Page:The Story of Prague (1920).djvu/225

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Walks and Excursion near Prague

Christian church in Bohemia; it was built by Borivoj in 871. No traces of the original building now remain.[1]

A somewhat more distant excursion, but. perhaps the most interesting, is that to the Karlstyn Castle.
THE ‘STAR’ HUNTING LODGE
It is reached in little more than an hour from the Smichov Station of the western railway. The Karlstyn was built by Charles IV. as a refuge for the Royal Family in time of war, and also as a safe spot where the crown jewels and the treasury could be deposited. It was built in a manner that rendered it for the time almost impregnable, and it successfully resisted the attacks of Sigismund Korybut during the Hussite Wars. In consequence of the importance of the treasures the castle contained, the custodian (burgrave) of the Karlstyn became one of the great dignitaries of Bohemia. Among the last to hold this ofice was Count Thurn, afterwards celebrated as

  1. Some remains of the ancient structure appear to have existed in comparatively recent times. In his Phosphorus Septicornus Pesina (1629–1680) writes of the ‘castellum Hradec uno atque medio infra Pragam milieri’ that ‘castelli hujus rudera hodique spectantur in quorum medio templum . . . adhuc integrum.’
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