The Tsar Who Spoke Czech

The baths here later became a hotel with a hall and thirteen rooms, in its day the best known in Prague; from those better times the hotel's signs in French, German and English are still preserved on the house. In 1698 Tsar Peter the Great lodged here and stayed a whole week, viewing the city, its institutions and its monuments. He also made the acquaintance of the Jesuit Father Bedřich Volf, listened to his Czech sermons and grew so fond of him that he took him along to Vienna. There too Volf preached in Czech, perhaps at Peter's request, and the tsar spoke Czech with him everywhere, which is said to have caused general astonishment in high circles, and even displeasure. The tsar, however, is said to have been glad that he could make himself understood to Czechs without German.