Today, we began our tour of the many splendors of Prague. We walked to a nearby mall where we saw a very interesting sculpture of a man sitting on a horse that was upside down from the ceiling. Held by chains, we wondered what would happen if it should drop on someone’s head! Can’t happen, because the whole sculpture is made of styrofoam with very little weight. All I could think of is that the man is sitting on the horse’s manhood. It was quite strange.
The other notable feature of this mall was an intricate stained glass window honoring Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American engineer, futurist, and inventor. He contributed to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system in the late 1800’s. You may have heard the name recently connected with electric cars!
We walked the short distance to Wenceslas Square, an area many blocks long, headed by the National Museum on one end, surrounded by the most incredible buildings with unique architectural details. Despite the age of these buildings, the first floors housed pizza joints, outlet stores, restaurants, and many different kinds of retail businesses. It is quite a juxtaposition. We couldn’t miss the pastry store, though.
Our next stop was the Prague Castle, built in the 9th century. Currently, it is the residence and workplace of the president of the Czech Republic. It is the largest ancient castle in the world, occupying an area of 70,000 square meters (750,000 square feet), and the most visited attraction in the country, with almost 2.6 million visitors! Its Baroque architecture is incredible beautiful and imposing, as it sits atop the hill overlooking the city, the city of spires.
We were lucky enough to see the guards come out to the front gate at 9:00 AM. They stay for one hour and then are relieved hourly until the end of the day. The guards do not smile, but many visitors take pictures with them (not us). The buildings adjacent to the Castle are equally impressive, including one that has the trompe l’oeil like we saw in other towns like Cesky Krumlov. A typical Czech lunch of various sausages looked good and was very tasty.
We then walked to the Charles Bridge to cross over to the old town. Each statue on the bridge has significance. For some reason, I remember one that looked like a Buddha that beckoned everyone to rub his tummy (which was shiny from all the touching) when I was there about 15 years ago, but it was no where to be seen this time.
At the end of the bridge is a gate where buskers perform and people gather. The buildings in the old town are stunning in their design and details. Prior to having street numbers, each building had a plaque or marking to denote the type of business or family located there.
We went into the center of Prague to the Old Town Square, where one of the most iconic destinations beckons hundreds of visitors hourly. This is the Astronomical Clock mounted on the Old Town Hall. It represents the position of the sun and moon in the sky, with statues of Catholic saints stand on either side of the clock. Hourly, there is a show of the Apostle figures and other sculptures, “The Walk of the Apostles,” and a figure of a skeleton representing death, mounted on the clock, that is supposed to nod its head in confirmation. It dates back to 1410 AD. but around 1490, the calendar dial was added. Over many hundreds of years, it has been repaired and figures were added. It suffered heavy damage in 1945 during the Prague uprising, when the Nazis fired on the Old Town Square. It was renovated in 2010 for its 600th anniversary, and finally in 2018, the last restoration was completed. However, the artist may have put the likenesses of his friends and acquintances into the work, possibly as a joke! It is still the place where everyone migrates hourly to see the movement of the figures on the clock.
Today was a wonderful day to see Prague and enjoy its beauty. Jim went back to the hotel, while I decided to visit the Jewish Quarter. About 15 years ago, the last time I was in Prague, I visited the many synagogues in Prague. The Pinkas Synagogue, was established in 1479. At the end of WWII, it was turned into a memorial for the 77,297 Jews from Czecholovakia killed during the Holocaust. Inside, its walls are covered with their hand-written names, generally together with others from the same shtetl (small town). I saw my name four times, which was more than a little disarming.
The Maisel Synagogue, built at the end of the 16th century, burned in a ghetto fire in 1689. It was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century. Since 1960, it has housed a collection of Jewish items, including books, decorative objects, and silver. The Spanish Synagogue, built in 1868, owes its name to the Moorish interior design, very similar to the famous Alhambra in Spain. It houses an exhibition on the life and history of Jews from Bohemia.
The Klausen Synagogue, founded in 1694, is the biggest of the six synagogues. It features a large collection of Hebrew texts, including a Hebrew bible and Talmud. The High Synagogue, built during the 16th century houses a souvenir shop. And, finally, the Old-New Synagogue, the oldest in Europe, was built in 1270.
One place I saw on my first visit was the Jewish Cemetery, one of the oldest in the world. Although enlarged over the years, it was the only place that Jews could be buried, but never large enough to meet the needs of the Jewish community. Due to the lack of space, bodies were buried on top of each other throughout the years, sometimes with ten bodies in one grave site. There are over 12,000 tombstones, many of which are placed willy-nilly with no space in between, and it is thought that there are around 100,000 people buried in these grounds.
Due to the crowds and my emotional exhaustion, I decided to forego seeing the synagogues and the cemetery this time.
It was now time to return to the ship, to pack our bags and get ready for our next destination, Krakow, Poland. The short flight to Poland will give us one day to see the city before going to Auschwitz the following day.