'A spell hangs in the air of this citadel - the Hradčany as it is called in Czech; Hradschin in German - and I was under its thrall long before I could pronounce its name.'

Photo below:

The Hradčany district in Prague with the St. Vitus Cathedral on the top of the hill and the Prague Castle. Apparently, Prague Castle is the largest coherent castle complex in the world, with an area of almost 70,000 m². 

'Once we were under the lancets of St. Vitus's Cathedral, a second conviction began to form. Prague was the recapitulation and the summing-up of all I had gazed at since stepping ashore in Holland...''  

Photos below: St. Vitus Cathedral, the most important and largest church in Prague.

'Outside, except for the baroque top to the presiding belfry, the cathedral itself might have been an elaborate gothic reliquary. From the massed upward thrust of its buttresses to the stickle-back ridge of its high-pitched roof it was spiked with a forest of perpendiculars.'

Photo below on the right: a forest of perpendiculars on the roof of the Cathedral. 

'Under the diapered soffits and sanctuary lamps of a chantry, a casket like a brocaded ark of the covenant enclosed the remains of a saint. [...] It was Good King Wenceslas, no less.' 

Wenceslas remains an important national figure in today’s Czech Republic — where he is known to Czech speakers as Václav rather than Wenceslas, the Latinized version of his name. When Václav became Duke of Bohemia at age 18, he sought to spread Christianity. He commissioned the building of several churches including part of what is now St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. He also developed a reputation as a wise and compassionate ruler, known for his deeds of mercy.

Legend has it that he paid particular attention to caring for the poor, widows, orphans and even prisoners. He opposed the slave market and would buy slaves in order to set them free. He also is known for successfully negotiating peace with the Bavarians, who had been traditional enemies of Bohemians. But his jealous younger brother, Boleslav, wanted to become duke himself and had the backing of their mother. Boleslav also was willing to exploit his brother’s faith to seize power. He invited Václav to a church dedication on Sept. 27, 929. The next day, while Václav was on his way to prayer, Boleslav and his henchman attacked — killing the young duke on Sept. 28

Photos below: St. Vitus Cathedral with Wenceslav's tomb on the right.

'There was another heirloom of the old Bohemian kings hard by the Cathedral: the church of St. George, whose baroque carapace masked a Romanesque church of great purity.'

St. George's Basilica is one of the oldest churches in Prague (10th century), part of the Prague Castle complex. The church is Romanesque in style and holds the grave of Ludmila of Bohemia, the grandmother of King Wenceslas. 

Photo's below: St George Church.

'And, at this very point, confusion begins. The city teems with wonders; but what belongs where? Certainly that stupendous staircase called the Rider's Steps, and all that lay beyond them, were part of the great castle-palace. [...] These vaults are almost impossible to describe. The ribs burst straight out of the walls in V-shaped clusters of springers.' 

 'But in King's Vladislav's vast Hall of Homage the ribs of the  vaulting had further to travel, higher to soar. [...] Their motion, as they ascended the reversed half-cones of the vault and curled over into the ceiling, suggested the spreading and upward-showering rush of a school of dolphins leaping out of the water.'

Photo's below on the left: the Riders Steps.

Photo's below on the right: King Vladislav's Hall of Homage.

"Our wanderings had ended under a clock tower in the old Ghetto, where the hands moved anti-clockwise and indicated the time in Hebrew alphabetic numbers. The russet-coloured synagogue, with its steep and curiously dentated gables, was one of oldest in Europe.."

Photo's below: the Jewish quarter. 

Photo below in the middle: the Hebrew clock was made in 1764. With its counterclockwise movement, Hebrew characters and specially shaped hands, this clock is unique in the world. 

Photo below on the right: the 'Old New Synagogue', the oldest still standing synagogue in Europe and one of the most valuable Gothic buildings in Prague, was built in the 1270's.

"The cemetery hard by was one of the most remarkable places in the city. Thousands of tombstones in tiers, dating from the fifteenth century, were huddled under the elder branches."

The cemetery was founded in the first half of the 15th century, the earliest tombstone dates back to 1439. Although the cemetery was expanded several times over the centuries, it was still not big enough to meet the needs of the Jewish Town. As space was scarce, bodies were buried on top of each other, with graves layered up to 10 deep. 

Photo's below: the Jewish cemetery.

"Where, in this half-recollected maze, do the reviving memories of the libraries belong?' [...] 'Globes space out the chessboard floors. There are glass-topped homes for incunables. [...] The concerted spin of a score of barley-sugar pillars uphold elliptic galleries where brass combines with polished oak, and obelisks and pineapples alternate on balustrades."

Paddy has an image of a library that he can't quite place in his memory. The image matches the Baroque hall of the Clementinum library with beautiful frescoes and several historically valuable globes.

Photo below: Clementinum library.

"At the middle [of the Charles Bridge] of one side and higher than the rest, stands St Johannes Nepomuk. He was martyred a few yards away in 1393 - he is said to have refused, under torture, to betray a confessional secret of Queen Sophia. When the henchmen of Wenceslas IV carried him here and hurled him into the Vltava, his drowned body, which was later retrieved and entomed in the Cathedral, floated downstream under a ring of stars."

The statue of St. John of Nepomuk is the oldest statue of the Charles Bridge and the only bronze statue there.

Photo's below: Charles bridge and the statue of John Nepomuk on the right.

Photos below: last impression of the city of Prague and the old main railway station that was built in the Neo-Renaissance style in 1871.