Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/333

Rh Prague is the ancient capital of Bohemia and is redolent of the times when Bohemia was a separate and independent kingdom. The town stretches on both sides of the river Moldau, and has an antiquated appearance, as if it has scarcely yet emerged from the days of John Huss and Wallenstein to the peaceful civilization of the modern period.

The entrance to the town is through the ancient gateway of Pulverthurm, one of the eight towers which gave access to the town in olden times; and close to it is the old Royal Palace, now converted into a barrack. Not far off is the Grosse Ring or Great Square where Bohemian kings and knights held their fetes and tournaments, and where religious persecution too committed its blackest deeds in the era of the Reformation. From this square can be seen the fine old Church, in which the stout and valiant reformer John Huss thundered against the errors and vices of his age. Further on is the vast Clementinum, formerly a college of Jesuits, whom Emperor Ferdinand I. summoned to Prague in 1556 A. D. to oppose the protestant tendency of the University! And close to this edifice is the old Ghetto or Jew's Quarters in Prague,—a tortuous and narrow district where the Jews had a colony before they were expelled from the town.

The bridge over the Moldau is in keeping with the old and antiquated town, and to the south side of the river, the ground rises in a gentle slope to the hill which