Prague through the eyes
of a young American

King Charles IV was suffered almost fatal injuries in a knightly duel. In 1977, the remains of Charles IV were professionally examined. Many injuries were found, including one that astonished by the possibilities of medieval medicine. Charles IV had – apparently after a sharp blow to the chin with a wooden lance – a fourfold symmetrical fracture of the lower jaw and a damaged cervical spine. He was temporarily paralyzed after the injury but recovered because he received the best surgical help.

The doctors were able to return the broken piece of his jaw in the extent of six teeth to its original place and also repaired both broken joints of his lower jaw. They fixed the fractures with gold wire.

Because such a procedure was very painful, the patient underwent general anesthesia, for which the so-called Spongia Somnifera, the “sleeping sponge”, had been used since the end of the 10th century. A solution of opium, mandrake leaf, and Poison hemlock leaf was prepared. The medieval instruction then says: “Crush it all and mix it with water, soak a piece of rag in it and place it on his forehead and nose. Soon after, he will fall asleep so deep that you will be able to do whatever you like with him. To wake him, soak that piece of rag in very strong vinegar.”

• Its name was given to this street maybe because these houses used to be rented out to goldsmiths and jewellers who made a beautiful pieces of jewelry here. Or because of the story of alchymists living here during the era of Rudolf II. The king wanted them to make an elixír of youth, for example, or to change metal to gold.
• The street was originally built for castle marksmen but later they were not needed as much so it hosted both rich and poor people, artists, footmen, clerks…
• In one of the houses lived a doctor of philosophy named Uhle who spent all of his time and money on books about magic. He was also doing some secret experiments in his lab inside the house. One day in 1831 there was a big detonation coming from his house, followed by fire. Firemen found the poor doctor dead inside the house, in the middle of the destroyed lab. He was still holding a big yellow stone in his hand which was later confirmed to be a large chunk of gold. Nobody knows how he got the gold or what happened.
• Another unfortunate person living on the street was a famous Prague prophetess Madame de Thebes. She was very well known for her accurate predictions about the future. During the war she predicted the fall of Hitler and Nazis. Maybe she was able to see the future, maybe she was trying to give people hope, who knows? Either way she got arrested for it and tortured to death by Gestapo.

The tower’s Sigismund Bell, made by Tomáš Jaroš in 1549, is the largest bell in Czechia. It`s decorated with portraits of the king and his wife. And there is one neat story about it as well. When the bell was completed, it was so big and heavy that no one knew how to lift it up to the top of the tower. According to the legend, king’s daughter herself made a special pulley with a rope which was made out of her own hair. And that is how they got the bell up there. When Zikmund was in the place, she destroyed the pulley so no one could copy it.

A long time ago, a man burried a large treasure under one of these steps. But because he was so obsessed with all that gold and because the main focus of his mind was to hide all that gold from anyone else, he covered it up really well but forgot to count the steps. He could never find his own treasure again… The legend says that his ghost walks around here at midnight and still looks for his gold, perhaps counting the steps over and over again.