Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Prague's charles university
Back in the 1300s, Charles University students studied the arts
first, and only then proceeded to one of the other three facul-
ties (medicine, law, and theology), of which theology was the
most prestigious. Teaching was done in Latin, and the student
body was cosmopolitan—Czechs made up only a fourth of all
students.
During the chaotic period of Hussite reforms in the early
1400s, the university's policies were changed to give more power
to the Czechs. In protest, many foreign students and professors
left Prague and founded the first German university in Leipzig.
Celebrated by Czech nationalists as a victory over foreigners, the
new policies in fact reduced Charles University from a European
center of learning to a provincial institution.
In the 1600s, the predominantly Protestant university was
handed over to the Jesuits. But in the 1780s, Habsburg Emperor
Josef II abolished the Jesuit order, opened the university to non-
Catholics, and changed the language of instruction from Latin to
German. Czechs did not win the freedom to study in their own
language until 1882, when the university split into two separate
schools (the German school ceased to exist in 1945).
Today, the Old Town continues to live a double life as both
a commercial center and a university campus. Though lined with
souvenir stalls outside, many buildings hold classrooms that have
been animated by lecturers for centuries. Some of the Old Town's
most hidden courtyards have provided Czech scholars with their
two most essential needs: good beer, and space for an inspiring
conversation.
Charles University, always a center of Czech political
thinking, has incited trouble and uprisings. Jan Hus initiated
the reform of the Church here; the revolutions of 1618 and
1848 were sparked by university minds; and in the modern era,
students rose up against totalitarian regimes in 1939, 1948,
and 1968. The Germans closed down all Czech universities
Klementinum building is simply a vast library, its magnificent
original Baroque Hall and Observatory Tower are open to the
public by tour only (45 min, in English). You'll belly up to a ban-
ister at the end of the ornate library with its many centuries-old
books, fancy ceilings with Jesuit leaders and saints overseeing the
pursuit of knowledge, and Josef II—the enlightened Habsburg
emperor—looking on from the far end. Then you'll climb the
Observatory Tower, learning how early astronomers charted the
skies over Prague. The tour finishes with a grand Prague view
from the top (100 Kč, departs on the hour Mon-Fri 14:00-19:00,
Sat-Sun 10:00-19:00, shorter hours off-season, tel. 221-663-165 or
603-231-241; strolling down Karlova, turn at the intersection with
Liliová through an archway into the Klementinum's courtyard).
