PRAGUE, properly ]'RAG, the capital of Bohemia, is situates in 50' 5' 19' N. let., 14' 23' Fs long., 250 miles N.N.W. from Vienna by railway through 13rtirm, but only 158 miles iu a straight line. The town is built on the banks of the Moldau, in a valley and on the slopes of the hills that inclose it. In size and beauty Prague is the third city in Germany, and produces a very striking effect when viewed at a distance, Ly its commanding situation, the lofty steeples of its numerous churches, and its palaces and public buildings. The city consists of four quarters—the Old Town, which is gloomy and closely built, with very high old-fashioned houses, and which includes the Jewish quarter; the New Town, which surrounds the Old Town, and has finer and broader streets, spacious squares, lower houses, and a healthy site; the Kleinaelte, which stands in a semicircular valley on the left bank of the Moldau, between two hills called the Laurcnz berg and the Schlossberg ; this quarter is smaller than the old town, but contains many gardens, fine palaces, and lofty houses ; and the Hradschin, which is built on the Schlossberg, is the smallest but the finest part of the oity, and contains a great number of magnificent palaces. The town of Wissehmd, which joins the new town, and the village of Smichow, on the left bank of the Moldau, are reckoned as parts of Prague ; there is likewise a now suburh called the Karo tenenthaL The city is surrounded with fortifications, and has eight gates. Additional fortifications were erected on the Ilradechin in 1850, so that its guns commanded every point in the city. The Old Town and the Kleinseito are connected by a chain bridge recently erected, and by an ancient atone bridge of 16 arches. This hat, which was commenced by Charles IV. in 1358, is 619 yards long, 35 feet broad, and 42 foot high ; It is adorned with 29 statues and groups of saints, and has an ancient tower at each cud. There are in the city 46 Catholic and 2 Protestant churches, 9 synagogues, 15 monasteries, and 68 palaces. The metropolitan church of St.-Veit, in the llradschin quarter, which was commenced in the 10th century, but not completed till 1500, has a steeple 314 feet high, from the top of which there is a magnificent view of the city. This cathedral, in which are the sepulchres of several emperors and kings, of Bohemian princes, and remarkable men, has twelve richly-ederned chapels, and contains paintings of the 14th century, besides numerous antiquities and relics. The greatest ornament of the cathedral is the monument of St. John
Nepomuk, the patron saint of Bohemia. Another remarkable old church is the Thoinkirche, which dates from the 9th century, and containe the tomb of the astronomer Tycho Braise. Many of the more modern churches, which are chiefly in the Italian style, are worthy of attention. Among the palaces, the Imperial Palace in the liradschin is the moat remarkable building in the whole city, both for its immense extent and its fine and commanding situation. King Charles X. of France and his family resided fur some years in this palace after their expulsion from France. This palace was greatly injured by fire in the winter of 1854-5. Other remarkable public buildings arc, in the Old Town, the Collegium Clementinum, built by the Jesuits, in which Joseph IL placed the archiepiscopal seminary, which has about 400 pupils ; the theatre ; the mint ; and several palaces, among which is one which belonged to the famous Wallen stein : in the New Town, the senate-house, the custom-house, and the military hospital : in the Kleioseite, the arsenal and the government house : and in the Hmdschin, the archbishop's palace.
The Carolinum of Prague, the oldest university in Germany, was founded in 1348 by Charles IV., on the model of that of Paris, with faculties of Catholic theology, law, medicine, and philosophy ; it had 63 professors and teachers and above 2400 students in 1850. Con nected with the university are ajeterinary school, a school for mid wifery, five clinical institutions, zoological and anatomical collections, a botanic garden, a chemical laboratory, and an observatory. Prague has three gymnasia—one in the Kleinseite, with 17 professors and 570 pupils ; one in the Now Town (Neustedtlisches), with 18 professors and 562 pupils; and one in the Old Town (Altstfldtlisches), with 20 professors and 850 pupils. There are nlso several other schools, a Polytechnic Institution, an Academy of the Fine Arts, a Musical Conservatory, an Academy of Sciences, and a Bohemian National Museum, founded by Count Kolowrat, with important collectious and libraries. The university library, which consists of 130,000 volumes and 4000 rare manuscripts of classical and Slavonian literature, is kept in the Collegium Clementinum ; there are besidei4 eight public libraries and several private ones. The Imperial Cabinet of Natural History has been greatly increased of late years. The hospitals and charitable institutions for the reception and relief of the poor are numerous and admirably conducted. There are asylums for the blind, for deaf-mutes, and for lunatics.