Standing in the middle of the Square of the Republic (namesti Republiky), the Gothic cathedral sports a lime-green spire that reaches to a height of over 102 meters, making it the tallest in the country. Construction on the cathedral began at the end of the 13th century and continued into the 16th. On the north side of the square is a Renaissance town hall (stara radnice) built in the mid-16th century by visiting Italian architect Giovanni de Statio. Next door to the town hall is the house that was the center of the Hapsburg Empire in 1599, when Rudolf II fled plague-ravaged Prague for a year. In 1989, the town's center was declared an Urban Historical Landmark. Although the first Czech book, "The Trojan Chronicles", was printed in Plzen in 1468, the city's more notable contributions to Czech culture were to come when the Industrial revolution transformed the city in the 19th century. The world-famous Prazdroj Municipal Brewery was founded in 1842, partly in response to the poor quality of beer in the town beforehand, and employed a bottom-fermenting process that was widely-copied and beer of this type is commonly known as "Pilsner", after the name of the town in German, Pilsen. In fact, the name of the beer Pilsner Urquell (Plzensky Prazdroj), was given to it by the brewery's representatives in Berlin, to denote that it was the "source" or original beer of that type. The other firm that would put Plzen on the map was founded in 1859 by the Czech industrialist Emil Skoda, the Skoda machine works. Steelworks and a forging plant were added in later, and the company successfully exported its wares all over the world. During the First World War, the plant employed 36,000 workers and was the largest manufacturer of arms in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Between the wars, the company led the way in making the new Czechoslovak state one of the most industialized countries in the world. With the arrival of the second war, the occupying Germans turned the Skoda Works back to a major arms producer, which drew the attention of the Allied bombing fleet. Plzen suffered 11 raids between 1942 and 1945, resulting in over 6 and a half thousand homes destroyed and almost a thousand dead. The war ended for Plzen on May 6, 1945, when General George Patton liberated the city. The communists discouraged the recognition of this fact, but since 1990 an annual parade has taken place on VE Day (May 8) featuring a wide variety of antique American military vehicles to commemorate the event.