Zvuky Prahy / Sounds of Prague

the writer and poet Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic (born January 24, 1871 in Smíchov, March 5, 1951, Prague) was born in the house at Nádražní třída No. 49/28 in Smíchov, same year that the first Smíchov railway bridge was completed. In 1901 was the iron bridge rebuilt to its present form. Decadent Karásek does not recall, however, either trains or railroads, but his admiration (like Jakub Arbes) of the painting of St. Xaverius in the temple of St. Nicholas at Malá Strana. As a student of gymnasium he used to walk from Knížecí through Anděl and "Lesíček" towards Újezd to Hellichova Street. His childhood memories are captured in his book "The Lost Paradise". Actually, in most of his novels, Prague plays the scenery of his stories: Malostranský Cemetery in The Dark Picture, White Mountain, St. Jindřich Church, Old Jewish Cemetery, Loreta, Strahov Monastery, Barnabites Cloister on Hradčanské Square, Prague Infant Jesus, Malá Strana and Old Town. But above all, the suburbia of Old Smíchov, immersed in smog from the Ringhoffer factories and in dream fluid of esthete, art collector, writer and postal clerk Karásek.