Dialogue of Forms [antikvár]

iVVi, FOREWORD In the center of Europe and Bohemia, on the crossroads of old trade routes passing from south to north and from west to east, lies Prague, a city famous for its history and renowned for its beauty. Thanks to many favorable circumstances, Prague has lield an exceptional place among European cities. Nature itself provided the builders and architects with an ideal site. Dominating hills encircle the natural amphitheater of the Lesser Quarter on the left bank of the river Vltava and the gradually rising plain on the right bank — on which, embraced by the river, the Old Town came into being. The New Town, surrounding the historical town core, lies on more irregular terrain. The similarity between the site of Rome, with its characteristic hills, and that of Prague has often been mentioned. Panoramic views of the town are offered from the tops of the hills and again from the embankment of the wide river looking toward the hills rising high against the horizon. The ground plan of the historic area of the city was influenced by the ancient trade routes that crossed the shallow parts of the river. In the tenth century a wooden bridge superseded the ford; in 1170 the Romanesque Judith Bridge was buiU, parts of which are still preserved; and finally, in 1357 Charles IV had a bridge erccted across the river known to this day by the name of its imperial founder. Because Prague grew around the roads, the ground plan of the Old Town and of the Lesser Quarter is full of winding streets and bizarre configurations. The life of these two oldest parts is centered around their two squares, the Old Town Square and the Lesser Quarter Square. Historical Prague also differs from most other old European cities in the building material used. Here it was mostly stone and brick, whereas in other cities, particularly those in Germany, the less durable wood and timber-framing prevailed. Even in the tenth century, the Arab traveller Ibrahim Ibn Jacob described Prague as a rich commercial center built of stone and lime. Of Romanesque Prague, some eighty buildings, rebuilt many times in later periods, survive. The Romanesque era is considered to be Prague's first artistic pinnacle, and in this respect the city has no rival in central Europe. The second period in which Prague ranked again among the foremost European cities was during the reign of Charles IV in the fourteenth century, when it was rebuilt and the New Town was founded. "In the middle of the fourteenth century there was no other town in Europe where building work was simultaneously organized and carricd out over an area larger than two square kilometers, where roads were eighteen to twenty-seven meters wide, where one main road (or square) was at that time already three quarters of a kilometer long and more than sixty meters wide and where the main market square alone was larger than an entire average medieval town with its fortifications. A real administrative, cultural and economic center of central Europe was planned and built" (Viktor Lorenc). During the reign of Charles IV the cathedral, many churches and monasteries came into being, and the number of fine patrician houses increased greatly. At the beginning of the fifteenth century the development of the medieval town was interrupted by the Hussite Wars. It took the town nearly a century to overcome the ravages of war. It was not until about the year 1500 that the late Gothic vauldng of Benedikt Rejt shone through in its full beauty, reaching its apex in the complex geometric designs and spanning of space in the Vladislav Hall of Prague Castle.