Volume 1

Austria / By Peter Evan Turnbull.

  • Turnbull, Peter Evan, 1786-1852.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Austria / By Peter Evan Turnbull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/426
    commerce : but, even under present circumstances, and with all existing disadvantages, not many cities in Europe can be cited which have of late years made more steady advances in prosperity. Forty years ago the population did not exceed seventy thousand; it now, including the garrison, which may be reck¬ oned at twelve thousand, amounts to a hundred and twenty thousand. Active and efficient institutions for the encouragement of national industry in every branch, as well as for that of art and science, have been formed by the grand-burggrave, and that eminent patriot the Count de Sternberg. The li¬ terary institutions are well organised ; the shops and magazines are well supplied with all descriptions of merchandize ; provisions are remarkably cheap, good, and abundant; and the population, although not equal in apparent condition to that of some more southern provinces, are generally well clothed, healthy, and thriving. Still, these successful labours of a wise administra¬ tion cannot disguise the fact, that Prague is no longer what she once was, the metropolis of a power¬ ful kingdom. The palaces of the Kleinseite are mostly deserted. They are generally large ugly buildings, some however with a good deal of archi¬ tectural decoration—and the dirty rubbishy appear¬ ance of their brick walls, half covered with worn-out stucco, conveys the idea of prisons or poorhouses, rather than of mansions for lofty nobility. Their internal apartments correspond but too well with h 2