Czech Please.: October 3rd, 2013

This is going to be a very long post but mostly filled with pictures so do not fret. My father and I decided to do the paid tour of Prague Castle which means you get to go inside all of the cool stuff that the free tour doesn't let you see. Our first stop was St. Vitus Cathedral which is located in the middle of Prague Castle. I had been here before, but this time we actually got to walk around the church rather than just walking in and right back out.

"The cathedral was commissioned by Charles IV, and construction began in 1344 on the site of an earlier 10th century rotunda. Its first builders, Matthias of Arras and later Peter Parler, built the chancel with a ring of chapels - St. Wenceslas Chapel, the Golden Portal and the lower section of the main steeple. However, it took almost six centuries to complete, with the final phase of construction in the period 1873-1929. As well as being the largest and most important temple in Prague, St. Vitus Cathedral has also overseen the coronation of Czech kings and queens. In the chancel of the cathedral, in front of the high alter, is the royal mausoleum. Below this, in the crypt, there are the royal tombs. Czech kings and queens, and patron saints of the country are interred here."

(St. Vitus Cathedral)

After that stop on our tour we got to go inside actual Prague Castle. Most of the castle is offices of the current government so you cannot tour that area, but a large section of it has been kept in it's original condition so you can see what it looked like when it was built.

"A castle was built at this site as early as in the 9th century. In the 12th and 13th century the castle was fortified and expanded. Around the castle, a small community started to grow. That neighborhood, now called Lesser Town, obtained city rights in 1257. In the 14th century, under the reign of King Charles IV the whole castle was renovated and expanded. More expansions were built by the House of Habsburg, who also redecorated large parts of the castle in a Baroque and neoclassical style. After the First World War the castle became the seat of the government of Czechoslovakia and today the president of the Czech Republic still resides here."

(Prague Castle, Royal Palace)

The next stop in our little tour was St. George's Basilica which is just beyond St. Vitus Cathedral. The outside of the building, with it's bright pink walls, makes it seem like it would not be a basilica. The inside of the basilica gives a very different impression than the cathedral. It does not have all of the extravagant ornaments that cover the cathedral but rather after years of use has been worn down to plain rock.

"The basilica of St. George was built in the 12th century and replaced an older, 10th century church. The façade was added in the 17th century. Inside the Romanesque church, you'll find the graves of Ludmila (860 - 921) - the first Czech Christian martyr - and duke Vratislav I of Bohemia (915 - 921); his painted wooden grave can be found near the choir."

(St. George's Basilica)

The last place on our tour was a very interesting and different place compared to everything else I have seen in Prague. The area is called Golden Lane and I'm not sure what I was expecting but this was not it. This area looks like it should be the homes of the munchkins from Wizard of Oz. The tiny homes were built long after the wall to house servants of the castle. The archways that used to be in the wall were made into tiny houses for people to live. Up in the actually wall, there is now an exhibition on Medieval armour and weapons.

"The Golden Lane originated after the construction of the northern wall of the Castle. The area of the northern bailey was used for the building of modest dwellings, which are now the last remainder of the small-scale architecture of Prague Castle. They were inhabited by the castle servants, perhaps goldsmiths (the name "Golden Lane" is documented from the 16th century] and the castle marksmen. The tiny houses were occupied until World War II, but already during the period of the First Republic care was taken to ensure that the picturesque character of the lane was not changed in the course of modifications. From 1916 to 1917 house No. 22 was inhabited by the writer Franz Kafka."

(Golden Lane)

After we finished our tour of Prague Castle we decided to end our day by going up to Petřín Tower (the Eiffel Tower of Prague). I had always assumed when you got to the top of the hill that the tower was on, it would just be a tower up there but on our ride up in the funicular it became clear there was much more. On the top of the hill there are beautiful gardens, museums and many other things I never expected to find on top of a hill. While we did not have time to look at everything that was up there I plan to go back again so I can actually see it all. We headed to the tower and decided to be very lazy and take the lift up (which I'm very glad we did). When we reached the top you had an amazing 360 degree view of Prague and the surrounding area. Seeing Prague from that point of view is an amazing site that pictures will never do justice.

"The Petřín Lookout Tower (Czech: Petřínská rozhledna) is a 63.5 metre high steel framework tower in Prague, which strongly resembles the Eiffel Tower. Although it is much shorter than the Eiffel Tower, it stands atop a sizable hill, Petřín, so the top is actually at a higher altitude than that of the Eiffel Tower. The Petřínská rozhledna was built in 1891 and was used as an observation tower as well as a transmission tower. In 1889, members of The Club of Czech Tourists visited the world exposition in Paris and were inspired by the Eiffel Tower. Later, they collected a sufficient amount of money and in March, 1891 the building of the tower started for the General Land Centennial Exhibition (1891). It was finished in only 4 months."

(Petřín Hill)

(Petřín Tower)

(View from Petřín Tower)

Czech Please.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

October 3rd, 2013

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