and, on the other hand, some few attempts, of no great importance, at architectural decoration of parks in the Romantic manner. As in many other countries, the Empire style is almost the official one, and by about 1820 it had become that utilitarian and monotonous style which Romanticism was to have so much trouble in banishing from the architects’ workshops. The triumph of the Empire style coincided with the organization of the executive power in Government departments. In contrast to the Baroque period, when architects handed down from father to son a complete tradition of art and technique, the Empire period produced a whole bureaucracy of departmental engineers and Civil Service architects, trained at the Prague School of Civil Engineering or the Vienna Academy. Secure in a long administrative experience and wielding enormous power, they were able to force into the background architects employed on landed estates or set up in private practice in the cities. Although we cannot point to any outstanding personalities among them, these officials nevertheless achieved something of value: they exerted a wholesome influence on architectural activity by maintaining a unity of style, thanks above all to their police and health regulations. At Prague, this bureaucratic way of handling matters of art was mitigated by the happy enterprise of the enlightened Governor of the Kingdom of Bohemia, Count Chotek, who contrived to make some ingenious improvements in the architectural scheme of the Baroque Old City. The embankment built by him along the Vltava became for the Praguers a new promenade, from which a fine view of the Castle may be enjoyed. The old František Bridge with its two great stonework gates sand its iron suspension chains, the uniform arrangement of façades and blocks in the Chotek Street and the Egg Market, as well as several parks and a bold avenue that winds up towards the Letná Hill, some monumental statues in well-chosen sites—all these
