GEWD DAY

22512 without the Czech language class we got to sleep in a lil bit, which was welcomed, as myself and much of the clique went out last night, had a good, albeit late night. class today was mainly discussion of the film we watched yesterday, and some preliminary briefing on Hungary by Harlow, and then a discussion on the reading led by TA Malcolm. after the class we hopped on the train, travelled like 30km south, to Karlštejn. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl %C5%A1tejn_Castle )

so this castle Karlštejn was built in 1348 by not surprisingly Charles IV ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_IV,_Holy_Roman_Emperor ), considering he built like everything in Prague, and you know, it had his name and everything. So this cat was the Holy Roman Emperor for a while, and at that, it was when the Holy Roman Empire was like the most powerful state in Europe, he was second only to the Pope in Rome. the castle was a (medieval) days travel outside Prague making it close enough to get to easily, but far enough to be safe from all those urban peasant uprisings, Charles IV had it built for his summer home, the castle also acted as his primary treasury for safekeeping of the imperial regalia, and relics, so the fingerbones of saints, to keep the stuff safe outside the city, it was also used to a lesser extent to weather out revolutions and plagues and whatnot. pictured below: various relics, including THE head of the dragon which St. George killed ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._George ).

So i dunno if you are aware of this, but the Holy Roman Emperor is actually elected, not just divine right of kings type stuff, there are 7 electors, met to appoint the new holy roman emperor, 3 archbishops, and 4 princes, with the prince of Bohemia being the most prominent. after said electing, he went to Rome to be crowned by the Pope. interesting note in siege defense, all the stairs have a left turn when going down, to make them easier to defend, as you can imagine most people were right handed, so the defenders would run up the stairs, and harried the attackers on their way up while their sword arm was pinned against the wall. after this castle tour with the cool (i say cool cause he was the one that told the story in the ossuary about how "when you couldnt make it to the Holy Land to kill Muslims, you would find heretics to kill in your neighborhood, also you would kill some Jews" i loved the sarcasm) Czech history professor we made our way back home at some food, and i plan on an early night of reading my sci fi, and sleeping. the title is cause i learned the management company to my Boston apartment has issued my reimbursement check for the security deposit and whatnot, AND i got to fill out a survey about my co-op advisor