The Metropolis as a Condensed Urban Landscape. Some Aspects of the Development of Early Modern Prague
Abstrakt
The present study emphasizes the areas representing the city on three different, seemingly disparate levels, with the aim of showing the Prague suburb in its uniqueness. These selected passages are preceded by a text outlining the basic features of the legal and administrative development of Prague's cities, necessary for the integration of the thematic areas into the broader context.
First, the attention is paid to the Jewish Town, the most important center of Ashkenazi Jews in Central Europe. The close connection between Prague Jews and their Christian neighbors was particularly intense during the Rudolfinian Prague period, considered to be the heyday of the Prague ghetto.
The second topic is a treatise on an extremely dynamic period when, after the accession of Rudolf II to the throne in 1576, Prague became an imperial residence, a Renaissance metropolis, a thriving and dynamic cultural metropolis for more than three decades. Finally, a view of the Prague urban landscape through the eyes of foreigners is included, which reflects their ideas, sometimes confronted with immediate impressions, feelings, experiences.
The view from the outside, however superficial it may sometimes be, often illuminates unexpected connections or parallels. The three thematic chapters, which we have selected from many possible problem areas, certainly cannot exhaust such a complex topic as the development of the Prague Städtelandschaft.
A number of equally interesting problems have not been encountered, and many of them still lack basic research. The relatively short period during which Prague became one of the leading European capitals was significantly inscribed in the image of the city.
However, the fundamental city-building impulses of the Rudolfinian period were still active in the following years, before they were brutally interrupted by the Thirty Years' War.