A.M. Ripelini calls Prague magical but Ernest Denis says she is a city of tragedies. The magic and tragedy are encoded in the labyrinth of twisting streets in Prague's Old Town.
Every stone here speaks.
Upheavals and revolutions were more frequent, passions more intense, battles more furious and fierce than anywhere else, because nowhere else was victory so tied to survival. Yet the past, the deeds of those long dead, have a magical influence on those born in the same place centuries later. Genius Loci is the interaction of those who are related by physical contact, by local tradition, and by their history, as the same problems, formulated by the facts of geography, are posed to successive generations. Physically, Prague sits astride its silver-hued river, crossed by two parallel ridges. The river, known abroad by its German name, the Moldau, is called the Vltava, its older Celtic name, by residents.