New Town & Old Town

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We spent our first day in Prague walking around the New Town area and the Old Town Square. We started in St. Wenceslas Square which boasts a large statue of - guess who - in front of the National Museum. We opted not to do the museum since the weather was so nice out.

Then we headed down to the Church of St. Ignatius, built in 1665 in the Baroque style. Baroque architechure included lots of gold and adornments which in my understanding was to attract people back to the Catholic Church after the Protestant Reformation.

I need to do some research on this, because I do not understand why Jesus is always portrayed by a very small sculpture (usually a crucifix) in the Baroque churches. This was true in Paris as well. There are many huge statues of saints in these churches however. I suppose I am used to Jesus being the central figure in Christian churches in the US.

We stumbled upon the Church of St. Cyril and St. Methodius and were very fortunate to have experienced this piece of Prague history:
During WWII, Reinhard Heydrich was the Nazi leader in the Czech Republic. He was also in Hitler's inner circle and rumored to be his choice for successor. The Czechs had a large underground Resistance movement at the time. On Dec. 28th, 1941 (exactly 3 weeks after Pearl Harbor), members of the Resistance parachuted in from Britain to assassinate Heydrich. It took them 5 months to plan the attempt and in May they executed their mission. Although Heydrich was only wounded in the attack on his limosine, he ended up dying of his wounds. To avoid capture, the parachutists hid in the crypt of this church. Surrounded by the Nazis as a result of a tip by a Czech traitor, they committed suicide. In retaliation for the assassination of Heydrich, the Nazis completely destroyed the Czech village of Lidice. The village was bombed, the men shot, and the women and children sent to concentration camps.

This is the first place I had visited in person with a connection to the Holocaust. It touched me deeply to think about the sacrifice of these men and of the villagers of Lidice. Of course I remember reading "The Diary of Anne Frank" in school and being shocked by the ending (how could she not survive? how could there not be a happy ending?). I was so upset and so frustrated by this. Now I am frightened by the growth of Neo-Nazism and the false belief that the Holocaust never happened. The recent Anti-Zionist comments by the President of Iran and most disturbing. We cannot allow the world to forget what happened; we cannot allow it to happen again.

But I digress...

The Old Town Square of Prague is magnificent! On all sides there are buildings of incredible beauty and history. Shortly before sunset, we went to the top of the Old Town Tower for an amazing view of the city. Hooray - there's an elevator instead of a never-ending circular staircase! 😊 With waning light, and the red tiled roofs of the buildings below spreading out before us, everything appeared a beautiful shade of pink. This was one of the highlights of the entire trip for me.

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