The Founding of Charles University

You are standing at the heart of Central Europe's first university, founded here on April 7, 1348. The man behind it was Charles IV, King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, the most powerful ruler in Europe at the time. What history books rarely mention is that Charles never made a major decision without consulting his astrologers. He timed the Charles Bridge foundation to a palindromic sequence, 1-3-5-7-9-7-5-3-1, calculated for magical protection. The founding date of his university was almost certainly picked from the stars the same way.

He convinced his close friend Pope Clement VI, the head of the Catholic Church, to issue the official decree in January 1347. Four faculties opened from day one: arts, law, medicine, and theology. Students came from across Europe, divided into four nations, Bohemian, Bavarian, Saxon, and Polish, each with one vote on university matters.

Then in 1409 something dark happened. Charles's son, King Wenceslas, stripped the three foreign nations of their votes and gave the Bohemians a majority. Thousands of German students and professors fled the city overnight. The university emptied. Behind the decree stood a preacher named Jan Hus, then rector here. Six years later he was burned at the stake as a heretic.