Wofford Travels – 2018-10-16 – Prague, Czech Republic
Day 3 – Prague
We left our hotel around 10:00 and took tram 22 to Mary of the Victories or the Church of the Virgin Mary of the Victorious. This was a place I was eager to see…to be at the site of the Infant of Prague.
After visiting the church and seeing the Infant of Prague statue, in major Baroque ornamentation, (and, of course, taking all of the required photos), I went to the museum in the back and downstairs to see a full collection of the Infant’s vestments. This day, the Infant was in white, but there are numerous ones in a variety of liturgical colors and ornately decorated. They are encased in lucite-type boxes where you can see the vestments at any angle. They were certainly a site to behold. Naturally, I had to stop at the gift shop and pick up a number of gift items along with their book, “The Holy Infant of Prague.”
Completing that much anticipated visit, we headed off to the post office (of course, you have to find it first; you know, you ask one shop, then another, and then another as you keep getting closer). Finally, we landed at the right spot, and I got my second round of cards off.
We figured that we would go ahead and eat (it was lunch time) to time our visit for the castle walk at , 2:00…recommended by fellow traveler, Rick Steves. Our selection was the Pizzeria Canzone, where we split a Neapolitan pizza. My phone had run out of juice, and my camera had died, so I asked our waiter if I could charge my phone. He graciously brought it to the back room to charge. That was a life saver as we still had St. Vitus Church, the palace, and more to see during the castle walk.
First, on our castle walking tour, was the Strahov Monastery, which is introduced to you by the twin Baroque domes high above the castle. The entrance to its library, built in the 12th century, is on the little square of the monastery church.
This library is truly amazing as it not only had extremely old books, and thousands of them, but also collections of various small fish and insects. Besides being engaged in prayer, monks, in monasteries like this one, were keepers of knowledge and producers of beer and wine.
We passed through Loreta Square and the Baroque Loreta Church and then Černin Palace, which became the site of modern-day defenestration…a uniquely Czech solution to political discord by literally throwing the offending politician out a window. This was the demise of Jan Masaryk, a piano player-turned-Secretary of State and son of the first president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who on March 10, 1948 was found dead below a bathroom window, soon after the communists took over. We move on to a statue of Edvard Beneš, the first Secretary of State for Czechoslovakia. After a brilliant start, he tarnished his legacy by cozying up to Stalin and evicting over 2 million Germans.
We arrive at Castle Square and Prague Castle, a 1,900-foot-long series of courtyards, churches, and palaces, covering 750,000 square feet, the largest castle on earth. In the center is St. Vitus Cathedral. We passed the plague column, a very tall black Baroque sculpture, erected as a token of gratitude to Mary and the saints for saving the population from epidemic disease. These columns are an integral part of the main squares of many Habsburgs towns.
Another very tall statue, that of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937), mentioned above, depicts a man with a rags to riches story, a former university professor and pal of Woodrow Wlson, he united the Czechs and Slavs into one nation and became its first president. He is only one of three foreign leaders (along with Gandhi and Churchill) to have a statue in Washington DC.
Next is the famous, and huge, St. Vitus Cathedral. We didn’t have a lot of time but allowed ourselves 1 hour to view this site. However, we learned that we only had 30 minutes, as some liturgical function was taking place. So we moved quickly, buying the tickets, and starting to move around the interior walls. Tom and I separated, as we have our own way of viewing these sites. I take photos and he reads the tour book. I moved at a good pace to ensure that I would see everything and got through with about 15 minutes to spare, expecting to go back and review some areas again. But a gentleman said that I was by the exit and needed to go on out. I said I paid and was planning to go back for a second look, but he almost physically moved me in the direction of the exit. We went back and forth a few times. I had no choice but to leave. Meanwhile, I didn’t know where Tom was, but knowing him, I figured he’d be the last one out and after watching people and tour groups flowing out for 10 minutes, here comes Tom, the last one…as I figured.
This Roman Catholic Cathedral is the Czech national church. It’s where kings were crowned, royalty have their tombs, relics of saints were venerated, and the Crown Jewels are kept. The two Gothic soaring towers rise 270 feet up. The façade features pointed arches, elaborate tracery (ornamental stone openwork, typically in the upper part of a Gothic window), flamboyant pinnacles, a rose window, a dozen statues of saints, and gargoyles sticking their tongues out. Construction began in 1344, but wars, plagues, and the reforms of Jan Hus stalled its completion. The church was finished in 1929 for the 1,000th Jubilee anniversary of St. Wenceslas.
Inside, the church is huge – more than 400 feet long and 100 feet high and filled with light. The ceiling has net vaulting, a signature feature of the church’s chief architect, Peter Parler (who also built the Charles Bridge).
One of the large stained glass windows was designed by Alfons Mucha (the Art Nouveau master discussed in the last post) and executed by a stained glass craftsman. Mucha’s window was created to celebrate the birth of the Czech nation and the life of Wenceslas.
After St. Vitus, we visited the Old Royal Palace. Since the 19th century, this has been the seat of the Bohemian princes. The highlight of the palace building, dating from the 12th century, is the large Vladislav Hall, 200 feet long with a high vaulted ceiling. The hall had many purposes. It could be filled with market stalls, letting aristocrats shop without actually going into town. It was big enough for jousts…the staircase could let a mounted soldier gallup in. Beginning in the 1500s the nobles met there to elect their king…and as late as 1990 the Czech parliament met there to elect its president.
Following the palace, we stopped at St. George Basilica, the oldest surviving church building within Prague Castle, founded by Wenceslas’ dad around 920. The interior is beautiful in its simplicity, thick walls and rounded arches. This was the royal burial place before St. Vitus, so, the earliest Czech kings were buried there. A Gothic-style chapel holds the tomb of Saint Ludmila of Bohemia, the grandmother of Saint Wenceslas.
Our last stop on this tour was Golden Lane. The tiny, old, colorfully painted buildings of this picturesque street originally housed castle servants, and possibly goldsmiths. Now they house displays of the olden days, medieval torture, alchemy, armor, medieval clothing, and recreations of a classic pub and a goldsmith’s workshop.
Well, it was a long day, so you know our next stop. It was time for dinner and we decided on Malostranska Beseda. We each got an appetizer: Tom picked the salmon marinated in red spices and dill with leaf salad and vinaigrette of lime juice. I got the chicken liver pâté with green field salad and salad of pickled vegetables. For our main courses Tom selected the pork tenderloin grilled in bacon with spicy chickpeas and green beans. For me, it was stewed beef Onglet with home made wide noodles and creamy sauce with portobello mushrooms, recommended by the waiter and an excellent choice. The meals were first rate!
With our appetites satiated, we headed back to our quarters for day’s end. One last day of sightseeing and we had to make the best of it. So, for now…lights out.
Tita