia, a very influential element in the later political events of the country and in the development of architecture and music. He employed many painters and architects especially from Italy and during his reign some of the most beautiful palaces of the nobility (e. g. that of the Rosenbergs now Schwarzenbergs) were founded near the royal castle.

The building of palaces near the castle continued under Rudolph II. (1576—1611) who made his residence a glorious seat and centre of art, science and refined culture. The halls of the castle in Prague contained very rich collections of the rarest and choicest objects, statues, paintings, and antiquities; the court was the meeting place of the most renowned artists and scientists, as Tycho de Brahe, Keppler, Burgi, the English poetesss Elisabeth Weston, the painters and etchers Spranger, Sadeler, G. Hoefnagel, Hans v. Aachen, Roelant Savery; the sculptor Adr. de Vries, the goldsmith Paulus van Vianen etc. But what had been accomplished by the care of these monarchs at an enormous cost and during many years, was lost almost entirely during the Thirty years war 1618—1648. The Defenestration of the catholic governors, reckless in their dealing with the protestants, the election of Frederick the Palatine son-in-law of James I. of England in opposition to Ferdinand II. were the first important events in this long struggle between the protestant party of the kingdom and the dynasty. By