Pleasures for Every Taste
The setting, the colour in this particular corner of Prague have probably not changed appreciably since the night when Mozart conducted the first performance of “Don Giovanni” here in this old theatre.

The immediate neighbourhood of the Mozarteum was the centre of the intellectual as well as the social life of Prague for many generations, for here are some of the oldest collegiate buildings of the famous university founded in the fourteenth century by Charles, son of the blind king, John of Bohemia, and fourth of that name as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The son of Charles, Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia and the Germans, and emperor too, lived and made merry near by.

The pleasure area has extended since his time to include the Národní Trída, and the supposed taste of foreign visitors is catered for in a style that is international, and in places even a trifle décolleté.

Wise Use of a Fine River
The citizens of Prague enjoy less sophisticated pleasures in the numerous cafes and restaurants, where not only is the living good and cheap, but they can have their fill of music; and in this respect nothing but the best will serve the children of Prague. The centre of social life for the inhabitants is a large building called the Obecní Dum, the Town House, a super-restaurant with large concert hall and many chambers let out on occasion to clubs, societies and social gatherings.

This Town House, with its dome, its gilding and plate-glass windows, stands in strange juxtaposition to one of the loveliest monuments of ancient Prague, the Powder Tower. Originally one of the gateways of the Old Town of medieval Prague, this tower was built by King Vladislav II. in the latter half of the fifteenth century and rises serenely in all its beauty of ornate Gothic, with soaring saddle roof, flanked by tapering pinnacles, above the roar and rattle of the city’s traffic.

Wisely the people of Prague draw full enjoyment from their river. Though the Vltava is useful, very useful, as a waterway, yet it has not been degraded to the status of a dirty drudge, but adds a sparkling stream of healthy pleasure to those that live by its banks. There is boating, sailing, bathing; there are well-tended gardens on the islands, with music and all manner of refreshment in the summer months. Then there are the pleasure steamers by means of which you may explore the upper reaches of the river or drift down to the vine-clad hills of Melník with its medieval castle.

INTERIOR OF A GLASS FACTORY IN THE DISTRICT OF PRAGUE In the thirteenth century the glass industry was introduced into Bohemia from Venice, and owing to the presence of fuel and suitable minerals in close proximity it soon became of great importance. Glass mixtures melt at temperatures ranging from 2,200°F. to 2,700°F., and when in a state resembling treacle, the glass can be coiled round a blowpipe, such as the man is holding in the photograph

SHEET GLASS: HEATING THE CYLINDER AT A “BLOWING HOLE” In making sheet glass the blower stands on a platform before a special furnace called a “blowing-hole.” The blower heats the lower portion of the piece of glass attached to the blowpipe, and swings it over a trench in front of the platform, while he keeps it distended by blowing. The mass of glass forms a long cylinder, closed at one end, and is subsequently rolled out

Return of a Lost Legion
Closer at hand there are the wooded valleys that carry little streams down from the fertile tableland to westward; you may wander up one of these through cherry orchards to the gentle slopes of the White Mountain, where Bohemia’s cause of religious freedom was lost in battle in 1620. A strange landmark stands here, a hunting-box of a Bohemian king of the Middle Ages, built in the shape of a six-pointed star; it is now the museum of the Czech legionaries who fought their way from Galicia across Russia to Siberia and returned to their country when it regained its independence.

The development of Prague and its expansion at successive periods of its progress are clearly marked by public buildings. There is first that broken bit of ruin already mentioned which clings, limpet-like, to the rocks of Vyšehrad. This remnant of a period before recorded history took the place of legend is popularly called Libuša’s Bath. This legendary lady is made responsible for choosing the site on which stands the castle of Prague, the Hradcany. Here are no crumbling relics of prehistoric buildings to tell of any activities on Libuša’s part, but there certainly are foundations of great antiquity, and it is clearly proved that this bold promontory with its guardian castle became the centre of a fine city at a very early date in European history.

PRAGUE. Skill and fantasy combine in this astronomical time-piece, with moving figures and crowing cock, set in the Old Town Hall

A Corner of the Middle Ages
To-day the glorious pile which crowns the castle hill may be considered the finest in Bohemia’s story. You will find great foundation stones under an ancient Romanesque church, patches of old walls and ramparts, a round tower or so, a square gateway framing an exquisite view over the city. A late Gothic banqueting hall dating back to that Vladislav of the Powder Tower comes as a pleasant surprise in the midst of the monotonous buildings which successive Hapsburgers, since 1620, have managed to rob of all outward signs of romance.

Here are the government offices and official residence of the president of the new state of Czechoslovakia. But despite the efforts of unimaginative Hapsburgers, there is an old-world, romantic cluster of buildings which has escaped the renovator; it is near the banqueting hall of Vladislav, and shows you the scene of that act which set Europe in flames for thirty years in 1618. In this corner of the Hradcany there has been little change during the last three centuries.

PRAGUE. When winter’s snow lies thick on roof and tree, Hradcany is a lovely sight with the Castle’s huge bulk, capped by the towers of S. Vitus, spread out on the heights above the Vltava’s left bank