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Czech Republic
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"The capital of Bohemia pulsated with mad machines, capricious powers and hidden influences, where a skeleton standing nonchalantly next to the Town Hall’s astrological clock marked time with the yank of a rope and the turn of an hourglass; where Rabbi Loew was said to be at work in the Jewish ghetto building the Golem, a figure of clay that he would bring to life by placing a tablet inscribed with the name of God in its mouth; where Rudolf II, great-grandson by two lines of descent to the Spanish queen Joan the Mad, sat in isolated grandeur in his castle on the hill, while around him visitors and ambassadors circulated in maddening labyrinths of courtly ritual."
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--Benjanin Woolley -"The Queen's Conjuror"
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