What the Swedes Came For

A magnificent treasure fell into the hands of the Swedes when, in the night of 26 July 1648, they seized Hradčany through Ottowalsky's treachery. And it is certain that the Swedish general Königsmark undertook this expedition against Prague, just before the very signing of the Peace of Westphalia, for no other purpose than to get hold of those collections. In the month of August everything was carried off to Sweden — and they plundered a great deal of booty besides from the palaces of the Bohemian nobility on Hradčany and in the Lesser Town. Whoever wishes to see what was once heaped up here must travel over the whole of Europe: Vienna, Dresden and Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, Rome and Paris and many other cities have divided Rudolf's treasures and rarities among them.