ems to have begun it in 1348 and it
was finished two years later. This church stands back from the rushing
traffic of the Henry Street--Jind[vr]i[vs]ska Ulice, to give it its
Czech name; the campanile of St. Henry's, a graceful tower with
characteristic turrets and saddle-roof, is set apart and looks down the
broad thoroughfare. This campanile is of more recent times than the
church: it dates from the early days of Vladislav II, about the end of
the fifteenth century. A sixteenth-century bell hangs in the campanile
of St. Henry's Church; its inscription recalls the famous lines of
Schiller's _Die Glocke_: "En ego campana, nunquam pronuntio vana, Ignam,
vel festum, bellum, vel funus honestum." About the time of the
restoration of St. Henry's, since much rebuilt outside, Charles set
about building another church on the rising ground north-east of
Vy[vs]ehrad; it is quaint rather than beautiful. You may note this
church by its squat appearance, a broad cupola flanked by a couple of
more slender ones, and the whole group is generally concealed by
scaffolding. This church has had as hard a time as any of those in
Prague. King Charles built it in 1350 and intended it to remind him of
the cathedral at Aachen where Charlemagne is buried. There certainly is
a good deal of resemblance still within this church dedicated
appropriately to the Virgin and St. Charles, for the original outlines
remain, as also the crypt below. But this church has suffered heavily
both at the hands of wilful destroyers and of the restorer. Matthew of
Arras was the architect. I wonder whether he would recognize his work
to-day, so much has happened to it since he completed it. Consecrated in
1377 and given over to the monks of the Augustine Order, church and
monastery were thoroughly destroyed by the Hussites less than a century
later. The church was rebuilt in 1498, seriously damaged in 1611, and
left in a state of disrepair for forty years. It had not long been
restored for the second time, when Frederick II of Prussia made a target
of it in his siege of Prague. Some eight hundred hot shot are said to
have struck this church and set it on fire more than fifty times: quite
good shooting but bad manners. No wonder, then, that this Church of the
Virgin and St. Charles has lost its pristine beauty; yet it has an
attraction of its own to those who sympathize with its misfortunes, and
there are still some quaint old corners of the Hermitage attached to the
ed