Jan Emler

“ All these years of „religious“ warfare (1420—1434) were a serious check to an advancement of the cities drawing every mind away from the cultivation of science and art; on the other hand, in consequence of some new ideas regarding divine worship and the liturgy many artistic monuments were destroyed principally in the churches, monasteries and the seats of the nobility, which clung to Rome. So the royal castle of Vyšehrad, then garrisoned by the hated emperor Sigismund, was destroyed, became in a short time a mass of ruins and ceased for ever to be the residence of the king ”

“ Prague gained also great importance on the election of king Charles to the royal crown of Germany, whereby Prague became also the capital of the Roman Empire, and therefore the centre of diplomatic negotiations and the abode of many foreign legations. The concentration of such a great mass of foreigners caused of course a considerable rise of prices but at the same time it gave a great impulse to art and trade. ”

“ At this time a great number of foreigners were engaged to the exclusion of native labour, in the building of new palaces for the nobility. It is easy to understand that the employment of alien workers was not welcomed by the people of the town who naturally thought that the interest of the native workmen ought to have been a first consideration. The history of art in Prague is consistent with its political history, change in the one was reflected in the other. ”

“ But his son Wenceslaus, who spent many of his early years at the court of France, where his name was changed into Charles, inaugurated a new period of unprecedented prosperity and glory for the kingdom of Bohemia, which he governed from 1333 during the continual absence of his adventurous father. His universal genius, his indomitable energy and his eminent ability in administration and diplomacy enabled him to raise the land from its ruin; he succeeded 1344 in having the bishopric of Prague promoted to an archbishopric, whereby Bohemia became independent of the archbishop of Mainz in Germany ”

“ The seats of the exiled nobility were taken by foreigners, especially by generals who were most successful in crushing the population, and therefore their fiercest enemies. On the ruins of the devastated land of which three quarters were confiscated, and of whose population of three millions there remained only about eight hundred thousand there gradually arose some new palaces of the victorious nobility, among them the grand palace of Waldstein duke of Friedland, some churches and monasteries in the now barok style. ”

“ At this time both towns were united by a trestle bridge and, being an emporium of central Europe attracted many foreigners so that already in the eleventh century there arose a colony of German traders, especially of drapers. ”