Three Farthings Cheaper Than the Bridge

Beside that old church Charles IV founded a monastery of the order of Saint Benedict. He obtained permission from Pope Clement VI, then residing at Avignon, to found in Prague a monastery of monks of the Slavonic tongue, where South Slav visitors and merchants might have the rites of their own language; by the foundation charter of 21 November 1347 Charles had in view the good of those who are akin to us in the pleasantness and sweetness of our native tongue. The monks were brought here from Croatia and the neighbouring Slavonic lands, and so the monastery was called Na Slovanech, At the Slavs'. The building is said to have cost three farthings less than the Stone Bridge, that is eighteen thousand seven hundred and forty-seven threescore of groschen — and a whole forest was needed for the roof.