The Thirty Years’ War deprived Prague of a third of its population and works of art. But the Swedes never conquered the city – ČT24 – Czech Television
The announcement of the end of the war did not come to Prague until the end of October. Karel Gustav therefore focused mainly on gaining the greatest possible spoils of war and called on the city to surrender. After a negative answer, he ordered the last attack on October 30. The soldiers didn’t want to fight much anymore and the attack ended accordingly. Prague was saved at the last minute. The supplies began to run low, leaving only one barrel of gunpowder left.
Swedish troops began to slowly withdraw from the city on November 1. The armistice was signed on November 29 in a temporary building in the middle of Charles Bridge. However, the last Swedish soldiers did not leave Prague until September 1649.
Disappointed Comenius
For Czech exiles, the battle for the capital and the subsequent Peace of Westphalia was infamous. As early as November 1, 1648, Jan Amos Comenius complained to the Swedish Chancellor Oxenstiern that “… It is the beginning of wisdom to go to ourselves and sue for our own lack of repentance… and for indifference to ourselves, whom we – I must admit – have neglected and want others to take care of our slumber za “
On the contrary, it was celebrated in Prague. On November 6, thanksgiving services took place in the Týn Church and on the adjacent Old Town Square. In the same place where twenty-seven years ago the heads of those who started this war fell.
- Teacher Václav František Kocmánek describes the end of the war in Prague:
“Fasting is commanded by the clergy to thank the Lord God for freeing us from those cruel and our blood with the desire of enemy hands. To this end, the famous procession (in which all the clergy, generals, Their Grace, the governors and very many general people met) from the New Town from the Church of St. Henry to the Old Town to the Church of Týnský adhered. It was announced that day in Münster the room was closed and confirmed, from which no joy arose among the people. “
Although the Swedes did not conquer Prague, they looted the left bank of the city. It is estimated that at that time they took property for about 12 million gold. Königsmark declared the most valuable booty to be state property and had it sent directly to Stockholm. It was a large part of the collection of Emperor Rudolf II, from which, among other things, over four works of works were taken to Sweden from six hundred paintings, including paintings by Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raffael, Titian or Dürer. Miraculously, Dürer’s famous Rosary Festival was saved.
Rare manuscripts and books that were easy to transport also disappeared. One of the rarest was the so-called Silver Bible (Codex argenteus) – a manuscript from the 6th century, which contains a Gothic translation of the Bible from the 4th century. The book is now on display in Uppsala, Sweden.
The Devil’s Bible is still the property of Sweden
Probably the best known is the so-called The Bible of the Devil (Codex gigas). The world’s largest manuscript book is also still the property of Sweden. Despite repeated efforts, the Czech Republic has failed to recover it. The book returned to Prague at the turn of 2007 and 2008.
The then Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek applied for a loan in 2005 during a visit to Sweden. As at the opening of the exhibition of his arrival, Mirek Topolánek guaranteed that it was only a loan, not an attempt to restitute the spoils of war. At that time, a representative of the Swedish National Library ruled out other necessary loans. The book was probably the last time in the Czech Republic.
During the Thirty Years’ War, bronze statues by Adriana de Vries from the Albrecht of Wallenstein Palace or the Strahov or Rosenberg Library were taken from the Castle, each core is, like the Devil’s Bible, still in the Royal Library in Stockholm.
However, the vast majority of the stolen books burned down later in a fire in the palace and library in Stockholm. The Devil’s Bible, which was thrown out of the windows of the third floor at the last moment, almost ended. The cracked covers of the book still commemorate this event.
Dobrovský also tried to return the stolen files
Many Czech officials are unsuccessfully trying to return the works of art. Antonín Jan Nostic, the imperial ambassador to Stockholm, was the first to buy some of the books in Sweden in the second half of the 17th century. In 1792, Josef Dobrovský also went to Sweden to find the stolen writings.
You can get a small part of rare documents back to your homeland in the 19th century thanks to the Moravian historian Beda Dudík. In 2014, the Moravian Provincial Archive in Brno showed them to the public for the first time in 140 years.