Here also is the Nicholas Church that has already been mentioned, and near here are the palace of the Governor of Bohemia and the palace where the Bohemian Diet assembles, since it no longer meets on the Hradcany. A steep path leads to the summit of the Hradcany Hill. The two most important buildings on this height, the Royal Palace and St. Vitus's Cathedral, have already been mentioned. Between these buildings stands the very fine equestrian statue of St. George, cast in 1373 by order of Charles IV. This fine statue, a work of the brothers George and Martin of Clussenburk, is excessively interesting as giving a faithful representation of the armour worn by the knights of the fourteenth century.
Behind the cathedral is the Church of St. George, occupying the spot where one of the earliest Christian churches in Bohemia, built by Prince Vratislav I. about the year 915, once stood. Princess Mlada, sister of Boleslav II., in 915 here built a Benedictine convent, of which she became abbess, and which became very famous in Bohemia. Charles IV. granted to the abbess of this convent the right of crowning the Queens of Bohemia. They retained this right up to the suppression of the convent by the Emperor Joseph II. It was then transferred to the superior of the Chapter of Noble Ladies, which the Empress Maria Theresa had founded.
The first Church of St. George was destroyed in 1142, during the troubles that followed the death of Sobeslav.[53] A Romanesque building was then erected, which is the finest building in that style of architecture in Bohemia. Though here also restorations have taken place, the church has, on the whole, retained its ancient character, and it is well worth the attention of the traveller. It contains the graves of several of the most ancient rulers of Bohemia and of their wives. The ancient frescoes in this church and the chapels of St. Ludmilla--where that saint and Princess Mlada, the first abbess of St. George's convent, are buried--and of St. Anne require particular notice. During the recent restorations the stucco ornaments that concealed the old Romanesque doors and windows have been removed. Of great interest are the four very ancient towers on the Hradcany Hill, which date from the time of Ottokar II. and have already been mentioned. They overlook the Jeleni Prikop (Stag's Ditch), and are reached by the Jiriska Ulice, passing through buildings that are used as Government offices. These towers were used as prisons, and the White Tower in particular, which has been compared to the Bastille and the Tower of London, was the principal State prison of Prague. The leaders of the Protestant movement against Ferdinand I., Bishop Augusta, the head of the Bohemian brethren, the Bohemian leaders who were decapitated in 1621, the partisans of Charles of Bavaria (1743), and many others were imprisoned here.