The churches of Prague are, and always have been, very numerous. We read that at the funeral of King Ottokar, in 1278, the bells of nearly a hundred churches pealed. The oldest ecclesiastical buildings in Prague were small round chapels of a Romanesque character, three of which are still in existence, though they were formerly far more numerous. Many churches were destroyed during the Hussite Wars, and many were restored, in deplorably bad taste, during the Catholic re-action that followed the Battle of the White Mountain. I shall in this chapter refer only to the most important churches and monasteries, though I may allude to a few others when writing of walks in and near Prague. The Cathedral Church of St. Vitus, near the Royal castle of the Hradcany, deserves first mention. It has already been noted that the gift of a relic of St. Vitus induced Prince Wenceslas to erect a church in honour of that saint. This small church, built in the Romanesque style,[43] was not finished when Wenceslas was cruelly murdered by his treacherous younger brother Boleslav. When Wenceslas's body was transported here the church became known as the Church of St. Vitus and St. Wenceslas, and after the second Bishop of Prague, the martyred Adalbert, had been also buried here, it was for a time known as 'the Church of St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert.'[44] [Illustration: VIEW OF STRAHOV] This first church, which was probably of very modest dimensions, soon became too small for the pious visitors who wished to venerate there the relics of Wenceslas and the martyred Bishop of Prague. The church which, to use the words of Monsignore Lehner, had become 'the metropolitan church of the whole Bohemian empire'--then extending further than at almost any other period--remained insufficient even when a smaller church or chapel adjoining it had been erected. Prince Spytihnev II., therefore, resolved to build a larger church on the Hradcany Hill, and, space being very restricted, he demolished the old building of Wenceslas to make room for the new church, which, like the previous one, was in the Romanesque style. The new church was destroyed during the frequent civic tumults of Prague. Shortly after the foundation of the Archbishopric of Prague and during the reign of King John, it was decided to build a new cathedral on the Hradcany Hill. Charles, through whose influence the impecunious King John had given his consent to the building, took the greatest interest in it, both during the lifetime of his father and after he had succeeded him as King. As architect he chose Matthew of Arras, whom he had met during one of his visits to Avignon. After some years, the building was continued by Peter Parler and his son John. The records of the cathedral tell us that in 1418 Master Peter, generally known as Petrlik, was architect. The great buildings erected in the Gothic style, which by this time was generally adopted in Bohemia, progressed very slowly.