BOHEMIA!«K-fSi&-ta^Hj AND THE C'^tiS^. n 7 5 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Worses of WILL S. MONROK Turkey and the Turks - - - $3.00 In Viking Land: Norway, Its Peo- ples, Its Fjords, and Its Fjelds - 3.00 Sicily, the Garden of the Mediterra- nean -------- 3.00 Bohemia and the Cechs - - - - 3.00 L. C. PAGE ca. COMPANY 53 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 9240281 01 073 A PEASANT GIKL. BOHEMIA AND THE CECHS THE HISTORY, PEOPLE, INSTITUTIONS, AND THE GEOGRAPHY OE THE KINGDOM, TOGETHER WITH ACCOUNTS OF MORAVIA AND SILESIA I BY WILL S. MONROE AUTHOB OP "turkey AND THE TtFBKS," "iN VIKING LAND: NOEWAY; its peoples, its fjords and its PJBLDS," "SICILY, THE GARDEN OF THE MEDITERRANEAN," ETC. i ILLUSTRATED i L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY BOSTON ^ ^ %J» MDCCCCX m \Aouroe^ \a1\1\ Sevjmour-^ \o^B Copyright, X910, By L. C. Page & Company (mCOBPOBATED) Entered at Stationers'' Hall, London All rights reserved First Impression, August, 1910 / Slectrotyped and Printed by THE COLONIAL PSESS C. H. Simanda & Co., Boston, U.S.A. "R.B.D. DEDICATED TO PROFESSOB FEANTISeK CXdA, Ph.D., OF THE UNIVERSITY OP PRAGUE, ONE OP THE AUTHOB'B OLDEST AND MOST ESTEEMED BOHEMIAN FBIENDS FOREWORD When one recalls the large number of popu- lar geographical works that have been pub- lished in recent times, it will surprise many readers to learn that this is the first general work of travel and description on Bohemia in English. It may not, therefore, be too much to hope that it will meet a real need; for clearly a country so old and so new as Bohe- mia has numerous claims on the travel lover. The author's interest in Bohemia dates back nearly twenty years, when he began the trans- lation of one of the educational works of John Amos Komensky, one of the great spiritual leaders of the country. Subsequently at the request of Professor (now President) Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University, he wrote a life of Komensky for the' Great Edu- cator Series. These labours brought him in touch with the vi Foreword history and the literature of the country, es- tablished friendly relations with Bohemian scholars, and resulted in a number of visits to the ancient kifigdom, the most recent trip being an extended tour that included all the places of interest in the country. As in his other travel-books in this series — Turkey, Norway, and Sicily — the author's aim has been, not merely to write a geographic treatise of Bohemia, but to give a general sur- vey of the developed and developing civiliza- tion of the kingdom-— the people and their ethnic characteristics, social and political in- stitutions, economic and industrial conditions, religion and education, literature, music, paint- ing, sculpture, architecture, etc. While the human side of the subject has been most strongly emphasized, the geography and physical features of the country have not been neglected. The opening chapter gives a gen- eral survey of the topography of Bohemia, its mountains, plateaus, rivers, lakes, climate, flora, and fauna; three chapters are given to the city of Prague ; Carlsbad, Marienbad, and the other spa resorts have a chapter; the pro- vincial towns in the river basins and among the mountains, which form the natural boun- Foreword vii daries of the country, have a chapter, and the geography of Moravia and Silesia receives separate treatment. The beginnings of the Bohemian nation, its relation to the other Slavic tribes and to the Keltic Boji and the Teutonic Marcomanni, its conflicts with avaricious Germans and barbaric Huns, and the transition from paganism to Christianity are briefly treated in the second chapter. The period of Charles IV, the Golden Age of Bohemian history, which witnessed the establishment of the Cech as a literary language, the foundation of the university of Prague, and the development of a national school of art, is the second historical chapter. The great moral revolution, with Master John Hus, the patriot and martyr, as the lead- ing personality, and the terrible and desolating religious wars of the fifteenth century form the central themes of a third chapter. George of Podebrad, and the brilliant era which his reign inaugurated, the Thirty Years' War and the end of Bohemian independence, and the cen- turies of misfortune and oppression which followed this calamity complete the historical part of the book. On controverted matters, the author has followed Palacky, Tomek, Gindely, viii Foreword Helfert, Liitzow, and other recognized Bohe- mian historical authorities. The seventh chapter of the book deals with the modern Bohemian renaissance and traces the buildiag of a new nation on the ruins of a glorious past. The removal, in the short space of fifty years, of two centuries of Ger- man alluvium, under which the Cechs were buried by the disastrous battle of the White Mountain, and the evolution of a virile and highly complex civilization, cannot fail to win the admiration of the modem world. Two chapters are given to the people of the country — one to the Bohemians, their mental and physical characteristics, and one to the Germans and Jews. If the author has not painted the acclimated foreigners in glowing colours, it is because he has found the Bohe- mian specimens not very worthy representa- tives of their racial stocks. He passed two years as a university student in Germany, and has only the kindliest feelings for the Germans of the Fatherland; but he is forced to admit that the Germans in Bohemia constitute a not very likable species of the Teutonic genus. Social institutions, including the Sokols, li- braries, and periodicals, are described in the Foreword ix tenth chapter ; religion, saints, and martyrs in the eleventh; schools, universities, and other educational institutions in the twelfth; lan- guage and literature in the thirteenth, and the fine arts — painting, sculpture, architecture, and music — in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters. Bohemia's contributions to the creative arts, as these chapters point out, give her an honourable place among the culture-nations of modern times. Two chapters are given to the distinctly material side of Bohemian civilization — agri- culture, industry, and commerce; and the ap- pendixes at the end of the book provide definite information for the prospective traveller and point out some of the most important sources of information for readers who may wish to make further studies. For the use of the books listed in the bibliography the author is indebted to Mr. John Cotton Dana and his obliging colleagues in the Public Library at Newark, New Jersey. Many Bohemian friends have aided in the collection and the verification of the informa- tion presented in the book, but the list is too long to print in this connection, and the obliga- tion must be discharged with a blanket-expres- Foreword sion of thanks. The two friends who so patiently read the proof of the book must, however, be named — Thomas Capek, Esq., a leading American Bohemian author, and Mrs. Clara Vostrovsky Winlow, the author's class- mate at Stanford University. Although consistency has not always been possible, the author has for the most part employed Bohemian, rather than Grerman spelling of geographic names. This is con- trary to the practice of most American and English writers. There is however no good reason for the use of the German spellings. If places have not been anglicized, preference should be given to the geographic usages of the countries in which they are located. Amer- ican and English readers would clearly resent Venedig and Mailand for Venice and MUan in English books on Italy, and for precisely the same reason they should object to Kutten- berg and Wartenberg for Kutna Hora and Sedmihorky in books on Bohemia. Will S. Moneoe. — CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Geography of Bohemia Geographic individuality of Bohemia — Form of the coun- tnr — Mountain boundaries — The Ore mountains • The Sudetic chain — Moravian mountains — The Bohe- mian Forest — The basin of the Elbe — Hills in the interior — The rivers of the country — Lakes and tarns — Climate — Rainfall — Forest area — Fruits — Minerals of the kingdom — Famous mineral springs — Fauna and flora — Population — Increase of the Bohemian element — Emigration to foreign countries — The principal cities — Prague and its suburbs — Small cities — Bohemians in the United States — Distribution of the Bohemians in America CHAPTER II Beginnings of the Bohemian Nation When the Bohemians occupied the country — Keltic Boj and Teutonic Marcomanni — Conflicts with the Avars — Social habits of the early Bohemian tribes — Chastity and faithfulness — Village organization — Local government — The legend of LibuSa — Pfemysl and the Bohemian dynasty — Attempts of Charlemagne to conquer Bohemia — Bofivoj I and the introduction of Christianity — The barbaric Huns — Invasion of Bohe- mia by the Germans — Reign of Boleslav the Cruel — Rise of Poland — Bfetislav I, the restorer of Bohemia — xii Contents First king of Bohemia — Skvonic liturgy replaced by the Latin — A meddlesome German emperor — Question of the celibacy of the Bohemian clergy — Internal dis- sensions — Frederick Barbarossa — The language ques- tion — Pfenaysl Otakar — German influence during the reign of Vdclav I — Ctonflicts with the Hapsburgs — German adventurers — Rudolph of Hapsburg — John of Luxemburg — Prince Charles 16 CHAPTER in Pekiod of Chables rV The golden