English Translation

19a Tombs announce history At the tombs and tombs of emperors, kings and dukes When the Germans of the Bohemian-Moravian region deepen with all their zeal in the rich and varied history of this country in the present time, it cannot be left out that the days dedicated to the memory of the dead are also directed to those men in whose hands was once the responsibility for the history of that space. Thus our sense finds the way to those graves which have for centuries held up what was once mortal to the rulers of this country. These emperors, kings and dukes themselves have long since stepped before the judgment seat of history, which has passed a clear and just judgment on them. Today, however, a tour leads us to those places that are swarming over the tombs and tombs of former rulers of this country.The relentlessly strict, yet just history is our companion on this path. + The most prestigious burial site of crowned heads on Prague's ground is the V e it s d o m on the Hradshin. There are five German emperors: in the mausoleum before the 350 years ago, Ferdinand I and Maximilian II were buried in the remains of the Bohemian kings in the great underground tomb of Charles IV, W enzel IV and Crypt under the St. Veitsdom on the Hradshin at the order of the Emperor Rudolf II. The picture shows the sarcophagus erected in the nave above it. the R u d o If II. About these bearers of the German imperial crown the rulers in life size. The design originates from and their graves we have already formerly out of the Dutch Alexander Collin from Mecheln, the installation extensively spoken.) It is enough to supplement it to take place in 1589. Image Ceps show that in the Veitsdom still more rulers of the country of Bohemia have found the last resting place. crown extended? However, the electors chose not the The Wenceslas Chapel, the magnificent tomb of the Duke's mighty Przemyslid king as German emperor, but W e n z e l of the saint, be it their historical count of Habsburg. Ottokar, however, who has not yet dreamed out his and artistic significance of a special (later) imperial dream, which at this hour reserved appreciation. does not realize that the mission of his native countries Ein- In the chapel wreath, which surrounds the main altar of the cathedral, demands insertion into the large area of the empire, loses his life in the turmoil on the battlefield. We meet the tombs of six other przemysli-dian rulers. In the Saxon Chapel the great master Peter Parler himself created a tomb for the first hereditary king of Bohemia, Przemysl Ottokar I. This Przemyslide could, of course, derive his hereditary royal dignity only from an act of will of the German emperor and this act was put by Emperor Frederick II to Basel in 1212. Opposite this tomb, however, we find the last resting place of the wretched King Przehysl Ottokar III. (1253-1278), which is often regarded as the most important ruler among the Prze-myslids. He lived in a rather confused time for Central Europe: within six decades the Babenbergs died in Austria, the Arpads in Hungary and the Pzemyslids in Bohemia. For this, Habsburg was ceded to the space and began to create a house-making here. This led to the clash with Przemysl Ottokar II. Under him the domain of Bohemia had gained the greatest expansion. In the kingdom, however, ruled the "empressless, the terrible time". It was not close that the restless man, who from the Vltava to the deep interior of the king's tomb in St. Veit (Hradshin). In the middle, which enjoined into the Alps, even the hand after the imperial tomb of Charles IV. Picture Ceps 69160 6