The Capital of Europe's Alternative Timeline

Prague's architecture looks like the assassin missed the Archduke in 1914, and hence Europeans carried on with their old constructive rather than new destructive rivalries.

Tom Wolfe stopped the plot in I Am Charlotte Simmons to point out, “… the existence of conspicuous consumption one has rightful access to—as a student had rightful access to the fabulous Dupont Memorial Library—creates a sense of well-being.” Prague is a popular tourist town because its immense profusion of amazing buildings in an endless variety of European architectural styles going back a thousand years to the Romanesque creates a sense of well-being in the throngs of visitors.

It’s a little how hard to tell how old anything in Prague is because it’s a sort of a Ship of Theseus city where buildings have been remodeled and/or repaired over and over. So you constantly find yourself admiring some, say, Rococo townhouse that looks like nothing has changed since Mozart brought The Magic Flute to town, but then you read that it was thoroughly revamped in 2022-2024.

Prague is kind of the capital city of Europe’s alternative timeline in which the assassin Gavrilo Princip missed the Archduke Franz Ferndinand in June 1914 and so Europeans carried on with their old constructive rather than destructive rivalries during the 20th Century.

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