Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/299

archbishops, the bishops, and the governor of the castle were allowed to pass beyond the gilded iron grille which shut off the high altar in which the treasures were hid. Round the walls there were originally one hundred and thirty-two pictures of Saints; one hundred and twenty-six of which are still in place. The shields and other emblems of the Saints were all wrought in pure gold and silver. Sigismund, the son of Charles, had the gold and silver melted down, and removed many precious stones and treasures, in order to pay the mercenary troops who fought for him against the Hussites.

The paintings are the work of Theodoric of Prague, famous court-painter to Charles IV, and head of the celebrated Guild of Prague Painters, founded by the King.

Charles spent much time in this castle, enjoying the quiet of forest and mountain, and the opportunities for worship and meditation which it afforded in the intervals of his busy life. Quaint memorials of him are shown—a fragment of his purple velvet robe, and a roughly hewn wooden prie-Dieu and chair, which he is said to have made himself. Another relic is the bedstead of St. Ludmila, the grandmother of good King Wenceslas.

The office of Burgrave of Karlův Týn became later a very important one. During the period of the Hussite wars, when there was no king in the country, the castle fell into the hands of the Bohemian Estates. After that, it became the custom to appoint two Burgraves, one from the Lords and the other from the Knights, and they had to swear fealty to the Estates as well as to the King. The office was abolished after the battle of Bílá Hora, and the domain was given as a dower to the Queen of Bohemia. The insignia and relics were then removed to the Cathedral at Prague.

The castle was repaired by Ferdinand I and Rudolph II, when, unfortunately, the frescoes of Charles IV were much damaged by ignorant restorers. It was again repaired at the close of the nineteenth century; and although it looks rather too much as if it had been built yesterday, it still remains a noble building in a noble situation.

We present the cover picture through the courtesy of the Bohemian Literary Society, St. Louis, Missouri.

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