Page:The Story of Prague (1920).djvu/219

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Walks in Prague

27. St. Ludgardis (1710), by M. Braun.

28. St. Adalbert (1710), by the brothers Prokov.

29. SS. John of Matha, Ivo and Philipp (1714), by Ferdinand Prokov.

30. St. Wenceslas (1857), by Camillus Bohn, after a sketch by the painter Führich.

In 1890 inundations again greatly injured the Bridge of Prague. A portion of the work was entirely destroyed, and the statues of St. Ignacius of Loyola and of St. Francis sank in the floods. These injuries have now been entirely repaired. The view of the Hradcany from the bridge is one of the most striking ones in Prague.

Passing by the second bridge tower we reach the Malá Strana, near which once stood the ancient residence of the bishops, and afterwards archbishops, of Prague, a building often mentioned in the records of the struggles of the Hussite Wars, or market-place of the ‘small quarter,’ on which is a statue of Radecky, erected in 1858. As materials, Piedmontese cannon captured in 1848 and 1849 were used.

Here also is the Nicholas Church that has already been mentioned, and near here are the palace of the Governor of Bohemia and the palace where the Bohemian Diet assembles, since it no longer meets on the Hradcany. A steep path leads to the summit of the Hradcany Hill. The two most important buildings on this height, the Royal Palace and St. Vitus’s Cathedral, have already been mentioned. Between these buildings stands the very fine equestrian statue of St. George, cast in 1373 by order of Charles IV. This fine statue, a work of the brothers George and Martin of Clussenburk, is excessively interesting as giving a faithful representation of the armour worn by the knights of the fourteenth century.

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