Shooting at the Bird

Besides the town marksmen there were other shooters who drew bows for sport, even after the town marksmen had firearms. That company of archers lasted into the seventeenth century and practised in the town moats between the Powder Gate and Dlouhá Street. On Whit Monday especially they shot at the bird, that is at a wooden bird hung from a tall pole; the custom is said to have reached us from Silesia. In 1472 the marksmen of Prague obtained permission from the magistrate to set up a shooting range of their own on this island and to hold their shooting there for amusement. Under Rudolf, burghers and noblemen alike took part in the shooting at the bird in great numbers, and the Whitsun shooting festival became a national festival of Prague, almost like the Slamník in the Game Park.