Prague
Prague names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Prague the capital of Bohemia
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the capital of Bohemia, and slope situated at the base and on the of the hills which skirt both sides of the highly picisleted Moldau. It offers a turesque appearance from the beauty of towers its site, and the numerous lofty which rise (more than 70 in number) palaces, public above the many noble city. The buildings, and bridges of the , the anroyal Burg, on the Hradschin cient residence of the Dukes of Bohemia, dates mainly now from the 16th and and has 440 rooms. In the neighboring cathedral of St. Vitus mausoleum (1344) are the splendid royal and the shrine (1736) of St. (1589) John of Nepomuk containing 1½ tons of silver. Of 47 other Catholic churches the chief are the domed Jesuit church of St. Nicholas, with its lavish decorations, old and the Teyn Church (1407), the of Tycho Hussite Church, with the grave of the Brahé, and its marble statues Slavonic martyrs, Cyril and Methodius. viaducts Of five bridges and two railway the most striking is the Karlsbrücke gate- (1357-1503), 543 yards long, with of John towers at either end, and statues of Nepomuk and other saints. Other hall noteworthy objects are the town ), (1381-1884), the Pulverturm (1475 monastery of and the Premonstratensian Strahow. Prague has, besides, numerous suburbs public gardens and walks in the , with several royal and noble parks open city. to the public in the vicinity of the , had The university, founded in 1348 the 10,000 students at the beginning of a library of 15th century. It possesses , 195,000 volumes, a fine observatory museums of zoölogy and anatomy, a bomanufactures tanical garden, etc. The leather include machinery, chemicals, , beer, spirits, etc. cotton, linen, gloves, the com- Prague is the great center of seat of an merce of Bohemia, ia, and the important transit trade. History.-Prague was founded by German settlers about 1100. In the 14th century its munificently endowed university brought foreigners to it from was conevery part; but in 1424 Prague the quered and almost destroyed by Hussites. In the Thirty Years' War it in 1620 the battle suffered severely, and was fought at the Weissenberg, near the Elector-Palatine, Fredcity, in which the erick V., was completely defeated, and assumed compelled to renounce his crown. Swedes and Imperialists successively gained possession of the town during the war; and a century later it of different again fell into the hands victors, having been compelled in 1744 , who to capitulate to Frederick the Great here on May 6, 1757, defeated 60,000 Austrians under Prince Charles of Lorraine. From Napoleon's downfall, , and en- Prague has made rapid strides in joyed prosperity and quiet, except Slavonic 1848, when the meeting of the forth Congress within its walls called demonsuch strongly marked democratic supporters strations on the part of the Austrian Govof Pan-Slavism that the and bomernment dissolved the conclave barded the town to restore quiet. In 1866 Prague was occupied bloodlessly by , conthe Prussians, who here on Aug. 23 a treaty with Austria. The Recluded was proclaimed public of Czecho-Slovakia became its Oct. 28, 1918, and Prague capital. Pop. about 650,000.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
prag, the capital of Bohemia. It is in size the third city of the Austrian Empire. It occupies a picturesque situation on the banks of the Moldau. It was known as a city of a hundred towers. The river is spanned by nine bridges. Karls-briicke, or Charles Bridge, dates from 1357. It is a stately structure. It is over 1,600 feet in length. It is guarded by a tower at each end. The buttresses are adorned with thirty statues and groups of saints. An inscription states that they were completed with money exacted from a Jew in 1606 as a fine for reviling the cross. The ancient walls of the town have been torn down to make room for boulevards and gardens. The city is divided into several quarters. One of these, known as the Altstadt, or Old City, is the chief seat of commerce. Another is known as the Jews' Quarter. There are important manufactures of embroidery, silk, woolen, cotton and linen cloths, boots, leather, soap, paper, hats, gloves, candles, musical instruments, porcelain, jewelry, and firearms. The city is celebrated for its breweries. Several religious festivals are held during the course of the year. The wool fair, which lasts for a week, is attended by dealers from all parts of Europe. The city is situated in a country of unusual fertility and close tillage, giving it the command of a large wholesale business. Prague is of interest to the traveler. The University of Prague, the first in Germany, was established in 1348. The city was at this time the most important in Germany. Huss and Jerome were among the earlier professors. Two centuries later Copernicus and Tycho Brahe were connected with the astronomical observatory. There were at one time 10,000 students. It is still one of the most important universities in Christendom. There are over 300 professors and above 4,000 students. Instruction is carried on in duplicate. One faculty uses the German language; the other the Czech or Bohemian tongue. There is a library of 200,000 volumes, an astronomical observatory of the first rank, serviceable museums, botanical gardens, etc. While Prague possesses no single museum or art collection of the first class, it is still a city of unusual individuality. Quaint medieval carvings and sculptures can nowhere be seen to better advantage. The bridges, statues, monuments, cathedrals, the town hall, the old castle, and numerous palaces are interesting, not only from an artistic point of view, but on account of associations. A museum in one of the city parks gives an excellent picture of early peasant life among the Bohemians. There are models of the interiors of peasant cottages, with furniture, costumed figures of the country, and representations of the household arts--all instructive and interesting. The present population is about 230,000. See Bohemia ; Huss
Prague UNIVERSITY OF
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
UNIVERSITY OF. There , a Gerare two universities in Prague man and a Czech university. The forthe mer is the older of the two, it being universities oldest of the German . Founded in 1348, with the four faculties , of theology, law, medicine, and arts it , gained the attention of all Europe when in 1403, John Huss became the rector. wars During the period of the Hussite Czech the university took on a distinctly withcharacter, the German students University of drawing and founding the Leipzig. When, however, the Catholics hand in and Germans secured the upper Years' Bohemia, as they did in the Thirty came under the War, the university War, control of the Jesuits and a decided replace action against the Czechs took . of nation- With the growth of the spirit ality in the nineteenth century the Czech felt, and fininfluence again made itself a separate ally led to the founding of University of Prague in 1882 with facul- . As might ties of law, medicine and arts rapidly ra be expected the new university as the population is outgrew the old one, the predominately Czech. In 1919 at the students opening of the World War 7,051 in the Czech university numbered 3,043. while the German institution had
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's caught Prague at the exact moment of transformation: it noted that the Czechoslovak Republic had been proclaimed on 28 October 1918 and that Prague was now its capital, while Aiton's in 1910 still called it "the third city of the Austrian Empire" and described the university teaching "in duplicate," one faculty in German and one in Czech. That bilingual arrangement ended in 1945, when the German university was abolished after the Nazi occupation of 1939-45, and the German-speaking population was expelled; the Jews' Quarter that Aiton's listed as a district of the city lost most of its people to the Holocaust, its surviving synagogues now a museum. A Communist coup in 1948, the Soviet-led crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968, and the Velvet Revolution of 1989 followed; Czechoslovakia split peacefully on 1 January 1993 and Prague became capital of the Czech Republic. The buildings the accounts admired largely survived: the Charles Bridge, St Vitus, the Hradschin (now Prague Castle, seat of the president) and the Old Town Hall astronomical clock draw millions of visitors a year to a historic centre listed by UNESCO in 1992, and the Moldau is now generally called by its Czech name, the Vltava.
Written for this edition, 2026.