After a quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we met our guide for the day, Irena, in the lobby for our tour. Irena appears to be in her mid-40s, blonde, and works for a company that organizes ours for choirs to come and since in the Czech Republic. She said that she has mostly specialized in college groups such as Princeton. It is mostly summer work, so she does private tours in the fall and winter.
We ended up retracing our steps a bit and began by going on tram 22 back up to the castle. Irena started with a 15 or 20 minutes history lecture which was right up my alley. I learned a couple of new things like the relationship between Queen Anne and the Hapsburgs, the connection between Cardinal Richlieu and the Holy Roman Emporer, the Czechs being originally Celtic, and the importance of Charles IV.
After the lecture, we walked past the guards at the entrance to the palace. Their uniforms were designed by the same person who designed the costumes for Amadeus. We then walked to St Vitus. They began building the chapel first and put up a temporary wall that lasted five centuries. The cathedral was only finally finished in the twentieth century. The two main architects of the cathedral are buried inside.
One of the first crypts inside the chapel was of the Schwartzenburg family who were and are an important Czech family. We also saw the tomb of John of Nepomuk. This is the priest who was the legendary confessor of the queen and was killed rather than break the confidentiality as a priest. His body was thrown from Charles Bridge. His tomb and the surrounding statues are made of TONS and TONS of silver. (The Czech Republic was once a large producer of silver). We also saw the tomb of King Wenceslas of Christmas carol fame. The wallpaper in his crypt is covered with real jewels.
On the way out, Irena showed us a beautiful stained glass window – perhaps the most beautiful in the cathedral. What Bible scene or saint was pictured? None! It was a purely secular advertising ploy — paid for when the cathedral was finished in the early 20th century by an insurance company on the occasion of it’s centennial.
Following the cathedral, we went to a vista overlooking the city. It was a gray day, but it simply added to the atmosphere of the city. Unlike London, Prague felt utterly ‘foreign’ to me. It is so easy to look over the city and pretend it is still the 1980s and you are in the Warsaw Pact. Growing up on movies of Russian spies and nuclear fallout, I would have never imagined visiting this place. Here is was standing in the former sphere of Soviet influence, less than 18 years after it shrugged of the yoke of Communism.
Next we walked in front of the Old Royal Palace and saw the beauty that was achieved by Empress Marie-Therese’s architects. The palace was a lovely sea green color, and the symmetry was breathtaking. A wonderful garden is situated in front of the palace. We walked through this park before turning down the coronation route and the winding streets of the castle district.
The Schwatrzenburg Palace on the way was huge. The side street winding down from the palace was extremely picturesque. Irena pointed out the old style house signs, such as the House of the Three Violins. Until Marie-Therese introduced street numbers, this was hoe houses were distinguished.
Next was the Church of Our Lady Victorious and, as Irena called him, “Baby Jesus.” This was a Prague story I never knew about. A couple of centuries ago, a wax doll of Baby Jesus was given to the Empress. Since then the doll has been credited with miracles. Pilgrims, especially from the Spanish-speaking world, have been coming here ever since. The figurine is in a glass case in the main chapel, and a museum on the second floor showcases some of the “dresses” given by various nations. Evidently on special occasions the baby is dress in these gifts of state.
The church was followed by a visit to an unfinished church begun by the Knights of Malta. The walls were completed but never roofed in. Around the corner from the church was the Lennon wall. A graffiti-covered wall dedicated to John Lennon’s message of peace, this landmark began as a sign of protest in the Communist era.
We next walked to Kampa Island, a picturesque cafe-filled area next to the Charles Bridge. We touched the plaque of St. John on the bridge —supposed to bring good luck. Exiting the bridge we walked past St. Francis church where our concert would be held this evening. The rain really started as we walked north along the river. We strolled past Old-New Synagogue and the Jewish Cemetery in the Jewish Quarter on the way to Old Town. This is the area where the Golem legends grew up. We then walked past St. Nicholas and Tyn churches and took a quick look at the Astronomical Clock.
At Wenceslas Square, we were told of the student protest movements that helped move the Czechs toward freedom and of the Velvet Revolution when this dream was finally achieved. As it was time to bid Irena farewell and the rain was continuing, we decided to have lunch nearby. Luckily for us, we stumbled on a place called Pizza Coliseum off of the square. While this is not what you would consider the most traditional of Czech foods, this is exactly the type of lunch modern Czechs eat. The restaurant was excellent. We had a cheese, tomato, and rocket covered pizza with homemade gelato (coconut for me, cherry for Becky) for dessert. I also had some Pilsner Urquell, the ubiquitous beer I see everywhere. We had a last stop at the Mucha Museum before heading back to the room. The work of Mucha is superb, but the museum was only so-so.
We decided to have a late dinner at the Palac Flora mall before heading to the concert. We did what all the other locals were doing, and had a very Czech meal of chicken at KFC. 🙂 When we arrived at St. Francis we were amazed at the beautiful Baroque interior. The program featured an organist, violist, and vocalist performing classical works from Bach, Mozart, and Dvorak among others. We also got some night shots of the bridge and palace.
During the concert in this beautiful church I thought about many things: the centuries worth of attendees that must have entered this church; how secular performances such as this probably never crossed the minds of the original architects; how these performances likely were responsible for the church’s continued beauty by funding restoration; and how Irena had called the Czechs a largely agnostic people. Crusades against the Hussites, the Battle of White Mountain, the proximity of Protestant German principalities, the dictates of the Catholic Hapsburgs, plus several decades of Communism meant there was a distrust of organized religion despite many Czechs believing at least abstractly that there was a higher power. It just was an interesting juxtaposition of holy and secular within the grandeur of these churches.