Prague

view of the Old Town Prague from the Charles Bridge

Leaving Vienna was easy. We took the underground train to the train station using our 48 hour public transportation pass, and our train left for Prague on time. 

     After arriving in Prague (pronounced "Praha" here), we were overcharged by the taxi to the hotel (tip: Use AAA taxis). After winding through the winding cobblestone streets and crossing the Vltava River, we arrived at the Aria Hotel. This is a lovely hotel inspired by music and art. The rooms are equipped with excellent sound systems, and the CD collection available in the lobby numbers in the thousands.

We soon went out to explore our new neighborhood on foot. We were situated in a part of town called the Little Quarter, one of the older parts of the city. 

We went to a small Jazz club around the corner called U Malého Glena, featuring a group for one night called the Brian Charette Trio. Imagine our mutual delight when we realized the common ground we shared in Cleveland Heights! Brian has frequented Nighttown, a great jazz spot in our old neighborhood (featured here). He is performing in Poland as I write this one day later. He will be performing again at Nighttown in October 2015.

On Friday morning, we joined our tour guide Ivana for a five hour walking tour of the Little Quarter, and the Old Town on the other side of the Charles Bridge. Shortly after leaving our hotel on foot, we encountered the Lennon Wall.

Lennon Wall 13-Feb, 2015

Lennon Wall 2009

Lennon Wall 1993

When John Lennon was murdered in 1980, graffiti appeared on an otherwise large, ordinary blank wall across the street from the French Embassy, near the Charles Bridge. What started as an outpouring of sympathy, quickly became a game of cat-and-mouse in the dead of night of "subversive activities against the state" with students risking bodily harm and prison time. Still, the grievances and words of protest covered the wall. Communism is long gone in Prague, but the grafiti tradition of the John Lennon Wall remains strong to this day. 

Continuing our winding down the narrow cobblestone streets through buildings of many architectural styles, we reached the Charles Bridge. Completed 600 years ago under the auspices of  King Charles IV, ruler of all the the kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire crowned in 1355. He was well traveled, educated, and highly influential in Europe, speaking Czeck, French, German, Italian, and Latin.

Five hundred years before Columbus discovered America, Prague was going strong. We think an abbreviated time-line skipping centuries here and there is appropriate here:

• 907-935 Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, aka Good King Wenceslaus, killed by his brother, granted sainthood
• 14th C. Golden Age under Charles IV, head of the Holy Roman Empire   Renaissance man who founded first university (Charles University Began Charles Bridge over River Vltava and St. Vitus Cathedral
• 15th C. Jan Hus was a Martin Luther, 100 years ahead of his time.  He challenged Catholic Church dogma and preached in the people’s language.  Ultimately, he was burned at the stake.  He was a Czech hero.
• 16th C  Under Hapsburg King Rudolf II (1552-1662)  Prague cultural and intellectual center attracting                   court astronomers Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe.  
• 1618-1648 Thirty Years War  started when Czech protestant nobles tossed Catholic Hapsburg officials out the window, giving birth to “defenestration”.  Defeat at White mountain
• 300 years of Hapsburg rule
• 19th C. Czech National Revival                     Completion of St. Vitus Cathedral                                           .                Anton Dvòrák symphonies                Operas of Bedrích Smetana

• 1918    At the end of WWI, Czechoslovakia proclaimed an independent state with Prague as its capital under the Treaty of Versailles.
• 1938 Munich Agreement-Great Britain and France cede Sudetenland (part of Bohemia) to Hitler. (Ironically Chamberlain was nominated the Nobel Peace Prize …)  Soon Hitler seizes rest of Czechoslovakia.
• Holocaust - Estimated 155,000-250,000 Czech Jews killed, only 5% of Jewish population in Czechoslovakia survived.
• After World War II, 3 million German Czechs violently persecuted, driven out of Czechoslovakia, and forced to resettle in Germany (ethnically cleansed)
• 1945 - 1968 Communist era Stalinist repression
• 1968, 5-Jan - Prague Spring - reforms of communist rule under Alexander Dubček.
• 1968, 21-Aug -  Prague Spring ends. Alexander Dubček exiled.
• 1989 The Velvet Revolution. Non-violent transition from communist rule to parliamentary republic. 
• 1993  Velvet Divorce. Czechoslovakia split into Czech Republic and Slovakia
• 1999 Czech Republic joins NATO
• 2004 Czech Republic joins European Union.

We also needed a timeline course in European architecture:
Classical                   850 BC -    476 AD
Romanesque             500 -    1200
Gothic                     1100 -   1450
Renaissance             1400 -   1600
Baroque                   1600 -   1830
Rococo                     1650 -   1790
Neoclassical             1730 -   1925
Art Nouveau             1890 -   1914
Art Deco                   1925 -   1937
Modern                     1900 -   1950
Post-Modern              1950 -    present  
.     Timeline (source: About.com : Architecture)

Much of our time Friday morning was spent exploring the Jewish quarter (Josefov). Most of the current community dates back only to 1897. While sparing the major landmarks, the original hodgepodge of 31 twisting streets and 220 buildings were razed and replaced by 10 cobblestone streets and 83 buildings, mostly Art Nouveau. Embedded in the streets are scattered small monuments to Jews who were deported.

plaques in the street

the old cemetery

over 70,000 names - lives lost

Jewish life had a continuous presence in Prague from the early Middle Ages through World War II.  Today Jewish Town is a charming neighborhood of Neo-Renaissance, neo-baroque and art nouveau facade buildings.  It wasn't always so.

In the late 13th century, the Jewish community was separated from Christian Prague by enclosed ghetto walls into an teeming, crush of humanity. Forbidden from owning weapons, Jews were subject to periodic pogroms.

The Habsburg royal families used the Jews of Prague as bankers to finance their wars and building projects since the church forbade charging interest under all circumstances.  This relationship created the fabulously wealthy Mordecai Maisel whose philanthropy built synagogues, schools and a city hall for the Jewish sector. Jews paid lofty sums in taxes for "protection".

Life became easier for the Jews under Joseph II who loosened the residency restrictions.  Wealthy Jews assimilated outside the ghetto walls into economic, cultural, scientific and public life. In 1851 the Jewish settlement was annexed to Prague and renamed Josefov in memory of Emperor Joseph II.

This thousand year history came to an abrupt end with Nazism and the occupation.  Large numbers of Jews who could, fled the country.  The remainder were decimated by deportation to the Terezin Concentration Camp, and then to the death camps in Poland. 

The Prague Astronomical Clock

This is reported to be the oldest working astronomical clock in the world. The Prague Astronomical Clock 600th anniversary celebration happened in 2010. The clock tracks all sorts of stuff that you can find at the web site.
    Every hour, it puts on a good show, starting with the little skeleton ringing a little bell. You can see that happen on the video below as we watched the clock strike 2:00.

The Strahov Monastery

The Monastery was begun by the Order of Premonstratensians back in 1143. The Monastery has struggled, nearly perished more than once over the centuries due to fire, wars, and communists, but has survived. The priests today dress the same as they did hundreds of years ago.

The library consists of 18,000 books up to 800 years old, and is housed in two large, beautiful rooms, the Theological Hall and the Philosophical Hall.

Theological Hall

This beautiful room contained about half of the library, and a large collection of globes of varying age. At each end of the room was a space that could be locked that was intended to secure banned books. Such books included those by authors such as Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler who suggested a heliocentric solar system (earth circles the sun) rather than the theologically acceptable geocentric model (the earth is the center of the universe).

Theology Hall lock box for banned books
some things never change

Philosophical Hall

Greek philosopher Diogenes in his barrel

Around the year 1500, the monastery acquired a small publication describing the journeys of Christopher Columbus, and the discoveries made on those voyages.

Prague Castle

Prague Castle
Charles Bridge in foreground

Construction on the grounds began in the year 870 with a small church. Over the centuries, the enormous St. Vitus Cathedral and several other churches, multiple palaces, halls and additional buildings, and gardens.

Today the castle serves as the official residence of the President of the Czech Republic. Historically, it has been the seat of power for various kings of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperors. 

The day we left Prague (16-Aug), we woke to a cool, crisp, crystal clear day. We went up to the roof of the Aria Hotel and I took this panoramic view with an iPhone.

Next stop - Berlin.