Prague

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Prague is an amazing city. There is really no other way to describe it because of a huge shortage of other words sufficient to describe this ancient metropolis.

We got to Prague late Wednesday night with basically just enough time to get to our hotel and have a little bit of dinner. We noticed in the cafeteria of the hotel a sign that was rather telling, I think, of some cultural prejudices there. In English was written “Please do not take food from the eating area.” Under it was another sign that had a small paragraph in German to the effect of, “Please do not take any food or silverware or napkins or plates or anything else from the eating area. Leave it all here. Do not take it.” Ok, I am exagerating a little bit, but only a little bit! It was definitely a paragraph and sounded more like a mother lecturing a child on sharing than a sign politely asking for moderation!

After dinner, about half the group decided to go out and explore a little bit. Perhaps it was not the greatest idea since none of us could speak Czech and no one knew this part of the city, but I was nevertheless excited to get a dose of real Czech life; we were definitely not in a particularly touristy area. We quickly found a nice little underground bar that appeared to formerly have been a cellar. Inside was a smoky bar filled with mainly young Czechs. We found a room in the back (near the Fussball Table, which was quite popular among the Czechs) and sat down. Our waiter spoke a little English, which was good since none of us even knew what the Czech word for “beer” was. This area is, historically, as with Germany, is known for its beer production. In fact, the beer type Pilsner is named for the Czech city of Pilz. I have no idea what to call what I had, but it was both very good and rather different as well. It was almost opaque with a whitish/yellowish color. The taste was thick, though not creamy with a bit of a twang to it. The twang though was probably from the lemon that came in it. We left fairly early and went to bed because the next day we had an early tour of the old city center!

We got up fairly early after not enough sleep, but at least I was quite energetic with excitement at our upcoming tour of this magnficent city. We all went down into the subway and headed off. I should mention that travelling via the subway system in Prague is a bit of an adventure. After buying your ticket, your journey starts off with a breakneck journey down what will probably be the longest and fastest escelator that you will ever take in your life. The subway there for some reason is about a hundred or so feet underground and you take a massive and speedy escalator down to get to it! Aparently the subway was built that deep both to make it under the river and also to be used as a bunker in the event of nuclear attack on the city. Unlike the Berlin subway, which is fairly un-crowded even at the busiest times, every single Prague subway seemed about ready to collapse in on itself with the density that people where packed in on it. It was quite exciting.

We met up at Můstek, which is a subway stop at the lower end of Wenceslas Square. Yes, that is the same Wenceslas of the Christmas Hymn. He ruled here during the end of the 14th century and is the patron saint of Prague. I cannot remember if he was the one who built the square or if it was only named in his honor (I think it was the former), but nevertheless, he is rather important for the city. The square is huge! It is about as wide as a football field and 4 or 5 times longer. In fact it has two subway stops, one at each end, it is so long! Today, it is mainly the tourist center of the city. It is in the heart of the old city center, with the National Museum crowning it at one end. The national museum is a rather impressive Neo-classical building there, but apparently is not particularly interesting in terms of its holdings.

Our tour of the city was given by Prof. Pabsch, our art-history/architecture professor. He is an amazing guy. He is only in his mid 30s, but has already written several books on the architecture of Berlin in addition to his doctoral thesis. He also seems to know something about everything. We were impressed enough by his knowledge of Berlin and Potsdam buildings, but he showed the same level of intimate knowledge with Prague buildings and history.

Our first stop was the Charles University, which is the oldest in Central Europe - founded in 1348. The oldest part of the existing buildings today dates from the 14th Century and is a single gothic bay window that appears to have been grafted into a more modern construction. We saw quite a number of different architectural styles in Prague. The opera house across the street from the university was in a baroque-ish classical style and we saw a building a little further down the street in a turn of the century art-noveau style. Interestingly enough, it was connected to the old armory tower, which was in a much older gothic style. We also saw a fascinating building that was inspired by the cubist movement of the 21st century. On the surface, it appeared to be rather uninteresting, but a closer look reveals that it actually has no lines that are actually parallel to the street. It also has a slight bend in the center and around each window, giving it a further depth than can be seen at first glance. I was thoroughly impressed.

Prague, unlike Berlin, Dresden, Potsdam or Frankfurt Oder (the three major cities in Europe that I have visited) is remarkably unchanged since the middle ages. The street layout is unchanged over the past several hundred years. Most of the streets are still narrow cobblestone pathways that an American would probably first mistake for just an alley. The buildings are also much more older and more uniform in style than Berlin, which is a mix of traditional, retro, and modern styles. Also, since Prague was not bombed, the communist powers did not have to do as much rebuilding in the city. The net effect is a remarkably gorgeous city that feels like something out of a dream or fairy tale. Even the streets with no important architectural wonder are nevertheless gorgeous. Unlike Dresden, however, Prague’s old city center continues to be an important city today with its own life and hustle and bustle. Dresden felt like a relic out of the past, but Prague feels like living history.

Finally we reached the Old Town Square, which is probably the most interesting place in Prague on the side of the river on which we were. In the center is a fascinating sculpture commemorating the 30 years war. This part of the tour was in German so I was not completely clear on the meaning of it. Also I do not know a great deal about Bohemian history to know what side Prague was on in the war or whether it won or not. As far as I can tell things were fairly complicated there as the ideas of the reformation were fairly popular, but the city was taken over by the strongly Catholic Habspurg family which then institued a counter reformation. On, the West side of the market was the old town hall, built during the High Middle ages in a gorgeous gothic style. Prague is a treasure chest for lovers of gothic architecture like me. Across the couryard from it was the second largest cathedral in Prague, which is also one of the most fascinating and beautiful. It is also one of the most unigue gothic churches that I have seen. The front had two towers, in typical gothic style, but instead of being single towers, each one broke off into several little towers, giving it the effect of a crown or mountain range on top of the church. It was amazing. I took a number of pictures of it, bought several postcards of it and even two paintings.

I should mention another interesting feature of the city. The original entrance to many of the buildings were built in a romanesque style. However, one does not see any romanesque architectural features in Prague today. The reason? Over the years, the ground level of Prague has risen about 9 ft. Through dust tracked into the city, rubble from city fires and a lack of garbage disposal, the streets and ground level continued to rise until today, where many of the old entry floors are now the basement! (Possibly even the bar where we were on the first night.)

We then made our way over to the old Jewish cemetary and synagogue. It was a fascinating place. The synagogue is also quite old and was built in a gothic style. However, being a non-Christian building, it had its own take on the gothic style. Most of the imagery and sculpture that we associated with gothic was gone and was replaced with intricate flower designs and different colors in the windows. Most of Prague’s Jewish population was killed off by the Nazi’s during the second World War, and today, the synagogue is used as a memorial to this. The inside is covered in writing with the names of every Jew who was killed by the Nazi’s. It is a quite powerful place because the walls are simply covered with names, many of which are common enough Jewish names that I knew people with the same last names. It made the reality of the Holocaust set in much more deeply. Also, upstairs, they had an display of artwork made by children in the concentration camps. It was horrific in its own way too. On the one hand, they looked very much like typical children’s artwork except that the subject matter was not that which normal children often express: hangings, skeletons, guns, and frantic attempts to escape. It was horrifying.

Outside of the synagogue was the old Jewish cemetary. I do not know how it managed to escape destruction by the Nazis, who did their best to destroy most of the Jewish cemetaries in Europe. Nevertheless, this one was undamaged. It is about 800 years old and definitely looks it! Apparently as they started to run out of room, they started burrying people in layers. Accourding to Prof. Pabsch, there are places where people are burried 5 or 6 layers deep. The gravestones were just set in front of the old grave stones. Consequently, today, it has the appearance of a sea of grave stones, which cover almost the entire interior of the cemetary, except for the small path through it. I can see now why cemetaries in fairytales and legends are always places of such fear. It was a rather creepy place, very different from modern cemetaries.

After that synagogue, we went to visit another one, which, interestingly enough, was based architecturally on a mosque in Spain. The inside was covered in designs and ornate decorations. It was gorgeous.

After this, we took a short trip over to the Vltava, which is the main river running through Prague. Here we saw the Charles Bridgue, which was built by Charles IV (the same Charles of Charles University) in the 14th century. Across the river, we got our first glimpse of the Prague Castle, which was built in the 9th century and is actually the largest castle in the world (with a complete gothic cathedral inside!) The Charles Bridge itself is a fascinating piece of gothic architecture, with two large towers on either end and numerous carvings and sculptures on either side.

This ended our excursion for the day. The rest of the group went on to a micro-brewery for dinner, but I went off to meet my friend Christi who I know from Amherst and who is studying in the city this semester. I met her at the top of Wenceslas square. It was rather strange but at the same time quite comforting to meet someone from home in such a foreign place! (At this point, all of the U.S. feels like home to me both Amherst and Rockaway). She showed me a completely different side of Czech life - the non-touristy side. We went to a little coffee shop and cought up for a while and then went to a Czech restaurant. She taught me some of the words that she knows in Czech (though I must say that they all ran together pretty quickly and I cannot remember them much now) We then went back to her apartment and hung out a little bit. Unfortunately we could not hang out too long because she was leaving early the next day for her trip across Europe and had to pack as well as study for her last midterm. Nevertheless, it was a great visit!

The next day, we spent mainly exploring the Prague Castle. We started at the top of the hill on which is located with a tour of an old monestary. The monestary has a massive collection of philosophical and theological work from the middle ages and rennaissance. It also has a large collection of mummified and otherwise preserved creatures from around the world. It was pretty impressive.

Then we saw the Prague Castle with the changing of the guard. It was a fun little experience of present-day Czech government. (The Castle is still used today as the seat of the Czech government). The castle is built in a number of layers and while you can still see some of the orignal gates and towers, it has been built over many times and is barely reconizable today as a proper castle.

Probably the best part of my entire Prague trip (and even maybe my entire trip to Europe) was the Prague Cathedral inside the Castle. It is a massive Cathedral that was built by a number of architects over a period of 700 years. Outside it is impressive enough, with two huge towers in front and a massive on one side that was the royal entrance. Inside it is simply massive with a sea of colors from the stained glass windows. The organ is a huge masterpiece as well. (I wished that we had been able to hear it played!) Around the main chapel were about two or three dozen small chapels to important saints or figures. I also explored the Crypt, where several members of the royal family who commissioned the Cathedral are buried. It was simply an amazing building to be in and I could not actually believe that I was really there!

Outside the Cathedral, we saw several other important buildings and had an absolutely spectacular view of the rest of Prague. I took a number of pictures from the ramparts. Prague is such a gorgeous city! I think it is ranks up there as one of my favorite cities in the world!

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